Live for your king, Die for your king. Despite being a highborn family, the kings shields have always been treated as a shield first and a person second by the other highborns. never to their face or to the kings face, but after the fall of insomnia and the stress of keeping noct and the others safe, gladio begins to crack. The pressure of doing the job he was born to do, existed to do, finally getting to him as he stops thinking of himself as a real person, and instead just a shield.

+ Gradual decline into depression
++ Full on anxiety/panic attack
+++ Gladio getting injured
++++ Gentle loving sex to make him feel better