Wellness Is Not the Same as Health
How the self-care industry sold us a feeling — and what to do instead
May 6, 2026
“Self-care is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation.”
I've been listening to a lot of podcasts lately that are asking the questions I ask in therapy every week. A recent episode of On With Kara Swisher — "Inside the Wellness Boom: Separating Scams From Science" — brought together journalist Amy Larocca, Katie Couric, and physician Dr. Jeffrey Swisher to do something I deeply appreciate: tell the truth about a $5.6 trillion industry that has gotten very good at selling us anxiety dressed up as empowerment.
Larocca's book, How to Be Well: Navigating Our Self-Care Epidemic, One Dubious Cure at a Time, captures it better than most: wellness didn't just become a product. It became a moral standard. And somewhere in there, caring for yourself stopped being a right and became a performance.
In my practice, I see this all the time.
💸 When "self-care" became a luxury item
There's a reason your Instagram feed is full of adaptogen lattes, infrared saunas, and $200 supplements with names you can't pronounce. The wellness industry isn't just responding to our desire to feel better — it's manufacturing that desire, and then selling us the cure.
Larocca traces how the beauty and fashion industries pivoted from selling thinness to selling "glow" — same goal, more inclusive language, same transaction. What was once a radical act of resistance, particularly for women and marginalized people who had long been excluded from mainstream medicine, got repackaged as a product line.
"I just wanted to feel better. I didn't realize how much money I was spending trying to feel like I was doing enough."
That's the trap. The wellness industry is extraordinarily good at monetizing the gap between how you feel and how you think you should feel.
🧠 What the psychology actually says
Here's what decades of research consistently finds: the foundations of psychological and physical wellbeing are not for sale.
Sleep. Movement. Connection. Meaning. Access to safe environments.
That's it. That's most of it.
This isn't a dismissal of every wellness practice that exists. Some complementary approaches have real evidence behind them. But the ones with the loudest marketing budgets are rarely the ones with the strongest science. And the ones with the strongest science — things like doing things that fill you up, getting consistent 7-9 hours of sleep nightly, socializing IRL, and values-clarification — don't have a product to sell you (Hayes et al., 2012; Walker, 2017).
What the wellness industry sells you instead is the feeling of doing something — which, it turns out, is psychologically very satisfying, at least briefly. Rituals create a sense of agency. And when you're anxious, overwhelmed, or unwell, agency feels like medicine.
It isn't. But it feels like it.
⚖️ The equity problem hiding in plain sight
The podcast conversation touched on something Larocca explores sharply in her book: wellness is not just expensive. It's stratified.
The people most likely to be pushed toward "wellness" as a substitute for healthcare are the same people most likely to be underserved by the actual healthcare system — women, BIPOC individuals, queer and trans people, people without adequate insurance or access to culturally competent providers.
When the system fails you, you look elsewhere. And wellness culture is right there, waiting, with clean branding and a payment plan.
This matters clinically. It matters ethically. And it's worth naming: the burden of being "well" has never been distributed equally, and the industry is not trying to fix that. It is trying to sell to it.
🔧 An ACT lens: values over optimization
In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, we talk a lot about the difference between living a valued life and living an optimized one. Wellness culture is deeply optimization-brained. More steps. Better gut health. Longer lifespan.
ACT asks a different question: What kind of person do you want to be? What matters to you — not to your biometrics?
A values-based approach to wellbeing asks you to identify what gives your life meaning and then take small, flexible actions in that direction — even in the presence of discomfort, imperfect sleep, or an unoptimized morning routine (Hayes et al., 2012).
You don't have to feel well to live well. That's not a motivational poster. That's the actual science.
Try this: Pick one thing this week that genuinely reflects a value you hold — not a health goal you've been told to have. Connection. Rest. Creativity. Movement because it brings you joy, not because you burned the calories. Notice what that feels like compared to doing something because the algorithm said so.
✦ Untrendy but True ✦
The most evidence-based wellness practices are mostly free and profoundly unglamorous.
Sleep enough. Move your body in ways that feel sustainable. Eat food that doesn't require a translator. Spend time with people who know you. Go to a real doctor when something's wrong.
Self-care was once a radical act — a reclaiming of the body in systems designed to deplete it. It still can be.
And you don't need to buy anything to get there.
🌱 For the Curious
📚 Books
How to Be Well: Navigating Our Self-Care Epidemic, One Dubious Cure at a Time — Amy Larocca (2025) — a sharp, funny, and well-reported look at how wellness became a $5.6 trillion industry
A Liberated Mind — Steven C. Hayes — the creator of ACT on psychological flexibility and what actually helps people live better
Why We Sleep — Matthew Walker — the definitive case for sleep as the most underrated health intervention we have
🎧 Podcasts
On With Kara Swisher — "Inside the Wellness Boom: Separating Scams From Science" (April 13, 2026) — the episode that sparked this post
Maintenance Phase — Aubrey Gordon & Michael Hobbes dismantle wellness myths with research and humor; I recommend start with their BMI episode
Your Brain on Facts — short, science-grounded episodes that translate health and psychology research without the hype
📹 Videos
"Battling Bad Science" — Ben Goldacre, TED Talk (~15 min) — how health evidence gets distorted, and how to spot it
"We Need to Rethink Exercise – The Workout Paradox" — Kurzgesagt (2024, ~13 min) — a science-based challenge to one of wellness culture's most profitable myths
References
Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (2012). Acceptance and commitment therapy: The process and practice of mindful change (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Larocca, A. (2025). How to be well: Navigating our self-care epidemic, one dubious cure at a time. Crown.
Walker, M. (2017). Why we sleep: Unlocking the power of sleep and dreams. Scribner.