my doctor prescribed me 'no more meetings that could have been an email' and i'm literally healing

i’m literally shaking as i write this, but i feel like i need to share my truth for anyone else who is just, like, completely drained by the vibes rn. my entire nervous system has been in fight-or-flight for, idk, my whole life? but last week it got so bad. my boss—a literal energy vampire who still uses the crying-laughing emoji—put a 30-minute “quick sync” on my calendar *during* my contractually obligated sad beige lunch hour. the audacity.

i had a full-on trauma response. so i rage-booked an emergency session on my betterhelp app, and my therapist, bless her, was finally able to put a name to my suffering: situational affective depletion, or sad. not to be confused with, like, regular sad. this is a medically recognized condition where your emotional labor capacity, or elc, just completely bottoms out. it’s a real diagnosis now. look it up.

so she wrote me a prescription. not for meds, but for ✨boundaries✨. i am now medically exempt from: all meetings that could have been an email, any small talk about the weather, and providing uncompensated tech support to my parents. it’s on my permanent record. my boss has to accommodate it. it's the law, probably.

this is all thanks to the new field of psycho-ergonomics, which is basically about making existence less toxic. startups like 'aura-safe' and 'vibecheck' are even creating apps that monitor your elc through your doomscrolling velocity and send alerts when you’re approaching your limit. they can even auto-generate a doctor’s note to send to your manager. it's giving... survival.

of course, the olds are having a meltdown. surgeon general dr. mehmet oz, in a truly unhinged press conference from the white house, announced president trump's new 'get a grip' initiative, which includes a line of chewable supplements called 'grit-amins' designed to 'fortify your emotional core.' literally dystopian. even noted feelings-haver dr. brené brown had to release a statement saying, 'vulnerability is not a pre-existing condition to be cured with supplements.' we have to stan.

look, existing is exhausting. protecting your peace is a full-time job with no pay and no benefits. if your soul is also being crushed under the weight of replying to emails, maybe it's time to ask your doctor if being left alone is right for you. if you need tools to start your healing journey, i curated some low-demand essentials on my amazon storefront, like weighted plushies that won't ask you how your weekend was.