Priya Iyer 
When Tomás Delgado, a 41-year-old line cook from Albuquerque, New Mexico, finally agreed to enter a 90-day residential treatment program for alcohol use disorder, his family had three days to find $24,000. His insurance covered detox and seven days of inpatient stabilization. The remaining 83 days were on him. His mother offered her retirement savings; … Read more
Diana Russo, a 34-year-old graphic designer in Phoenix, Arizona, walked out of a 60-day inpatient rehab program in February 2025 with a treatment plan, a list of meetings, and a sponsor’s phone number. She also walked out with a quiet, gnawing fear: now what about insurance? Her employer-sponsored plan had paid for the rehab itself, … Read more
Harold, an 81-year-old widower in Sarasota, Florida, lost his wife of fifty-three years in 2023 and stopped leaving the apartment for nearly six months. His daughter dragged him to a duplicate bridge club at the local senior center the following spring. He played badly, made conversation badly, and went home muttering. Two years later, he … Read more
Tomas, a 28-year-old software engineer from Seattle managing bipolar II disorder, planned a six-week solo backpacking trip across Southeast Asia. He was stable on lamotrigine and quetiapine, had been symptom-free for nearly two years, and his psychiatrist cleared him for travel with a three-month medication supply. Halfway through the trip, in a hostel in Chiang … Read more
Tyler was 17, a senior linebacker for his Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania high school football team, and had taken thousands of hits over four years before the one that ended his season. The hit itself looked routine on film — helmet-to-helmet contact during a tackle in the second quarter against a rival school. He stood up wobbly, … Read more
Trevor, a 34-year-old software engineer in Sacramento, had been on bupropion for treatment-resistant depression for nine months when he was found unresponsive at his desk by a coworker who initially thought he was sleeping. The convulsions started while paramedics were loading him into the ambulance and continued through the emergency department triage area, prompting immediate … Read more
Imani Brookshire, a 39-year-old emergency room nurse in Charleston, had been doing trauma therapy for nearly two years following a workplace assault when her therapist suggested adding a complementary modality. Imani had always avoided yoga studios because the brisk-paced flow classes she had tried left her feeling dissociated and panicky, the sequences moved too fast, … Read more
Hannah was fifteen, a varsity cross-country runner in Boulder, Colorado, and the kind of straight-A student parents brag about at dinner parties. Her mother Karen first noticed something off when Hannah started cooking elaborate meals for the family but eating only small portions of plain vegetables herself. By winter break, Hannah had lost twenty-two pounds. … Read more
Marcus, a 34-year-old graphic designer in Sacramento, dropped his health insurance in January after his freelance contracts dried up. He figured he was healthy, the federal penalty was zero, and he could pocket the $480 monthly premium. Three months later, a panic attack at a coffee shop turned into a six-hour emergency room visit, a … Read more
Priya, a 28-year-old graphic designer in Minneapolis, started aripiprazole for bipolar II depression on a Friday and by Monday morning she could not sit through a meeting, could not lie still in bed, could not stop pacing the apartment her husband had begun watching her circle like a zoo animal. She described the feeling as … Read more