Why does resting feel like losing myself?

You built yourself so completely around work that stopping does not feel like recovery. It feels like disappearing. When the line between what you do and who you are dissolves, rest stops feeling safe, because some part of you fears that without the work, there is no you left. That fear is real, and it is worth taking seriously rather than pushing through. But notice what it is telling you. If stopping work feels like stopping existing, then you have quietly handed a single role the whole weight of your identity. You are far more than your output. You were a person before this job and you would still be one without it. That self has just gotten crowded out, not erased. It is still there under the busyness. You do not need to tear down your identity to find it. Start by resting in small doses and staying present for it. Sit quietly for ten minutes and notice you are still here, still yourself, even when producing nothing. Do it again tomorrow. Each time, you are teaching the frightened part of you a truth it has forgotten: you exist whether or not you are working.