12/22/2025
You’re so good at this.
The smile. The confidence. The performance.
No one knows that last night you sat in your car in the garage for twenty minutes before you could go inside. That you rehearse conversations in the shower. That you check your email forty times before bed because if you miss something, everything falls apart.
They see success. You feel terror.
And the depression… it’s not crying in bed. It’s closing a deal and feeling absolutely nothing. It’s achieving everything you said you wanted and wondering why you’re still empty.
You think you don’t deserve help because you’re still functioning. Still performing. Still delivering.
But functioning isn’t living. And you know it. Because you can’t remember the last time you felt peace. Actual peace. Not controlled calm. Not managed anxiety. Peace.
Here’s what nobody tells you: Your anxiety isn’t protecting you. It’s exhausting you. Your perfectionism isn’t making you successful. It’s making you miserable. And the mask you wear so well is becoming your prison.
What if you could be ambitious without being terrified? What if you could succeed without suffering? What if you could finally stop running from yourself?
You can. But first you have to take off the armor. And that requires someone who can handle what’s underneath.
This is Claudia Carbonell, therapist and founder of Life Map Therapy. Visit me at [LIFEMAPTHERAPY.COM](http://LIFEMAPTHERAPY.COM)