How do I switch off when I'm always on alert?

You can see danger on the road before it happens, and that gift comes with a cost: a mind that never fully stands down. The vigilance that keeps you safe also keeps you switched on, scanning, braced, even when there is nothing to brace against. It is exhausting to be permanently ready, and rest does not come easily to a nervous system that has learned to always watch. Understand that this is not a flaw in you; it is your alertness stuck in the on position. The same attention that reads a road perfectly does not know how to turn itself off when the road ends. It keeps scanning because scanning has kept you safe, and it has not learned that safety and vigilance are sometimes allowed to part ways. So teach it, gently, that there are times it can let go. Build one clear signal that tells your body the watch is over, arriving home, changing your clothes, a few slow breaths in a chair, done the same way each time. It will not switch off all at once. But a mind that never rests can slowly learn that some moments are safe, if you keep showing it the same door out.