I Keep Saying I’m Fine, But My Body Isn’t
You keep saying you are fine.
Maybe you are, mostly.
You are still going to work. Still getting through the day. Still answering people, sorting things, remembering what needs doing.
But your body is doing something else.
Your heart races.
Your stomach turns.
Your jaw is tight without you even noticing.
You are tired, but somehow still feel wired.
And because you are still functioning, you tell yourself it cannot be that bad.
Maybe you need an early night.
Maybe you need to cut back on coffee.
Maybe you are just run down.
Or maybe something is starting to get your attention.
When you don’t feel stressed
You might not think of yourself as stressed.
You are just getting on with it.
There is a lesson to teach. Someone needs something. There is an email you meant to send yesterday. A meeting you forgot about until someone reminded you.
Then you get home and your heart is still going.
Or you wake up in the night and your brain is straight back at work.
Or Sunday evening comes around and your stomach starts doing that thing again.
You might not connect any of it.
Especially if you have been doing this job for years.
You have coped with worse.
Other people seem to be managing.
So you carry on.
You can tell yourself something is not a big deal and still react to it physically.
You can be used to pressure and still feel the effect of it.
Sometimes you only notice once your body starts making it harder to ignore.
That might be a racing heart, headaches, tension, feeling sick, poor sleep or being completely wiped out when you finally stop.
That does not mean every physical symptom is caused by stress.
Start noticing the pattern
If something is new, persistent or worrying, get it checked by your GP or another healthcare professional.
But if you have been told there is nothing obvious physically wrong, or you keep noticing the same thing happening at the same time, look at that.
Does it happen before work?
Before a certain meeting?
When you open your emails?
On the drive in?
Do you feel better a few days into a school holiday, then notice it creeping back as work gets closer?
You might not notice the pattern straight away.
Then one day you realise it is happening every Sunday.
Or every time you know you have to deal with something difficult.
Or every time you stop long enough to actually feel what is going on.
And sometimes you realise you have been calling something normal simply because you have got used to it.
You don’t have to be falling apart
A lot of people wait until things are really bad before they think they are allowed to need support.
They imagine it has to look dramatic.
Not getting out of bed.
Crying all the time.
Not being able to work.
But sometimes it is much less obvious than that.
You have not felt properly settled for a while.
Your body always feels tense.
You are knackered but still cannot switch off.
You keep saying you are fine because explaining the whole thing feels like too much effort.
Maybe you still do not know what is going on.
Fair enough.
But if your body keeps reacting in the same way, I would not keep brushing it off.
Sometimes “I’m fine” is true.
And sometimes it is just the shortest answer.
If some of this feels familiar and you’re starting to wonder whether there’s more going on than just being tired or busy, you can get in touch. You don’t need to have worked it all out first.