Seven signs your teenager might be struggling, read back by the man who wrote them. The adult version of that list runs to fourteen items and the first seven are the same seven. Chris Coulter on cycling that quietly stopped, four hours of sleep for years, the explanation waiting for any man in his fifties who goes quiet, and why recognizing something and admitting it applies to you are two different things.

I stopped drinking in August 2023 after working out it was making the depression worse. Then cannabis arrived, quietly and reasonably, first for sleep and eventually as something I told myself helped me write. It took two years and a decision about the business to see it. This is about what happens when a functional adult misreads his own state, and why that worries me about fifteen-year-olds.

I stopped marking my birthday for about fifteen years. Inside a five year stretch I lost a business, then a marriage, then my daughter, and somewhere in there the desire to live. What followed was about a decade of darkness I almost didn't get out of. This is what I understand now that I couldn't have understood then, including why the understanding arrives so much later than anyone tells you.

For most people, Father's Day is a celebration. For Chris Coulter, it ranks third behind the day he lost his daughter Maddie and her birthday. A reflection on grief, fatherhood, and what it means to keep showing up.

Grief does not arrive on anniversaries and leave the rest of the year alone. It arrives in aisle seven. Eleven years after losing his daughter Maddie, Chris Coulter writes about what it means to stop being surprised by it.

On what would’ve been Maddie’s 25th birthday, her father reflects on grief, presence, and the lasting legacy she left behind. This deeply personal tribute shares the birth of MentorWell, a program inspired by her life, and calls attention to the invisible burden of presenteeism many grieving parents carry in today’s workplaces.

grieving father

• workplace presenteeism

• teen mentorship program

• legacy after loss

• MentorWell tribute