Devon Pritchett, a 41-year-old IT director in Raleigh, paid a coach $2,800 over four months to help him handle what he described as workplace burnout and intermittent panic at his desk. The sessions felt productive at first, full of breathing exercises and weekly accountability check-ins around exercise and sleep. By the third month his panic … Read more
Marcus, a 31-year-old former Army infantry sergeant, walked into a generic sober living house in Tampa, Florida, after 28 days of inpatient rehab and lasted four days. The house was clean, the rules were reasonable, the manager was kind, but Marcus could not sleep. The house had eight men in it, none of whom had … 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
Marisol Tavares, a 34-year-old graphic designer in Albuquerque, had spent eleven months on a waitlist to see a psychiatrist for her treatment-resistant depression. Her primary care doctor had cycled her through three SSRIs, none of which produced lasting improvement, and the next available board-certified psychiatrist within fifty miles had openings in late October. A friend … 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
Marcus, a 64-year-old retired postal worker in Tucson, had been taking haloperidol for paranoid schizophrenia for nearly two decades when his daughter noticed something strange during a Sunday dinner. His tongue darted in and out of his mouth between bites, his lips puckered and smacked involuntarily, and his fingers played invisible piano scales on the … 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, a 33-year-old mother of two in Minneapolis, left her marketing job after her second child was born to manage the family’s care full-time. Her husband Daniel’s tech employer offered solid health coverage, and she joined his plan during open enrollment without much thought. Eight months later, struggling with insomnia, intrusive thoughts about harm, and … Read more
Priya, a 41-year-old software engineer in Austin, Texas, came out of a yearlong depressive episode in 2024 and could not figure out how to feel anything again. Her therapist suggested she walk for an hour each morning and take five photographs on her phone of anything that caught her attention, with one rule: no Instagram, … Read more
Devon, a 34-year-old emergency department nurse in Portland, Oregon, came home from a difficult overnight shift in early 2025 and could not stop replaying a pediatric code. Her therapist had suggested grounding techniques, but the racing thoughts overwhelmed five-finger breathing. A coworker handed her a half-finished granny square and a hook the next week, and … Read more