The germ that has invaded our nations, inflicted our communities, and infected our air has made further inroads into our lives. Now it’s in our heads. According to the latest census data, there’s been a bum rush on feeling bummed. “Some groups have been hit harder than others. Rates of anxiety and depression were far higher among younger adults, women and the poor. The worse scores in young adults were especially notable, given that the virus has been more likely to kill the elderly or leave them critically ill.” WaPo: A third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression.

+ “Feelings of numbness, powerlessness, and hopelessness are now so common as to verge on being considered normal. But what we are seeing is far less likely an actual increase in a disease of the brain than a series of circumstances that is drawing out a similar neurochemical mix. This poses a diagnostic conundrum. Millions of people exhibiting signs of depression now have to discern ennui from temporary grieving from a medical condition.” James Hamblin in The Atlantic: Is Everyone Depressed? (Or is it that some people are still realists…)

+ Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker: The New Theatrics of Remote Therapy. “As therapists, we use our own counter-transference, our watchful, hovering empathy, to do our work. That’s difficult online. All the minutiae, my going out, meeting them at the door, their taking a chair or the couch—you don’t have that anymore. And I’m seeing the patients in their own home. One patient greeted me in an undershirt.” (I usually visit my shrink shirtless because I want him to understand the full scope of the problem…)

+ This inevitable mental health crisis is the exact reason I dropped the paid promotions in NextDraft and started publicizing Crisis Text Line instead. If you’re struggling, you’re definitely not alone, and there are people waiting to help.