Before I became a therapist, I worked in global finance as a team leader in sales and retention. It was fast, high pressure and relentless. You’re only as good as your last result and even that doesn’t last long.

Targets are constant, expectations are high and the pressure doesn’t switch off. I managed teams in that environment and saw firsthand how people cope under pressure. 

Some push through, some shut down and some look like they’ve got it together but don’t. I understood that world because I was in it too. 

Looking back, I was a prime candidate for burnout, I just didn’t know it at the time. 

I couldn’t switch off. I felt everything all the time until I was numb and exhausted.

I needed to feel in control.

I needed to be prepared as I was the one who always figured it out.
 

The reliable one, the one who got it done and the one who kept other people steady.
 

And I felt good in that role, I loved rush of it all. Winning, hitting the targets, running good teams. The highs and the lows, every day felt at hyperspeed.

But I didn’t see what it was costing me, until I burned out.

Not a few weeks off, months and what made it harder was this: Everyone still thought I’d be fine because that’s what I’d always shown them.

“I’m fine.”

“I will figure it out.”

Even when I wasn’t, when I couldn’t as nothing worked. I just had... nothing.

That experience is why I work the way I do now, I know how much this way of surviving steals everything from you and it won't stop or change until you do.

I don’t sit at a distance from your world. I understand the pressure, the internal and external expectations. The constant mental load that doesn’t switch off.

And I know that the same traits that help you succeed… can also be the thing that quietly runs you into the ground.