The 5AM Club Is Just Insomnia With Branding
A student asked if I do the 5 a.m. club. I said I wake at 5 because anxiety is my alarm clock. She looked relieved. We read Sappho instead of a hustle podcas...
#mental-health
The Tenure Clock and My Therapist Clock
Tenure packet due. My therapist says slow down. The committee says publish. Both clocks tick. Academia anxiety is not irrational. It is accurate. Professors...
Student Office Hours Felt Like Triage
Office hours. Line out the door. One student crying about grades. One about a visa. One about a professor's comment. The job is half content, half containmen...
A Listener Called to Say Goodbye
I got a call on the overnight show from a man who said he was driving nowhere and wanted to hear a voice. We talked forty minutes. I gave him the crisis line...
Family Meal at the Station Hits Different After a Bad Call
Bad call on shift. Nothing dramatic on paper. Just the kind that sits in your throat for hours. I came home and made grilled cheese for my nephew's team fund...
The First Laugh That Felt Like Betrayal
A friend made a joke at lunch and I laughed before I remembered I am supposed to be broken. Then I felt sick. Then I felt angry at myself for feeling sick. H...
The Group Chat Where Everyone Is Fine
I posted something real in the group chat last night — about anxiety, about feeling behind — and within ninety seconds got four heart emojis and a meme. Not...
We Call It Compassion Fatigue Like It Is a Weather Pattern
I did not cry in front of a patient today. I cried in front of the break room microwave. Someone had reheated fish again, and I stood there staring at the li...
What 24 Feels Like When the World Is on Fire
Being 24 in 2026 means exhaustion that looks like depression but runs deeper. An editorial on generational burnout, ambition, and the honest blank.
The Snickers Bar He Earned
A first-person editorial from an emergency responder on the absurd, unglamorous calls that define the job — and what they reveal about human nature.
The 5 A.M. Nod
A short, sharp essay on why 5 a.m. runners don't talk — and what the silent nod between them actually means about running, sanity, and self-knowledge.
The Empty Brain: What Salsa Dancing Does That Therapy Can't
Salsa dancing empties the mind in a way therapy cannot. An argument for movement as neurological interruption, not a replacement for self-awareness.
Grounded Is Not a Punishment. It's the Only Power That Matters.
Being grounded was never a punishment — it's the rarest human power. We've trained children to fear solitude, and adults are paying the price.
We Taught Kids That Solitude Is Punishment
How teaching children that being grounded is a punishment quietly programs them to fear solitude and lose the one skill that makes everything else possible.
Grounded Is Not a Punishment. It's the Only Power That Matters.
Being 'grounded' is taught as punishment, but groundedness is the most powerful human capacity. This editorial argues we've been training children to fear solitude.