Well on Your Way: Mental Health + Metabolic Science

Well on Your Way: Mental Health + Metabolic Science

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Well on Your Way: Mental Health + Metabolic Science
Well on Your Way: Mental Health + Metabolic Science
To Anyone Tired of Being Asked "What's the Matter With You?"

To Anyone Tired of Being Asked "What's the Matter With You?"

On therapy, social prescribing, and what happens when we help people feel human again.

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Sophie Francis
May 14, 2025
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Well on Your Way: Mental Health + Metabolic Science
Well on Your Way: Mental Health + Metabolic Science
To Anyone Tired of Being Asked "What's the Matter With You?"
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I’m reading a book right now that’s sparking some things I’ve been thinking about for awhile but never quite had the words for.

Actually, I’m reading multiple books—but let’s just start with the first one.

It’s called The Connection Cure by Julia Hotz, and it speaks to so may things I care about: human connection, lifestyle-based health, and the limits of the modern medical model. Hotz writes about “social prescribing,” the idea that doctors, nurses, and other providers can literally prescribe things like community groups, volunteering, or time in nature as interventions for loneliness, anxiety, and chronic illness.

I’d heard of this before, in other books like Lost Connections by Johann Hari. But as I sat with this book, I began thinking about the implications of social prescribing for therapists, and what it means for me—someone entering into the mental health field.

Ultimately, I kept going back to this central question repeated throughout the book:

What if we stopped asking people: What’s the matter with you?

And started asking them: What matters to you?

So this is what I’ll explore in this article.

If you’ve ever felt tired of being asked What’s the matter with you?; if you’ve ever longed not to be defined and boxed in by a diagnosis; if you’ve ever experienced firsthand the joy of being deeply seen by another human being; if you’ve ever felt like talking about your problems only made them worse; if you’ve ever wished your doctor could prescribe you a weekly painting class or a cycling group to heal your loneliness…

This piece is for you.

Does Connection Need to Be Prescribed?

I get it—the idea of prescribing connection sounds strange.

Should it really have to be prescribed?

The thing is: we've gotten to this place in modern life where connection does not come easily for many people. We live in a digital age—one where we fool ourselves into thinking that commenting on social media equates to actually interacting with our friends and neighbors and strangers in real life.

(It doesn’t.)

So—something like a prescription from a doctor, social worker, nurse, or counselor could be the boost that someone needs to actually make change in their lifestyle and in their mental and physical well-being.

This idea of a “prescription” is a play on the idea of giving somebody medicine, of course, but it really just is a metaphor for helping someone through a change that will positively affect their life.

So, should it need to be prescribed?

Theoretically, no, but essentially, yes.

Because we’ve strayed far from the habits and environments that naturally support human flourishing—and we need all the help we can get to reclaim them.


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The Role of the Therapist

We’ve created a world where isolation is the norm and connection takes effort—where people spend more time with screens than with other humans.

In that kind of world, maybe a prescription is exactly what some people need—not because connection should be medicalized, but because they need someone to say, this matters.

This is where therapy comes in.

Not just as a space to talk, but as a space to reconnect.

Not just to diagnose what’s wrong—but to help people remember what’s right, what matters to them, and who they really are.

A space for real human-to-human connection, where you see the good in someone and that good comes out of them.

And yet, therapy doesn’t always work like that.

I’ve written before about some of my critiques of the field: the way it can mirror the medical model too closely, the way it can encourage rumination, or turn people inward at the exact moment they need to look outward and engage with life again.

There’s this idea that to heal, we have to talk endlessly about what’s wrong. But what if that’s not always true?

Sometimes, people don’t want to talk about their sadness. Sometimes, people with social anxiety don’t want to talk about their social anxiety.

People want to be seen as a person—not as a set of problems that need to be solved.

What they often want is something deeper—to feel normal again, to feel capable, to feel part of something.


Note: I share the rest of this piece with paid subscribers because this is where the vision turns personal—and expansive. If you believe in this vision—of therapy rooted in meaning, metabolism, and care for the whole person—consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support allows me to keep writing and growing this movement.


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