Have you ever sat in your car in a grocery store parking lot, looked at the receipt, and felt something in your chest tighten?

You’re not alone. Roughly half of Americans say they struggle to afford their rent or mortgage. Food prices rose more than 3% over the past year and are forecast to keep climbing. Total household debt just hit a record $18.8 trillion.

The cost of daily life and the weight of debt are taking a toll on our mental health, especially in a moment when the term“affordability crisis” has entered the national lexicon.

Lindsay Bryan-Podvin is a financial therapist based in Ann Arbor, the founder of Mind Money Balance, and the author of “The Financial Anxiety Solution.” She joined host Robyn Vincent on The Metro to talk about how the financial pressures of this moment are affecting our mental health, and what we can do to feel better.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

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Five years ago drug overdoses were killing more than 3,000 people a year in Michigan. It was the worst the state had seen. Behind that number were parents, sons and daughters — people who’d been trying to get well for years.

That number is coming down. By the state’s early count, last year had the fewest overdose deaths in more than a decade.

But the people who do this work are cautious about it. Fewer deaths may not mean fewer people in danger. 

Addiction touches lives in different ways. For many of us, it might be indirectly. One analysis put the cost to Michigan last year at $38 billion: lost work, lost wages, courts, treatment. 

Now there’s money to fight this—millions from the settlement with the maker of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma. Detroit gets a share, and it’s deciding how to spend it now.

Ali Abazeed leads Detroit’s health department, and founded Dearborn’s before that. He spoke to The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent about what the city is doing to reduce overdose deaths and help residents be healthier.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

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When someone finally walks out of an abusive home, we tend to think of it as the end of the story. The door closes, the survivor is safe, the danger is behind them. The truth, though, is thornier. 

Advocates say leaving is when the violence often spikes, when the threats escalate, and when survivors are left to rebuild a sense of self after years of being told they had none.

It’s Mental Health Awareness Month, and on The Metro, we spend time on the parts of a story that are often left out, like what happens after the crisis.

JoJo Dries knows a lot about the aftermath. She runs On the Wings of Angels, which meets survivors at the moment when they’re ready to leave, with shelter, security, therapy, and a community willing to catch them.

Ahead of an event this month on the mental health impacts of domestic violence, Dries stopped by The Metro. She spoke with Ahlem Mahdhi, a fellow at WDET through the U.S. State Department’s Professional Fellows Program.

Editor’s Note: This conversation includes descriptions of abuse. If you need help, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is 800-799-7233, or you can text START to 88788.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

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For a long time the main focus of health was physical. It’s generally accepted that everyone should visit a doctor at least once a year. The same can’t be said about our mental health. But in many ways that’s beginning to change.

Mental Health Awareness Month is an opportunity to pay more attention. The increased awareness on mental health has shifted the way we think and talk about it—and it is literally altering the way an entire generation communicates with one another.

Terms you would typically only hear in therapy like “trauma,” “gaslighting” and “narcissist” are being used to refer to everyday experiences. Does the adoption of therapy terms in popular language help remove stigma around mental illness? Or does it dilute the terms’ original meaning?

Kristen Abraham, a professor and the chair of the psychology department at the University of Detroit Mercy, joined the show to explain how the mainstream use of therapy terms is changing our understanding of mental health.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

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Some public health researchers are turning to a new kind of prescription to address the problem. It’s called “social prescribing.” According to former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Americans are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic, and it’s a problem that only seems to be getting worse.

Around 40% of Americans ages 45 and up report being lonely, which puts them at higher risk for all kinds of serious health concerns like dementia and stroke. 

Some public health researchers are turning to a new kind of prescription to address the problem. It’s called “social prescribing.”

Dr. Mary Henningfield is the executive director of the Wisconsin Research and Education Network at the University of Wisconsin. She joined the show to discuss why is loneliness so common, why it is difficult for people to overcome, and how “social prescribing” can help the healthcare can system address loneliness, instead of only its negative consequences.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro