The Disease We Ignore

Stress isn’t just a feeling—it’s the match that lights the fire.

It is the silent architect of disease, laying the foundation for heart attacks, strokes, cancers, chronic pain, and the slow erosion of your mind. We treat it like background noise, something to “push through,” something to wear as a badge of honor.

Look how much I can handle.

Look how strong I am.

But strength isn’t suffering in silence. Strength is knowing when to stop.

We monitor our diets, count our steps, swallow vitamins like they’re life preservers—but the real poison is what we ignore: the emails at midnight, the racing heart, the months without rest, the way we flinch at the sound of another demand, the notification dings from our phones and computers that bring on instant anxiety. We were not built for this, nor should we be living this way. We were not meant to survive our lives. We were meant to live them.

No one is coming to save you. No one is going to pull you from the wreckage of your own neglect. If you don’t fight for your own peace, no one will.

So take the break. Close the laptop. Step outside. Reclaim your mind before the world steals what’s left of it. Because your body is listening, and one day, it won’t ask for relief—it will demand it. Hopefully, not from a hospital bed.

The Slow Poison of Stress

Stress is a thief. It steals your energy, your sleep, your joy. It seeps into your bones, twisting its way through your body like roots breaking through concrete. The cracks start small—tension headaches, restless nights, terrible mood swings, the inability to sit still without feeling guilty for not being productive.

But then it grows.

The headaches become chronic migraines. The restlessness turns into exhaustion so deep it feels like you’re dragging yourself through every day on empty. Your blood pressure rises. Your immune system weakens. Your body, desperate for relief, fights back—first with warning signs, then with something more serious.

We don’t talk enough about what stress really does to us. It’s not just a temporary discomfort. It’s not just “part of life.” It is the trigger that sets off disease. It’s the beginning of heart attacks. The start of cancerous cells thriving in inflamed, overworked bodies. The reason strokes happen to people in their 30s.

And yet, we normalize it.

We normalize 80-hour workweeks.

We normalize skipping vacations and calling it dedication.

We normalize working through lunch, answering emails on weekends, and letting our health deteriorate in the name of “commitment” to our jobs.

If stress were visible—if it left bruises on our skin the way exhaustion does under our eyes—maybe we would take it more seriously. Maybe we wouldn’t wear our burnout like an achievement.

No one is coming to save you!

Read that again.

Your employer won’t rescue you from overwork. They will let you keep piling on the work of five people if you let them. Even if you have an incredible boss, they too are a prisoner of the bottom line. Your family won’t always notice you’re drowning because they, too, are struggling to keep their heads above water. The world will not pause for you to catch your breath.

If you don’t set boundaries, no one will set them for you.

So stop waiting for permission. Take the damn break. Call in sick if you need to recharge. Close your laptop at 4 p.m. and leave work where it belongs—at work. And if anyone makes you feel guilty for it, remind yourself of this: You are not here to be a machine. You are here to live!

Contrary to what we've been forced to believe, you are more that what you do at work. It's ok if you don't make partner or get that big raise. What good is it anyway, if you're sick or dying? Ask anyone who is living through a terminal illness if all the money they slaved for can cure them of their disease or and a day more to their lives. They will all tell you that in the end, they should have enjoyed their lives more and worried less. Now it's too late.

Why are human beings so stubborn? Why do we continuously wait until things get bad to pray for a do-over?

The Lies We Tell Ourselves

We tell ourselves that we’ll slow down “once things settle.”

That we’ll prioritize rest “when we have time.”

That we’ll book that vacation “when work gets less busy.”

That next year, we will make sure things change.

When we save enough, we can work less.

When we retire, things will be different and we can live differently.

But the truth?

Things never settle. You will never “have time” unless you make it. Your workload will never magically shrink and you will never have enough money. The scariest truth, you may not live long enough to see retirement. This is certainly a huge possibility if we don't change things now.

So you have to choose to step off the hamster wheel. You have to decide that your life is more important than another email, another late-night shift, another year of running on fumes.

Reclaim Your Life Before It’s Too Late

If stress is killing you, then what are you waiting for? The heart attack? The nervous breakdown? The doctor telling you that your body is shutting down?

Don’t wait until you’re in a hospital bed to realize that none of this—none of the deadlines, the meetings, the overbooked schedules—was ever worth sacrificing your health for.

Reclaim your time.

Take the walk. Breathe the air. Turn off your phone. Laugh with your friends. Sleep in. Eat slow. Read the book. Let yourself exist without guilt.

Because when all is said and done, you won’t be remembered for how much overtime you worked. You’ll be remembered for how much you lived and the difference you made while living.

Living a healthy life is your richest asset - Gia Laurent