Off Script, unfiltered.

Essays and observations from working clinicians. Mental health, broader than a diagnosis.

Essays from the clinic floor Clinicians with actual opinions The thing not in the textbook No HR filter on this one

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Jump to what you came for, instead of scrolling. 12 topics, each linking to every essay tagged with it.

How to Actually Appeal an Insurance Denial
Off Script · 16 min read

How to Actually Appeal an Insurance Denial

Insurance denied your mental health claim.

Jul 31, 2025
Why You and Your Partner Feel Out of Sync
Off Script · 6 min read

Why You and Your Partner Feel Out of Sync

There’s a part of relationships that nobody really prepares you for, and it’s not the big stuff. It’s not conflict, or trust, or anything dramatic.

Jul 31, 2025
What Every Insurance Term Actually Means (And Which Ones Matter)
Off Script · 14 min read

What Every Insurance Term Actually Means (And Which Ones Matter)

Insurance companies don't write their paperwork to be understood. They write it to be unfalsifiable, which is a different problem.

Jul 26, 2025
How Health Insurance Actually Works
Off Script · 15 min read

How Health Insurance Actually Works

Health insurance is confusing on purpose.

Jul 24, 2025
Solopreneur Logistics: From LLC to PC
Professionals · 15 min read

Solopreneur Logistics: From LLC to PC

Most clinicians who leave a W-2 job to go solo lose money in their first year, and a fair number of them don't even notice until they sit down with…

Jul 21, 2025
Licensure vs Certification: What Actually Defines Your Scope of Practice
Professionals · 15 min read

Licensure vs Certification: What Actually Defines Your Scope of Practice

Most of us came out of training knowing how to interview a patient, how to write a note, and how to talk a guy down off a bad week, and…

Jul 18, 2025
E&M Codes for Psych: Choosing the Right Level
Professionals · 15 min read

E&M Codes for Psych: Choosing the Right Level

Most psych clinicians are undercoding their visits, and it's not because they're being modest, it's because nobody taught them how E&M (evaluation and…

Jul 16, 2025
Stimulants Help Most People Focus. That Isn’t an ADHD Test.
Off Script · 14 min read

Stimulants Help Most People Focus. That Isn’t an ADHD Test.

The single most common ADHD diagnostic story I hear in the room goes like this...

Jul 13, 2025
Modafinil and the productivity stack
Off Script · 9 min read

Modafinil and the productivity stack

Modafinil is the drug a lot of guys in tech, finance, and the productivity-bro corners of the internet are taking off-label, often without a prescription,…

Jul 10, 2025
AI girlfriends and male loneliness
Off Script · 9 min read

AI girlfriends and male loneliness

The number of guys using Replika, Character.ai, and the half-dozen newer AI companion apps has gone vertical in the last couple of years, and it’s showing up in…

Jul 8, 2025
Decline of male friendship after 40
Off Script · 9 min read

Decline of male friendship after 40

The data on this is what it sounds like.

Jul 5, 2025
Jonathan Haidt’s Anxious Generation: what’s right and overstated
Off Script · 9 min read

Jonathan Haidt’s Anxious Generation: what’s right and overstated

Haidt’s argument in The Anxious Generation is that smartphones and social media, hitting kids hard around 2012, broke teen mental health. The data on adolescent depression and anxiety…

Jul 3, 2025