Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common
Don’t discount the weight of emotional trauma and the self-sabotaging habits it has the potential to engender.<p>Most people are slaves to their limbic systems.<p>Most people don’t have self-education or resources to seek the help they need to fix these underlying problems.<p>Society does them no favors. Media and advertising are designed to promote consumption. And not even healthy consumption.<p>The idea that we are black boxes with private worlds and perfect agency is being eroded by the empirical evidence that, at scale, we are ultimately manipulable.<p>I know because I wrestle with this constantly. My higher self knows what’s right and how I should spend my time and money. On a daily and minutely basis, my lower self vyes for control and often succeeds in taking the wheel. And I have to catch myself and recognize when my long term efforts are being subverted automatically and mechanistically.<p>I know that, over the years, my unaddressed early childhood traumas have compounded into deeply-ingrained habits of self-medicating.<p>It’s a constant struggle.<p>I am not surprised that there are huge numbers of people who struggle similarly and are not as successful as I am at managing this internal conflict.<p>edit: why is this article now flagged? :(