Asking for help is a pressure valve. Nothing explodes when you open one.

Most of the fear around asking is a prediction about consequences that rarely arrive. You imagine being judged, being a burden, revealing something disqualifying. What tends to happen instead is that the other person answers, feels mildly useful, and forgets about it. The pressure drops and the relationship is unchanged or slightly warmer.

Test it on something small this week, a question you could technically work out alone but would rather not. Notice the gap between what you expected and what occurred. That gap is the useful part, and it makes the next, bigger ask considerably easier.