The value behind the fuck-its is the value we place in what really matters, beyond fleeting concerns — If you’ve ever had a case of the fuck-its, you know they can be quite deadly. You’ve reached the end of your rope, sick of everything, tired of people, and sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. It’s easy to get self-destructive when you have the fuck-its. …

If you’re addicted, even if you stop using the substance that changed you, you’ll look for other things (other substances, sex, shopping, relationships, rage, work, gambling, exercising, making deals, etc) to gratify you in the same way. This is called switching addictions. …

A Way Out From Behind the Mask — If you still don’t believe in yourself despite others believing in you. If you think they would see you’re a fraud if they only knew the truth. …

And You Should, Too — If you’re going to meet your feelings, the best feeling to meet first would be the one that can introduce you to the rest. It’s like when you go to a party. If you want to get to know everyone at the party, you should hang with the social butterfly…

You’re addicted. You’ve tried to stop, but for some reason, something keeps pulling you back to your addiction. What can you do, instead? There are a lot of things you could do to prevent relapse. One of them is to build a fence. Yes, a fence. …

Both the addict and the ones they harm are groomed by addiction. — It’s bad enough to know you’ve been hurt; but if you want to prevent it from happening again, there’s something even worse to think about. The one who hurt you might have groomed you to be a victim. By groomed, I mean the process that an offender uses to prepare…

Developing an Artistic Theory of Emotional Expression — You could see it coming as soon as you told your teenage daughter she couldn’t go to the mall with her friends. First, her face frowned. She looked as though some pressure was building inside. Then she erupted. I hate you, she roared. Then she stomped to her room, slammed…

The Problem With the Rat Park Experiment — A well-funded behavioral researcher once spared no expense to create a perfect environment for rats. No, this wasn’t a PETA scheme gone wild; it was an important study that could pay off handsomely if life was as simple as research. The beginning of the story is well known. You take…

You’ve told your doctor you’re anxious or in pain. You got a prescription for Atavan, Klonopin, Valium, or Xanax, if it was anxiety; if it was pain, you might’ve gotten a script for a narcotic like Percoset, Vicodin, Oxicotin, or Morphine. These will certainly take away your anxiety or pain…