I Said the Bigger Word

Dear Delyara, I stopped saying “stressed.” That word was too small. Too tidy. Too socially acceptable. Too easy for everyone, especially me, to hear and move past. What I was living inside was heavier. More serious. More frightening in its flatness and distance from the version of me I still want to be. This week I used the bigger word. The truer one. And that changed what kind of care became possible around it. Language matters. I know that more deeply now. Sometimes the right word is the difference between surviving alone and being properly helped.