I think I am living so competently inside depletion that people have stopped imagining there could be a deeper problem at all

Dear Delyara, If I collapsed, at least the truth would become visible. But I do not collapse. I continue. I remember. I provide. I soothe. I answer. I produce. I appear. The competence itself becomes camouflage. Underneath it, I feel the thinning. Joy costs more. Recovery takes longer. Patience arrives later. My mind is more crowded. My body is more alert. My evenings feel less inhabited and more survived than they should. But because the visible structure of life remains intact, everyone — including me some days — can keep pretending nothing fundamentally serious is happening. That is what scares me. Not being broken. Being functional enough for too long inside something that is quietly consuming me.