Priya Iyer 
Elena, a 38-year-old freelance UX designer in Austin, left a salaried role at a software company in March to go independent. She had been managing generalized anxiety with weekly therapy at $25 copays and a low-dose SSRI. Six weeks into self-employment, her COBRA continuation premium for the same plan ran $749 a month for individual … Read more
Karen from Buffalo had been dreading October since college. Every fall the same pattern would arrive on the same schedule. She slept twelve hours and woke up exhausted. She craved bread and pasta and chocolate at quantities that did not match her summer self. She gained eight to fifteen pounds between Halloween and St. Patrick’s … Read more
Marcus, twenty-three, walked into a corner store in the Bronx on a humid July afternoon and bought a small foil packet labeled “AK-47 herbal incense.” Twenty minutes later, his cousin found him on the sidewalk outside, frozen in a half-crouch, eyes locked open, drool tracking down his chin. He could not answer his name. By … Read more