Keith Sakata, MD
@KeithSakata
Psychiatrist @ UCSF | Stanford Med | Fellow @ Scrub Capital | Sharing all things mental health and tech
THE REAL COST OF ADDICTION If you wanted to save the most lives per dollar in healthcare, you wouldn’t start with cancer. Or heart disease. You’d start with something bigger, deadlier, and routinely ignored: Addiction. Here’s why no one’s cracked it yet: 🧵
Loads of examples of inspiring people who carried depression and still kept going: • J.K. Rowling – Faced suicidal thoughts while writing Harry Potter. • Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson – Faced depression after losing his football career. • Jon Hamm – Struggled for years before…
Why are more people in therapy, on meds, and talking about mental health... yet rates of anxiety and depression keep rising? From 2019 to 2022: • Anxiety ↑ from 15.6% → 18.2% • Depression ↑ from 18.5% → 21.4% I have suspects, but curious to hear your thoughts.
It is so much better to be disliked for who you are than liked for who you are not.
Chasing dopamine by collecting insights feels productive. But doing > learning. Life teaches faster than any thread.
Men who actively process their stress expand their capacity to engage in the arena of life. But too many deny or mask their stress. And the problem then metastasizes into: • Anxiety • Addiction • Low mood • Feeling overclocked • Chronic tension • Compulsive porn •…
The Zero-Sum View Of Empathy.
x.com/BasedBeffJezos…
Cynics are cowards covering their inner weakness with performative detachment
Most mental health problems strike early, and each has its own peak window. If we want better outcomes, we need earlier detection, better prevention, and 24/7 access points.
