Longreads

An illustrated personal essay on what it feels like to suffer from depression:

"The beginning of my depression had been nothing but feelings, so the emotional deadening that followed was a welcome relief. I had always wanted to not give a fuck about anything. I viewed feelings as a weakness — annoying obstacles on my quest for total power over myself. And I finally didn't have to feel them anymore.

"But my experiences slowly flattened and blended together until it became obvious that there's a huge difference between not giving a fuck and not being able to give a fuck. Cognitively, you might know that different things are happening to you, but they don't feel very different."

Archival photos courtesy Gunars Elmuts; all other photos by Jonathan Weiskopf August 1990, St. Marks Place. Priscilla Forsyth, one month shy of her fourteenth birthday and just home from summer…

Lindquist stalks his prey on the icy sea. Photo: Michael Hanson

Janet Lynn Parker is a middle-aged elementary school art teacher from Arkansas. She graduated in 1991 from Arkansas State University with a degree in art education and $25,000 in student loan debt.…

Here’s one last exercise in democracy for 2012: a collection of the most popular magazine stories on the site this year, as determined by the combined clicks of the Internet electorate.…

Johnson City, Tennessee, is a long way from bustling, well-to-do Nashville, a five-hour trip by car. The man I've come to visit, Bryan Saunders, lives on the fourth floor of a housing project called…

By Virginia Hughes | November 22, 2012 | 30 Comments Anna Sumner’s craving for sleep began when she was an 18-year-old high school senior. She thought nothing of it. When it followed her to…

Image by John Gara/Buzzfeed Posted Nov 14, 2012 12:10am EST On the night of the South Carolina Republican primary in January, I sat near the front of a dark campaign press bus and listened to…

Modesto is a small California town that gains its livelihood from its shops and its farms. Beyond its few streets lies the walnut ranch where George Lucas was raised. The town has one cinema on its…