Being the “strong friend” doesn’t mean you never get to lean on anybody.

Once you are the one who handles things, people stop asking. Not because they stopped caring, but because you have never given them a reason to worry, and the role quietly turns into a rule: you listen, they talk, and nobody thinks to reverse it. The longer it runs the harder it gets to break, because saying something now feels like a big announcement instead of a normal sentence.

Tell one person one true thing you are carrying this week. Not the whole of it, and it does not need a preamble. Pick someone who has room for it. Most people are relieved to be let in.