June 2025 Shell Exchange

Welcome to the June 2025 Shell Exchange!

Midway through each month, I drop a list of recommended reads. I try to feature winning hermit crab essays when possible (🦀). But those charming crabbies aren’t always easy to find. So I also make it a point to share pieces on invisible illness.

If you come across an essay or article I haven’t mentioned that you feel warrants attention, drop the link in the comments, and I’ll add it to the rotation next month.

1. “Trump Official’s Autism Schools Secluded and Restrained Students at High Rates” by Beth Hawkins from The 74.

“In the 2020-21 academic year, the latest for which federal data is available, school staff physically restrained 41% of its students and put 20% in seclusion, which is defined by the U.S. Department of Education as the involuntary confinement of a child, typically in a locked room. That’s 50% higher than the rate at which students are restrained and confined nationally.”

2. “3 Things to Watch on Mental Health in Trump’s Early Budget Proposals” by Aneri Pattani from KFF Health News

“Many people consider these programs vital given the country’s ongoing suicide crisis. From 2000 to 2018, the national suicide rate increased 35%. Although there was a slight dip the following two years, the rate returned to its peak in 2022.”

3. “In Defense of Despair” by Hanif Abdurraqib in The New Yorker

“We open each meeting by asking a simple question: What is keeping you alive today? This allows us to revel in the sometimes small motions that get us to the Next Thing. Yes, I did not want to get out of bed this morning, but there was one single long shard of sunlight that stumbled in through a tear in my curtains, and the warmth of it hitting my arm got me to that first hour of living. There was my dog, who, on the mornings I do not want to get out of bed, will rest silently at my feet and wait for me to slowly emerge from under the covers, and seeing her reminds me that I do, in fact, have only one lifetime in which I can love this animal. As far as I know, we will love each other only here, for a while, and that is worth seeing what I can make out of a few hours, even when I’m wrecked with despair.”

4. “Chronic illness, wellness, and the politics of ‘identity’” by Rebecca Upton from Disability, Chronic Illness, & Culture

“They say we're making ourselves sick with our thoughts and the ways our experience with chronic illness shapes our identity.”

5. “Investigating Generics: They Say Their ADHD Meds Aren’t Working. They’re Not Imagining It” by Emma Yasinski from MedShadow Foundation

“Issues with ADHD drug variability aren’t just anecdotal. In February 2023, a team of researchers from Stanford University, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Valisure (an independent laboratory) acquired samples of methylphenidate (Ritalin) from 18 different manufacturers, all sourced from a single wholesaler. When they chemically analyzed the medications, they found notable differences in how the drugs dissolved, suggesting that medications intended to be identical were, in practice, delivering varying doses, especially among extended-release formulations.”

6. “I Tried Magic Mushrooms for My Mental Health. Here’s What Happened” by Robert Sanchez from 5280

“Psilocybin works like this: When ingested, the drug transforms into an active compound called psilocin that binds primarily to serotonin 5-HT2A receptors. These are the brain’s molecular regulators—gates that, when opened, can dissolve ego, alter perception, and expose the mind to experiences that often feel profound.”

7. “What I Learned About Endometriosis by Being a ‘Difficult Woman’” by Kristina Kasparian, Ph.D from BUST

“It wasn’t from a doctor that I first heard the word endometriosis. I heard it from a stranger I wouldn’t have met had I stepped into the bookstore just five minutes later. But even armed with this shiny term for what I suspected was going on with me, I couldn’t get much to change.”

8. “As Federal Health Grants Shrink, Memory Cafes Help Dementia Patients and Their Caregivers” by Lydia McFarlane, WVIA from KFF Health News

“The northeastern Pennsylvania memory cafe Kennedy attends is one of more than 600 around the country, according to Dementia Friendly America. The gatherings for people with cognitive impairment and their caregivers are relatively cheap and easy to run — often the only expense is a small rental fee for the space.”