You posted it where no one knows your name.
Maybe it was Reddit. Maybe a recovery forum you found at 1am while scrolling after another night you'd rather forget. You wrote three sentences about what you ate, how you felt, how long this has been happening. You stared at the screen. You almost deleted it. Then you hit post before you could stop yourself.
And something strange happened. Within minutes, someone responded. Not with advice. Not with judgment. Just: I know exactly what you mean.
That's when you realized you'd been holding your breath for years.