You've always been this way. Thorough. Detail-oriented. The person who catches what everyone else misses, who would rather redo something than submit work that's less than excellent. These qualities have served you well — academically, professionally, in the eyes of people who rely on you. So when someone suggests your perfectionism might be a problem, the reaction is usually resistance: This is just who I am. Without it, I'd be mediocre. Here's the question worth sitting wit

If you've ever had cancer — or are currently in treatment — you probably know this feeling without needing a name for it. The scan is scheduled. Somewhere in the days or weeks before it, something shifts: sleep gets harder, every twinge becomes evidence, and a low hum of dread settles in that you can't reason your way out of. This is scanxiety — the intense anxiety cancer patients and survivors feel in anticipation of follow-up scans, imaging, or results. For many, it's the h

You're exhausted in a way sleep doesn't fix. You've lost motivation for things that used to matter. You're going through the motions at work, at home, in your relationships. Is this burnout? Is it depression? It matters — because while they can look strikingly similar, they have different origins and different treatment paths. Treating one when you actually have the other can delay recovery. What Is Burnout? Burnout is a state of chronic physical and emotional exhaustion caus

Mindfulness has a marketing problem. Somewhere between the clinical research and the wellness industry, it got repackaged into something that sounds nothing like what it actually is — and everything like something a certain kind of person would roll their eyes at. Candles. Apps. The instruction to "just breathe." The implication that if you're still anxious, you're not doing it right. If that version of mindfulness hasn't worked for you, that's not evidence that you can't do

You know you need to rest. You've known it for a while. You're tired in a way that a good night's sleep — on the rare occasion you actually get one — doesn't fully fix. Your body is sending signals you've learned to override. People in your life have noticed. You've noticed. And yet. The moment you actually stop, something happens. The to-do list surfaces. The guilt arrives. A low hum of anxiety fills the space that productivity used to occupy. Your mind, with nothing externa

There is a particular kind of wound that doesn't fit neatly into the categories we usually use to describe psychological suffering. It isn't simply fear, grief, or anxiety. It is something closer to a fracture in the moral foundation of a person — the sense that something happened that should not have, that you were part of it, and that you can never fully make it right. This is moral injury. It is one of the most underrecognized forms of psychological distress affecting peop

A cancer diagnosis changes everything. Even after treatment ends, many survivors find themselves caught in a relentless cycle of worry, hypervigilance, and emotional exhaustion that is difficult to explain to others—and even harder to simply "think your way out of." If you've been told you should feel grateful or relieved now that the hard part is over, but instead feel anxious, numb, or overwhelmed, you are not alone. And you are not broken. Cancer-related stress is real, re