It started with one bill. Just one. Nothing dramatic on paper. Nothing that should have changed everything. But something about it hit differently than it should have. And it sent me into a spiral. A quiet one at first. Then heavier. Then familiar. That sinking feeling. The shutdown. The sense of everything piling up at once until I couldn’t hold it all in anymore. Before I knew it, I was back in a place I know too well. Depression. Isolation. Loud music. Silence from the wor
