An Honest Word on Mental Health — and Why It Belongs Here
This weekend’s most-talked-about essay isn’t about markets at all. It’s a veteran journalist’s account of how a little-understood therapy helped pull him back from a breakdown in his mid-60s. We’re sharing it because the hardest financial decisions are made by people, not spreadsheets — and taking care of your head is part of taking care of your money.
Michael Waldholz · The Wall Street Journal · May 30-31, 2026 · Capital Wealth analysis by Sean Anees Saifi
Some of the most important planning happens between the ears.
A Quiet, Important Essay
In this weekend’s Review, the journalist Michael Waldholz writes openly about a period in his mid-60s when, after a divorce and overwhelming grief, he found himself in genuine crisis. What helped him recover was a trauma therapy called EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) — a treatment so unusual that even its practitioners admit they don’t fully understand why it works. His piece is honest, unsentimental, and worth your time.
We’re not therapists, and we won’t pretend to be. But we work with people through some of life’s biggest transitions, and Waldholz’s essay names something we see often but rarely discuss out loud.
Why a Financial Firm Is Writing About This
The biggest money mistakes we witness almost never come from bad math. They come from good people making decisions in the middle of a hard season — a divorce, the loss of a spouse, a frightening diagnosis, the disorienting first months of retirement. Stress narrows the view. Grief makes the urgent feel permanent. That’s precisely when portfolios get torched, policies get cashed in at the worst possible moment, and irreversible choices get made alone.
A huge part of what good planning actually does is simply this: it builds a structure and a steady second voice so that no one has to make life-altering financial decisions on their worst day.
What This Means For You
If you’re going through a hard stretch, the kindest financial advice we can give is unglamorous: don’t decide big things alone, and don’t decide them fast. Lean on the people you trust — family, a good therapist, and yes, an advisor who knows your situation. Peace of mind isn’t a soft benefit of a solid plan; for most people, it’s the entire point.
And take care of yourself first. The portfolio can wait a week. You matter more than the market does.
A Note
This piece touches on mental health and a personal crisis. If you or someone you care about is struggling, you don’t have to handle it alone — in the U.S., you can call or text 988 (the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) any time, day or night. Reaching out is a sign of strength, not weakness.
