Tomás Reyes had been on Spravato for six weeks when the prior authorisation for his next dose got rejected by his insurer’s pharmacy benefit manager. He was sitting in a cubicle in Albuquerque watching his email inbox refresh, and on the other end of the chain was a dispenser at a specialty pharmacy in Memphis … Read more
The Phone Number That Could Have Saved a Trip to the ER Most Americans, when faced with a mental health care crisis at home, have exactly two phone numbers in their head. They call 911, which usually dispatches police and an ambulance, or they drive their loved one to the nearest emergency room. Both responses are blunt … Read more
Marcus, a 38-year-old software engineer in Denver, Colorado, did the math one Sunday afternoon and the result startled him. He had not had a one-on-one conversation with a friend, in person, that lasted longer than thirty minutes, in nearly fourteen months. He had a wife he loved, two kids he adored, colleagues he liked, and … Read more
Eleanor Whitcomb was seventy-eight when her daughter Marcy drove her from Asheville to a memory care unit that, within three weeks, asked the family to come collect her. Eleanor had not, as the admitting nurse first assumed, simply “wandered” into another resident’s room — she had crouched in the corner of it for six hours, … Read more
Sofia was twenty-nine, a graphic designer in Minneapolis, when her midwife noticed something during her 28-week prenatal visit. Sofia had been crying in the waiting room. She had lost weight that pregnancy week instead of gaining. She told the midwife she was fine, the pregnancy was wanted, the partner was supportive, and she was just … Read more
The Performance Nobody Sees You sit down at your desk at 9:00 AM. You open your email. You join the Zoom meeting. You nod at the right moments. You laugh when your coworker makes a joke. You answer questions when asked. From the outside, you look like a perfectly functional employee. What your colleagues do … Read more
Hannah was nineteen, a sophomore at a state university in Pittsburgh, when her roommate found her unresponsive on the dorm room floor at 2:30am on a Sunday. An empty bottle of acetaminophen was on the desk. The roommate called 911, then called Hannah’s mother in Erie. By the time Linda arrived at the hospital five … Read more
Marisol Reyes had been searching for a therapist in Houston for nearly four months when her sister-in-law mentioned a name. Marisol, a 38-year-old Mexican-American mother of three, did not want a counselor who simply spoke Spanish. She wanted someone who understood why she could not bring herself to set a boundary with her mother without … Read more
Sergeant Matthew Briggs had been out of the Army for seven years when he finally admitted he was not okay. The 41-year-old former infantryman in Colorado Springs had tried the VA twice. The first appointment was canceled after a six-week wait. The second came through, but the assigned counselor had never deployed and asked questions … Read more
The Silent Suffering of an Entire Generation Your father has always been the strong one. A veteran. A small business owner. The man who fixed everything in the house and never complained about anything. But lately, something has changed. He does not want to go to his weekly poker game anymore. He has lost fifteen … Read more