Another story I thought of that has really strong personal stakes is a TV show, not a book, but it's so well done that I've gone back to study it several times. (A Korean TV miniseries called Pinocchio.) It's about a guy who becomes a news reporter, fighting for accuracy and truth in reporting. What makes it really personal and what makes the stakes incredibly high is a clash between the main character's two most important personal values. First, due to sensational yellow journalism when he was a child, his father was falsely accused of something, and that inadvertently led to the main character losing his entire family. As a result, he has a great love for his family but also a great hole in his life because of this. So he's insanely committed to truth in reporting. However, while doing investigative reporting, he discovers that his brother may, in fact, be alive. And evidence points to his brother being the chief suspect in a crime. So now he has two massively strong values (truth and family) directly pitted against each other. The stakes are high no matter what he does, because whether he reports his findings or not, he will lose something big. The personal nature is what drives the whole show. Once the issue with the brother is resolved, there are still bad guys to fight, there is still reporting to do--but it slightly loses some steam because those incredibly high stakes have been lessened.
Not every story has to have this kind of double bind, but I do feel that it's one way to raise stakes even more. It's one thing if you're fighting against the world for what you want. It's even more if you have to fight against yourself.