THE SLOW SLIDE
Let me say one thing first and make it very clear:

YOU'RE NOT BROKEN.


Nobody warns you how it happens. How we find ourselves where we are.

You try to push through one hard patch, that turns into another. You get good at carrying it. So good that "carrying it" starts to just look like your personality.

"Fine" becomes the default setting — even when fine is doing a hell of a lot of heavy lifting.The thing is: the weight doesn't announce itself. 

Instead it sneaks in, quietly piling up — a bit more distance from the people around you, a bit more numbness and trying anything to stay busy, the short fuse gets shorter — until one day you find yourself weighed down and not liking the person you've become.

Most blokes aren't going to reach out at the first sign something's not right (or the second, or the third). 
They wait until the marriage is on the rocks, the drinking's a problem, or the body just stops cooperating. 

By then there's a lot more to dig out from under.

To put it another way — we ignore the warning light on the car's dashboard. We know it needs to go in for a service, that noise needs checking. We promise ourselves we'll get round to it, until the brakes are seized and the head gasket's gone.

You don't have to wait for that version of it, for things to look different.

You can start from here — wherever "here" is for you right now.