No matter what country we live in, what culture we’re a part of, or what religion we practice, everything in our world revolves around a single goal: attaining happiness. This far-off-but-acheivable-if-you-follow-the-rules happiness is our own personal autocrat. In a capitalist society, the happiness dictator demands that if we study hard to gain a career, we…

On March 14 and June 14, my partner Justin and I marked the beginning and end of Vancouver’s coronavirus lockdown in the exact same way: we met friends at our favorite bar around the corner from our apartment. All things considered, Vancouver has fared exceptionally well throughout the pandemic. Our restrictions never reached draconian levels, and yet…

The following was originally published in my newsletter, Happiness Is A Skill, Issue #01.  — The past few months have gifted us with an opportunity for deep reflection. While the world changes at a breakneck pace, we’ve all been stuck inside, left with nothing but the life we’ve created for ourselves and the emotions that…

It’s hard to celebrate anything right now. Yesterday, after a much needed few days entirely off the grid, I came back to a digital shitstorm. The specifics are irrelevant, but what was important was that in the middle of getting real mad and doing a whole hell of a lot of ugly crying, I realized…

  “Iatrogenic comorbidity” is one of those jargon phrases that makes me want to run far far away from research.  To me, it’s code for this is an article for those who have letters after their name and if you don’t you’re too plebian to understand. For regular folk, it’s a term that’s difficult to…

  I was scrolling through Twitter when I came across a tweet by Michael P. Hengartner, PhD that read, “In my new open access paper, I critically discuss whether long-term antidepressant use has prophylactic effects, ie., whether long-term use effectively protects against depression relapses and why we must consider withdrawal reactions…” Hengartner is one of…