Art Pharmacy Scripts Paint Sipping Over Prozac, America Not Ready
KEY POINTS
- â˘Traedana Odom, 35, overcame depression last December after doctors prescribed activities through Art Pharmacy.
- â˘Art Pharmacy, founded in 2022 by Chris Appleton in Georgia, now offers 35,000 art and social activities across nine states.
- â˘The UK leads social prescribing with 1.3 million people receiving such referrals and employing over 3,000 link workers.
- â˘AI companionship tech and social prescribing grow as responses to Americaâs loneliness crisis and mental health care shortages.
Meet Traedana Odom, a 35-year-old former hermit whose year of doom turned into 'who's that laughing?' after her doc, apparently tired of pill-pushing, handed her a prescription for a play and paint-and-sip classes via the Art Pharmacy. Founded in 2022 by Chris Appleton in Georgiaâyes, the Peach State is handing out coloring books like they're Xanaxâthe company now offers 35,000 artsy 'doses' across nine states, promising less depression and more accidental friendships. Meanwhile, the US tries to catch up with Britain, where 1.3 million people already get social prescriptions like gardening and knitting, while the US needs 6,200 mental health pros because only 26% of demand is met. Throw in AI necklaces spouted by Avi Schiffmann and Zuckerberg's lament about real friendships, and you get a cocktail of loneliness countered by paints, run clubs, and basically everything except just talking to each other.
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Forget Prozac, the new pharma sounds like your bored aunt's hobby list: knitting, poetry, and paint nights are now 'prescribed' medicine. Psychiatry meets Pinterest while America desperately tries to patch loneliness with wine and awkward finger painting.
Doctors used to hand out pills; now itâs paintbrushes and dance classes. If only cure-all came in a pottery wheel.
36,000 artistic 'doses' and AI robots for friends? Loneliness 2025 looks like a weird cocktail party with bots and brushes.
Source: Businessinsider | Published: 11/18/2025 | Author: Amanda Hoover
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