Four Tuesdays in May
Most of us were never given permission to. So this is me handing it to you, four weeks in a row.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. So this whole month, I am doing something different.
Every Tuesday in May, a new piece of this conversation drops. The series is called May We Speak because most of us were never given permission to. This is me handing it to you, four weeks in a row.
I am writing this because I have been every sign on this list at one point or another. The performance of being okay can become a survival skill. It is exhausting. And the people who are best at it are often the ones quietly struggling the most.
May we speak.
A reader walks in not knowing what is wrong. By the end of the series she has language, context, perspective, and a community.
The signs we were taught to look for are not the only signs. Anger can be depression. Over-functioning can be anxiety. The strong friend can be the one drowning. A look at five quiet signs we miss in ourselves and the people we love.
Estrangement, divorce, friendship loss, career shift, the in-between with no name. There is a name for the place you are in, and it is not failure. It is transition.
A recession is not a sudden crash. It is a slow shrinking. Five quiet losses in our relationships, and why AI is a tool, not a therapist.
The season nobody warned us about. Hormones, identity, marriage, faith, and the question we all eventually ask: Am I still in here?
One quiet note every Tuesday in May. The next post arrives the moment it goes live — no extra noise, no marketing.