The brain is rarely nice at 2:14 a.m. Even though the house is quiet and the kitchen refrigerator is humming softly, the mind is fully rehearsing all the possible scenarios that could go wrong. A remark from your supervisor. An unanswered text. A minor error was replayed with forensic accuracy. Protection could be the true cause of what appears to be mental sabotage. More and more psychologists are framing overthinking as a threat response rather than a sign of weakness. The brain is programmed to anticipate danger, according to Dr. Catherine Pittman, a specialist in the neuroscience of anxiety. The…
Author: Jack Ward
There is a certain silence that isn’t tranquil. When everyone is laughing, and you’re smiling at the appropriate times during a birthday dinner, it manifests as a muted feeling on the inside. It manifests during a dispute when you calmly present the facts while your partner’s voice breaks. It lingers on a Sunday afternoon when the window’s soft, golden light seems to ignore you oddly. Emotional blunting or “flat affect” are terms used by psychologists to describe it. The phrase “I just feel emotionally flat” is used more casually. Clinicians are careful to frame it differently, even though it may…
The coffee maker is humming at 7:30 on a Tuesday morning, the sky is a light blue, and nothing is particularly amiss. Work is consistent. There are still relationships. The bills have been paid. Even with eight hours of sleep, there is still that familiar weight behind the eyes, a dull heaviness that doesn’t seem to go away. This type of fatigue might be the most perplexing of all. Fatigue seems almost unfit when life is objectively stable. One is expected to be appreciative, motivated, and hopeful. Rather, it feels as though the body is passing through syrup. It’s even…
Drama is not the means by which emotional shutdown occurs. It comes in silence. A person nods through a heated discussion in a fluorescent-lit conference room, responding calmly and without emotion. A parent stands at the sink in a kitchen after midnight, staring at the running water, unable to cry despite the fact that the day had been so difficult that it was justified. They look calm from the outside. Something has stopped moving inside. When fight-or-flight feels unattainable, the nervous system goes into what therapists refer to as the “freeze” or “shutdown” response. According to Emma McAdam, a licensed…
There is a specific type of fatigue that results from overimagining rather than overdoing. It’s the weariness from practicing catastrophes that never materialize, preparing for conversations that go smoothly, and lying awake at 2:17 a.m. Imagine a draft email that hasn’t been sent yet. It’s known as anticipatory anxiety by psychologists. Simply put, it’s the anxiety that comes from constantly anticipating a problem. Planning, considering risks, and being ready for the worst make it sound almost responsible on paper. It is done by investors. It is done by surgeons. Parents do it, for sure. However, something changes in the middle…
In Margate, the sea air has a way of piercing you. It carries salt and something metallic on some mornings, a reminder of corrosion and life. Tracey Emin’s decision to start over here, in view of that horizon, seems appropriate. She called the moment she became ill in 2020—during lockdown—unexpectedly joyful. She was holding a glass of champagne while working, in love, and sunburned from her London home’s roof. Then the blood started to flow. CategoryDetailsNameTracey EminBorn1963, London; raised in Margate, KentArt MovementYoung British Artists (YBAs)Major WorksMy Bed (1998); Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995IllnessDiagnosed with aggressive squamous cell…
On Radio 5 Live, Naga Munchetty once did something out of the ordinary for a broadcaster with her level of experience. The microphone was turned inward by her. She said to the audience, “I am in pain right now as I sit here talking to you.” Not in a symbolic sense. physically. She had been delivering the news steadily for decades, giving the impression that maintaining composure was a professional reflex. She manages the delicate choreography of live television, asks insightful questions, and keeps interviews flowing on BBC Breakfast. The audience perceives authority. The pain radiating down her thighs from…
While some actors control a room, others create a realistic atmosphere. Bobby J. Brown was in the second group. He was unimpressive to watch in The Wire, where he was typically standing in the faded fluorescent light of a Baltimore precinct. He was not a scenery chewer. He lived there. There was a certain weight to his death this week, at age 62, after a barn fire at his Maryland home. Authorities say that when firefighters arrived, they discovered a 50-by-100-foot building that was almost destroyed. The causes were identified as thermal injuries and smoke inhalation. Arlene, his wife, was…