Mental-Health

I spent three hours last night replaying a conversation from five years ago. The conversation: A technical decision I made that turned out to be wrong. What I was doing: “I should have seen this coming. Why didn’t I research more? Everyone probably thinks I’m incompetent. What if I make a similar mistake again? Am I even good at this?” Three hours. No answers. Just anxiety. This wasn’t reflection. This was rumination. ...

Most stories are about winning. Defeating the enemy. Conquering the challenge. Achieving the goal. But there’s a different kind of story emerging-one that’s quietly radical: Stories about healing. About restoration. About the slow, non-linear process of becoming whole again. Not conquest. Recovery. And these narratives are resonating deeply because they reflect something conquest narratives can’t: the actual shape of human healing. The Hero’s Journey vs. The Healing Journey Traditional Hero’s Journey: Call to adventure Trials and challenges Climactic confrontation Victory/transformation Return changed Structure: Linear, escalating, culminating in a decisive moment ...

Deeply Personal Current: Designing a Slow Morning Routine Dopamine Fasting 101 All Posts Upcycling for Beginners Designing a ‘Slow Morning’ Routine Before Opening Your Laptop For the first two years of working remotely, my morning routine looked like this: ...

Deeply Personal Current: Dopamine Fasting 101 Zero Waste on a Budget All Posts Next Dopamine Fasting 101: How to Reset Your Brain in a Hyper-Connected World My wife and I were sitting on the couch the other night, supposedly “relaxing” after dinner. ...

Deeply Personal Current: Analysis Paralysis The Uncanny Valley of Empathy All Posts Co-op Games Can Save Your Relationship Analysis Paralysis: The Psychology Behind Why We Can’t Make a Move My wife and I are experts at one thing: overthinking ourselves into complete paralysis. ...

Deeply Personal Current: The Uncanny Valley of Empathy Cooking with an Algorithm All Posts Analysis Paralysis The Uncanny Valley of Empathy: Why AI Therapists Feel ‘Almost’ Human I did something weird last month. ...

Brain Chemicals: The Neurotransmitters That Shape Your Reality You wake up feeling unmotivated. Coffee kicks in, and suddenly you’re ready to tackle your to-do list. An hour later, you’re riding a wave of focus. By afternoon, anxiety creeps in. Evening arrives, and you feel calm, content, even happy. What changed? Not your circumstances. Not your willpower. Your brain chemistry. Every thought, emotion, and behavior you experience is the result of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters communicating between billions of neurons. These molecules don’t just influence your mood-they determine how you perceive reality, make decisions, form memories, and experience pleasure or pain. ...

I deleted Twitter from my phone last Tuesday. Not because of the politics or the drama. Because I couldn’t stop comparing myself to people who seemed to be crushing it while I was struggling. Every time I opened the app: Someone raised a $50M Series B Someone hit $100K MRR on their SaaS Someone gave a keynote at a major conference Someone got acquired by Google Meanwhile, my startup was barely break-even, my side project had 47 users, and I’d just had a PR rejected for the third time. ...

Shane stands on the edge of a cliff. He’s drunk. He’s suicidal. He tells you he doesn’t see a point in living anymore. This is a farming game. And somehow, Stardew Valley handles this moment with more care, respect, and emotional intelligence than most “serious” narratives manage. How do you depict trauma-depression, addiction, grief-without: Exploiting it for shock value Romanticizing suffering Using it as lazy characterization Trivializing recovery Let’s explore how to write pain respectfully. ...