At the Better Together Festival attendees are encouraged to doodle in notebooks or walk around.

Illustration by Eleanor Doughty

For a bumpy shuttle trip to the greater Together Festival grounds, we sat close to Courtney, a female we instinctively cast as “having it together.” With wide eyes, an exuberant laugh, while the kind of blond locks I’d bargain with God for, at 27 she was every thing I was not: a poised, upbeat woman would youn’t cry from the lavatory. Two moments of conversation unveiled a far more reality that is complicated. Courtney had been identified as having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in center college, anxiety and despair in twelfth grade, and ADHD simply five months before the event.