The other night I had dinner with my friend who told me a heart wrenching story that confirmed everything that I despise about American psychiatry. A couple of years ago while she was in graduate school her sister, only in early twenties was diagnosed with cancer. She returned home to Europe to be with her sister while she underwent incredibly life sucking and painful treatment. Her sister did not live and my friend’s pain already so raw was magnified 10 fold. My friend unsurprisingly was devastated.

Once back in Chicago, she went to see a psychiatrist who put her on anti-depressants which seemed like an appropriate remedy in so far the depression was really getting in the ways of day to day functioning. Now of course, it was only super normal for her to be devastated and beyond function; what is less normal is that we don’t give people adequate time and room to grieve in our society. Pain must be personal and it must be brief, so you know we can get to our