As the managing director of a small technology company, in her late 20s Jasleen Kaur Carroll was at the top of her game. But she struggled to switch off and work became her life.
Eventually things became so intense – with Jasleen feeling under constant pressure – that she experienced burnout, complete physical, mental and emotional exhaustion.
“I began to feel like a zombie, like everything around me was failing,” the 33-year-old from London explains. “But I would tell myself, ‘I am Jas, I am strong, I can keep going.'”
Jasleen turned to social media for advice on how to destress and lower her cortisol levels.
“You name it, I tried it,” she says. “The cortisol cocktail, Ashwagandha tablets, turmeric, black pepper supplements, lavender balm on my forehead – anything.”
But nothing worked. Jasleen’s body began to shut down, and the stress she was under triggered a flare-up of an autoimmune condition she has called lupus, where the immune system spirals out of control and starts to mistakenly target healthy cells.
“I lost so much weight, I had severe joint pains, I was struggling to breathe because I had liquid around my lungs,” she says. “I was also warned about trying to have a baby because of how poorly I was.”