Have you ever been so stressed, that you wish you could just disappear?

I’m not talking about magic tricks, here. I’m talking about people who have actually done this, and am soliciting your own thoughts on this subject.

There are adults who, for whatever reasons of their own, have just managed to vanish, without a trace, and were never heard from again, by their families, friends, colleagues and contemporaries. They just one day left, and no one knows where they went, nor why, but usually, someone very close to that person will say, “S/he just left one day, and that’s it. S/he couldn’t handle the pressure, I guess…”

The folks who do this abandon careers and social contacts, but rarely their finances, as they need them to establish another identity in another venue.

But, have things ever “gotten” to you, to the point where you gave serious thought to just “tossing everything,” going elsewhere and starting all over (like those in the Witness Protection Program), with a new name and a new place?

Share your thoughts with us, if you have, and why you did it (if you ever did), or why you would ever think of doing that (if you have). And, if you haven’t ever thought about doing it, do you know someone who you believe did that? If so, what are your thoughts of that person, and what s/he did?

September 5, 2008, 10:42 AM EDT