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Iron Man was supposed to be strong. Iron Man was never unsettled or tired or too old for the job or mentally ill or scared.
Tony Stark was everything that Iron Man wasn't. Tony Stark was old, pushing 50 and in bed at 10. Anxiety and chronic pain were constants in his life, and he was scared more often than he wasn't.
No matter how hard he tried, Tony always saw the words on his Avengers Initiative profile when he looked at him team, at his suits, at himself in the mirror.
Iron Man: yes.
Tony Stark: no.
At the time, Tony fought back with sarcasm and wit. As he got older, he started believing it. Iron Man didn't dissociate on bad days. Iron Man was always present, always living in the moment and planning for the future.
Tony found that dissociating was much easier than being alive. He could stay in his lab, his body weightless, the world looking like a dream. It was only him, alone, and sometimes he didn't feel real.
But that was okay. Iron Man was real, Tony Stark wasn't. It suited him. And whenever the Avengers asked? Well, he was fine. He'd never been happier when he could escape his world and live where no one could touch him.