The Trauma Response Everyone Applauds (Until You Burn Out and Break Down)

You’re the one everyone counts on. You always show up. You always deliver. You never miss a deadline, never flake, never crack. You’re dependable, consistent, unstoppable.

They say things like “You’re a machine.”

“I don’t know how you do it.”

“You always get it done.”

And maybe part of you likes that. But another part of you is tired. No — beyond tired. You’re fried. Cooked. Done. But you keep going anyway because you don’t know how to stop.

“They call it drive. But it’s not drive. It’s fear wearing a nice suit.”

The truth is, a lot of what people call discipline or ambition is just trauma in a costume. Overworking. Overgiving. Overthinking. Overfunctioning. All of it started as survival. Somewhere back there, you learned that being still was dangerous. That rest equals weakness. That if you don’t perform, you don’t matter.

This kind of wiring doesn’t come out of nowhere. Maybe you had parents who only noticed you when you excelled. Maybe you were punished for failure. Maybe you were the fix…