Opinion: Why parks should be a policy priority

By the time I turned 17, I had spent a couple of years battling night sweats, heart palpitations, insomnia, and a general sense of impending doom. I finally saw a psychiatrist, who said I had anxiety and gave me a long list of prescriptions.
I had heard stories from friends about developing dependencies on these drugs, and was generally adverse to medication, so I never went to pick them up. Instead, I found myself drawn to parks, spaces where a sense of calm would descend, and the verge of cris