EXPLORE TOPICS
Six ways into the questions that make us human. Select a topic to explore the writing in that collection.
Emotion, depression, and the way our inner lives change.
Grief often begins in the smallest moments. It begins when something happens during the day and, without thinking, you reach for your phone to tell the one person who…
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There is a peculiar moment that seems to happen every month in hospitals, emergency departments, psychiatric units and even ordinary households. Someone glances…
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Most people can recall a time when they felt emotionally exhausted, anxious, irritable or just not themselves. During those periods, it is common to look toward…
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Millions of people wake up each morning living a life they once believed would make them happy. They have careers they worked hard to build, relationships they fought…
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There is a particular kind of exhaustion that sleep no longer seems to fix.
· From the ArchivesFear, uncertainty, and finding steadier ground.
The spider is behind glass. You’ve checked. It cannot get out, and you have absolutely no intention of getting in. Still, your heart is racing, your palms are…
I If you asked most people to picture someone who is mentally strong, they would probably imagine someone who remains calm under pressure. A firefighter walking into…
The email was only five words long.
· From the ArchivesResearch, fresh ideas, and the science behind the headlines.
In June 1899, Martha Freud counted the bottles of Marsala wine in her home and put them away. She wasn’t taking inventory for a dinner party. She was concerned about…
You’re on your knees, looking under the couch for your phone. There’s a dusty pretzel down there, enough dog hair to build another dog, and no phone. “Hang on, I…
The spider is behind glass. You’ve checked. It cannot get out, and you have absolutely no intention of getting in. Still, your heart is racing, your palms are…
Ask whether he is hungry, and he may not answer. Ask where it hurts, what he wants or why he is crying, and no words arrive. Then sit him at a piano and listen as he…
I don’t know you, but I know a few things about you.
You open TikTok before bed and stop on a video: Five signs you might have ADHD and not know it.
A twenty-eight-year-old walks into a mental health clinic exhausted by the feeling that life never seems as manageable for them as it does for everyone else.…
You are halfway through a conversation when something changes, it is not obvious, but there is a shift. The other person’s words remain calm, their smile has not…
· From the ArchivesThere is a peculiar moment that seems to happen every month in hospitals, emergency departments, psychiatric units and even ordinary households. Someone glances…
· From the ArchivesMost people can recall a time when they felt emotionally exhausted, anxious, irritable or just not themselves. During those periods, it is common to look toward…
· From the ArchivesSubstance use, change, and the complexity of recovery.
It’s after midnight. The glasses have been refilled a few times, the conversation has gotten louder and everyone is saying a little more than they were a few hours…
When people learn I’ve been sober for nearly a decade, they often assume I have recovery figured out. They imagine there comes a point when the questions become…
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Most people believe addiction begins the first time someone takes a drink, swallows a pill, lights a pipe or injects a substance into their body. It is often imagined…
· From the ArchivesAttachment, conflict, intimacy, and the people in our lives.
At 4:47 on Friday afternoon, your phone lights up.
“I hate drama.”
Being needed can feel almost identical to being loved until you stop being useful.
Twenty years ago, when a relationship ended badly, your friends had a fairly limited vocabulary for the person who broke your heart.
You send the text and put your phone down.
For many people, this question comes only after everything else they have told themselves has stopped making sense.
Sometimes the person you miss the most is also the person who caused you the deepest pain. Few experiences are more unsettling than accepting that someone repeatedly…
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Most people believe they would know if they were in an abusive relationship. They picture obvious warning signs that are difficult to ignore, such as physical…
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Few questions make people second guess themselves as quickly as this one. At some point, many people have quietly wondered whether they have an unusually high sex…
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There is a moment that many people describe with incredible similarity, even though they have never met one another. They find themselves standing in the kitchen…
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At some point, almost everyone has wondered the same thing. How can someone hurt the people closest to them, dismiss the feelings of others, refuse to accept…
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Most people believe they know exactly what they are attracted to until they look back at their relationship history.
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There is a moment that quietly arrives in many struggling marriages when the arguments begin to disappear. At first, this might even feel like progress. The tension…
· From the ArchivesBehavior, identity, habits, and the ways we make sense of ourselves.
You can spend a year in therapy and barely change.
At 6:42 on Friday evening, you are standing in your bedroom wearing one shoe and wondering whether you hate your friends.
Ask whether he is hungry, and he may not answer. Ask where it hurts, what he wants or why he is crying, and no words arrive. Then sit him at a piano and listen as he…
You finish another psychology podcast on the drive home and find yourself replaying a conversation from earlier that day. Was it really about what was said, or was it…
Have you ever sat down with every intention of focusing, only to find your mind bouncing from one thought to the next like a stone skipping across water?
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There are people who walk into a room and seem to possess something almost magnetic. They speak without hesitation, move without visible self doubt and appear to…
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There are few psychological terms more casually misused than psychopath and sociopath. They appear everywhere from crime documentaries to dating advice videos, often…
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It can happen in less than thirty seconds.
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