I opened my laptop and scrolled through over fifty emails that had piled up over the past two days. I had turned down new assignments before, taking some time off to recuperate. Ironically, that time was now being spent on my mental recovery. Despite announcing that I would be unavailable for the week, my clients hadn’t stopped flooding me with requests. For once, I regretted being so good at my job. I wished they would just leave me alone for a while.

Half an hour passed as I responded to ...