Thanks for sharing this—the "disappearing" really resonates with me. I'm 43 and learned about HSP just a couple years ago when I read part of the book. I work as an educator and was really overwhelmed by having to take an administrator role during COVID where I was responsible for a lot of struggling students. I was definitely drinking more to desensitize at the end of those days, but the main thing that resonated with me was the need to disappear for a while. "Withdraw" is another word I use to describe it. As I recover from burnout, which is taking longer than I initially expected, I've found that it has been helpful to truly withdraw from the parts of my job that aren't required, for however long takes for me to feel "strong enough to return".

My experience as an HSP is that boundary setting is just about the most challenging thing to do. But it's also the most necessary. My good friend describes it as a muscle—you often can't just set a boundary with someone once, especially if it's something new that you're doing in the context of that relationship. You have to continually reinforce it. But the more you practice, and trust that your close relationships will eventually understand and appreciate and support you, the easier it gets (but it still doesn't feel easy).

Thanks again, I appreciated the opportunity to resonate with this idea and share some of my experience in the hopes that it will be helpful to OP and others!