“I need a minute” is one of the most grown-up sentences you’ll ever say.

Asking for a minute is harder than it sounds, because it admits you are near your limit, and the reflex is to push on and hope nobody notices. What it does is stop a conversation before it becomes the one you regret. It is short on purpose: no explanation, no argument about whether you have earned the right to it.

Practice the sentence while things are calm so it is available when they are not. I need a minute, then leave the room, then come back. Coming back is the part that makes it work, because it turns a pause into a pause rather than a disappearance.