Dealing with stress

My name‿ is Peter. For three years‿ I had chronic stress│ an(d) never‿ employed the word,│ since‿ in my country it‿ is construed‿ as‿ a personal failing rather than‿ a condition‿ of‿ employment,│ an(d) there‿ is‿ a social cos(t) to saying‿ otherwise.

My coping mechanism was to work harder,│ which‿ is symptomatic rather than therapeutic. I slep(t) badly,│ los(t) weight,│ an(d) began making‿ errors‿ entirely out of^outta character. What precipitated the change was not‿ a decision but‿ a collapse,│ an(d) the diagnosis my physician supplied was less‿ a surprise than‿ a relief. What‿ I had been describing‿ as weakness was‿ an‿ untenable workload,│ an(d) the fact│ that my colleagues were‿ enduring precisely the same conditions‿ in silence‿ indicates how useful the wor(d) stress has become‿ as‿ a substitute for‿ examination.

I now maintain boundaries│ that I^{thad I} do not renegotiate,│ and‿ I have ceased treating resilience‿ as the capacity to absorb‿ unlimited pressure. Resilience‿ is the ability to detec(t) the warning signs‿ early,│ and‿ it‿ is no substitute for‿ a sustainable workload. Burnout‿ is not cured by a holiday;│ a fortnight's‿ absence restores the symptoms to their former state within‿ a month. Were the conversation normalised,│ fewer people would‿ arrive‿ at‿ a surgery pretending that‿ all‿ is well,│ an(d) more‿ employers would discover that the problem was never‿ attitude but‿ arithmetic.