Most people think something has to be broken before it deserves attention.
A crisis.
A diagnosis.
A visible collapse.
But there’s another condition that rarely gets named.
Your life works.
You function.
You meet expectations.
Nothing is wrong.
And that’s precisely why no one notices what’s being lost.
When nothing is wrong, there’s no reason to stop.
No permission to question.
No language for absence.
You don’t fall apart.
You fade.
Not dramatically.
Not loudly.
Quietly.
You become efficient at living a life you no longer inhabit.
This state is socially rewarded.
It looks like maturity.
Responsibility.
Stability.
Which is why it’s so hard to leave.
Because leaving would require admitting that “working” was never the same as “living.”
And there’s no checklist for that realization.