Long-Term Wellness

Marisol had been taking zolpidem for nine years when her new primary care doctor in Tucson finally said the thing nobody else had: “The pills are not fixing your sleep. They are masking it.” She was 52, waking at 3 a.m. every night, exhausted by 10 a.m., and convinced she was broken. Her doctor handed … Read more

Devon’s last day before mental health leave was the kind of disaster nobody talks about. He cried in a bathroom stall, drove home at 11 a.m. without telling anyone, and sent his manager a one-line email that said, “I need to step away.” Twelve weeks later, sitting in his cardiologist’s office for unrelated chest pain, … Read more

Priya was 47 when her therapist of seven years said the sentence that changed her life: “I think your depression is hormonal, not psychological, and we should get you to a menopause specialist before we change another antidepressant.” Priya had been on three different SSRIs in two years. None of them had quite worked. She … Read more

Yvonne had been caring for her mother, who had Alzheimer’s, for four years before she landed in the emergency room with chest pain that turned out not to be her heart. The cardiologist asked her three questions: How much do you sleep? When did you last see your own doctor? Who else is helping you? … Read more

Eric was 38 when his wife found him in the garage at 2 a.m. taking apart a lawn mower he had no plan to fix. He had not slept more than four hours in a week. He had been picking fights with his crew at the construction site. He had told nobody he was thinking … Read more

Karen from Buffalo had been dreading October since college. Every fall the same pattern would arrive on the same schedule. She slept twelve hours and woke up exhausted. She craved bread and pasta and chocolate at quantities that did not match her summer self. She gained eight to fifteen pounds between Halloween and St. Patrick’s … Read more

Hannah grew up in Provo. Her family was eighth-generation Mormon. She served a mission in São Paulo at twenty-one, married in the Salt Lake temple at twenty-three, and by thirty-one was a stay-at-home mother of three who could no longer make herself believe. She did not announce it. She kept showing up to sacrament meeting … Read more

Frank, a 67-year-old former hospital systems engineer in Tucson, retired on a Friday afternoon in March with a sheet cake, an engraved clock, and a folder of HR paperwork his wife Marta still has somewhere in a kitchen drawer. By the following October, Frank had stopped shaving on weekdays, was sleeping until 9:30, and had … Read more

Priya from Boston walked into a heated power yoga studio in Cambridge eight months after the assault, hoping the class would help her sleep. The teacher, well-meaning and certified through a 200-hour program that had spent maybe ninety minutes on trauma, walked the room with bare feet and a strong adjusting hand. He pressed her … Read more

Mindfulness as a Mental Health Tool, Not a Lifestyle Trend The cultural visibility of mindfulness and meditation has grown so much in recent years that the techniques are now associated more with corporate wellness programs and Instagram influencers than with their actual evidence base. The truth underneath the cultural noise is that mindfulness, when practised … Read more