Behavioral scientists say men who quietly lost their joy didn't lose it suddenly - it left in increments so small that no single day felt different from the one before, and by the time the absence was large enough to notice, the man had already rebuilt his entire daily life around the gap, and the structure that replaced the joy looks so much like normal that nobody standing outside it can see what's missing - Silicon Canals

Behavioral scientists say men who quietly lost their joy didn't lose it suddenly - it left in increments so small that no single day felt different from the one before, and by the time the absence was large enough to notice, the man had already rebuilt his entire daily life around the gap, and the structure that replaced the joy looks so much like normal that nobody standing outside it can see what's missing - Silicon Canals

Briefly

"Behavioral scientists have been studying emotional suppression for decades, and one of the most important findings came out of Stanford psychologist James Gross's research on how different people regulate emotion. His work found that people who habitually suppress their feelings don't just reduce the experience of negative emotions - they simultaneously reduce the experience of positive ones."

"For men raised the way my generation was raised - you push through, you don't complain, you handle it - that finding should land like cold water to the face. Because we've been told our whole lives that keeping it together is strength. Nobody mentioned that keeping it together has a tax, and that the tax comes due in joy."