Why Relief Feels So Damn Good

Different forms of relief — from pain, or from the fretful anticipation wrapped up in a political election — look quite similar in the brain.

Markham Heid
Elemental
Published in
5 min readNov 7, 2020

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Illustration: Sophi Gullbrants

The Greek philosopher Epicurus famously described pleasure as the absence of pain. And, according to some scholars, Epicurus believed that the greatest form of pleasure comes from…

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Markham Heid
Elemental

I’m a frequent contributor at TIME, the New York Times, and other media orgs. I write mostly about health and science. I like long walks and the Grateful Dead.