Retroactive jealousy is an obsessional problem. It sits under the umbrella of obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD). Commonly, people will identify that they have become caught up in an obsessive cycle before they recognise it as part of retroactive jealousy. The … Read More
My girlfriends think I’m lucky having a husband who doesn’t want sex. It’s become a kind of joke when we get together. They don’t really understand why it bothers me, but it does. When we first got together we had … Read More
Near the end of Cormac McCarthy’s devastating novel, The Road (2006), the father and son duo who have traveled the post-apocalyptic landscape together, have to say goodbye to one another. The father is dying. The father tells the son ‘you … Read More
Bad cocaine stories tend to go in one direction: down There is a recognisable pattern that cocaine users go through, a negative spiral. As a user becomes more hooked on cocaine, as their addiction develops they go through various experiences. … Read More
“I developed a terrible drink problem. It ruined my relationships with my partner and with my family. For many years I battled back and forth with different ways of managing my alcohol problem. But it was only when I started … Read More
How old are our problems? Does thinking about our experience of primary socialisation help us find a way to live better? “I need help with my anxiety. I am getting really stressed about my relationship. I am worried about my … Read More
For as long as I can remember I have struggled to manage my emotions. Everything will be fine one moment, and then out of the blue something will go wrong. I will start to feel a deep sense of injustice … Read More
Pornography use can have a corrosive effect on both the user and on other people in the user’s life. Pornography like any addiction, isolates users. It is the isolation that can be very destructive. Pornography can draw users into a … Read More
You know sometimes I get these crazy ideas about things that may not really be there. Howard Hughes, The Aviator (2004) Do you suffer from unwelcome and intrusive thoughts? Do you feel guilty, or that you may have done things … Read More
What is meant when it is asserted that someone is mentally ill? In this essay I shall describe the main uses of the concept of mental illness, and I shall argue that this notion has outlived whatever cognitive usefulness it … Read More