OCT 9, 2026

INSIDE: Our Mental Health Issue!

TODAY I WILL:

Let my priorities be obvious.

Our group chat is keeping the conversation on mental health open every single day.

• What can dunking your face in ice water every day do for your nervous system?

• Your brain has serious power over the immune system, according to this study.

• Presley Gerber’s mental health struggles, in his own words.

• More people are getting late-in-life autism diagnoses.

• The biggest study on female athletes’ physical and mental health is underway.

Mama, Let’s Research 

Mental illness can be difficult to treat, with trial and error often the only path to relief. And while that’s still true, researchers (and some ingenious patients) are chipping away at the problem from new and unexpected angles. Here are three exciting things to track:

Brain Stimulation: Stimulating the brain isn’t new, but Harvard researchers recently found that targeting a specific, non-standard brain circuit with transcranial magnetic stimulation eased anxiety symptoms in ways the traditional TMS target doesn't. This marks the first time scientists selectively improved anxiety through targeted stimulation (huge!). Lead author Joseph Taylor called it a step toward precision medicine, explaining how they decided to test this route: “You have two different symptom clusters, we have two different circuits, let's see if we can change selectively one symptom versus another.”

Body Heat: Scientists are studying whether raising your body temperature (through sauna, infrared therapy, or hot baths) can ease depression. The theory is that heat triggers an anti-inflammatory response similar to exercise (a well-established depression treatment) and activates neurons that may offer antidepressant effects; a landmark trial found that people with depression who spent two hours in an infrared machine saw a 50% reduction in symptoms within a week. Clinical psychologist Ashley Mason, who's running trials combining heat exposure with therapy, says most participants in her pilot studies went into remission. While this is exciting, she cautions that “heat does seem to be a promising therapy, but we're very much at the beginning of this research.”

Allergy & Heartburn Meds: It’s not just professionals who are coming up with potential solutions to big problems. As psychiatrist Dr. Mara Rivera put it, "Women have been doing this forever, just talking to one another, and seeing what works." And this new trend might actually work. People are pairing an antihistamine like Claritin with Pepcid AC to ease PMDD symptoms, based on the idea that histamine levels shift along with estrogen and progesterone across the cycle. There's no clinical trial evidence yet (so it remains unproven), but experts frame it as promising.

Yesterday, we asked: “What’s the biggest barrier between you and taking better care of your mental health?”

The results show that making space for ourselves isn't always easy. Twenty-six percent of you said that time is your biggest obstacle, while 24% admitted that other people’s needs tend to come first—because prioritizing yourself can be easier said than done. Meanwhile, 22% aren't quite sure where to start and 14% pointed to cost or access as the biggest hurdle. Another 14% simply said “I don’t know,” proving that sometimes identifying what's holding us back is a challenge in itself. Whatever your biggest barrier may be, consider this a gentle reminder that your mental health deserves a spot on your priority list, too.

Let’s Talk About It.

This year’s World Mental Health Day theme is “Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change.” We are encouraged to share real stories to prompt meaningful conversations that will engage individuals and communities, including taking action to get help when it’s needed. Unfortunately, the stigma around mental health remains strong. A study conducted by BetterHelp found that while 85% of Americans feel that mental health support is essential, most still don’t seek out therapy. And when it comes to women specifically, 82% report anxiety symptoms and 83% report depression symptoms, both trending up last year. The findings, which align with what we know about high-functioning women often carrying more anxiety, prompted the company to launch The Permission Project with women’s mental health advocate Sophia Bush to further explore the invisible expectations women carry. 

In a conversation about World Mental Health Day and The Permission Project, Sara Brooks, Chief Growth Officer at BetterHelp, said that the numbers in BetterHelp’s studies sit within a much bigger context. “Women have long navigated deeply ingrained, often contradictory expectations about how they’re supposed to show up at work, at home, in relationships and in public life,” she said. There are also unwritten rules for women to be ambitious while still being likeable, to build a career without letting anything at home slip, and to take care of everyone else while not needing too much yourself. These rules, said Sara, should be recognized so that they may be questioned as to whether they’re serving women well or if they should be rewritten. 

Coinciding with World Mental Health Day, The Permission Project’s goal is for women to see that they don’t need permission from anyone to “recognize themselves in these rules, realize they’re not the only ones carrying them, and know there’s support available when they want it,” said Sara. “If it creates even a moment where someone thinks, I’ve been living by a rule I never actually chose, that’s meaningful.” 

Consider World Mental Health Day an invitation to examine some of the rules you’ve been carrying.

EYEING: This