All based on research-backed psychology and ideas from therapy — How and why do we make ourselves more miserable than we need to be? Why do we make life so difficult without even noticing? Luckily, psychology can explain what’s going on, and therapy can help and advise. …

From the countless books that claim to help our lives get better, this is my list that tops them all. — Well, I got here in the end. I’m not anxious anymore. I’m making enough money writing to travel long-term, and I can cope with pretty much anything that comes my way. I’m, well, pretty happy. I wasn’t always. A decade of self-help was massively instrumental in getting me here. I’m…

Thailand briefly became the world’s most progressive cannabis country — Asia has some of the strictest cannabis laws in the world with some very harsh penalties. At the extreme end, in the Philippines, not so long ago thousands of people were being shot in the street in extrajudicial killings, even just for suspected use. …

And why a weird court ruling has just listed bees as a type of fish — Bees are in the news more than most insects because they’re incredibly important. If a recent court ruling is to believed, they’re a very important fish. But more on that later. First, an interesting incident occurred a few years ago when a queen bee found herself trapped in a car…

The American DEA makes a few dubious claims about several illegal drugs. Here are the claims alongside the contradictory science. — How accurate is drug information from the US government? The problem with getting our information on drugs from government sources is that they’ve been politicised for years, and information will always be spun in a way that suits the politics and the law. I wondered how this would translate to official information, and how much that information would conflict…

As more and more people turn to psychedelic healing, what’s actually going on deep inside? — What is it that causes magic mushrooms to help with depression and bring other wellbeing improvements? Why is it that users so often experience such life-changing new outlooks? The big picture is that they show valuable teachings and give us profound experiences that push us to change for the better…

A new study has revealed how cheaters change the framing of their behaviour to make it all seem okay — There are two kinds of cheaters: the kind who succumb to it once or twice, and the kind who do it over and over again, often in a deliberate attempt to do so. …

The app uses the same deliberate addictive process as slot machines — Back when I was single, I met up with a girl from a dating app after she invited me for a walk in the woods. She seemed quite normal until she told me what her job was. She worked in an abattoir killing the animals. As a veggie, that was…

They bring some very dark psychology that will let us watch others suffer while we feel nothing — Of all the names people call others, I consider a few slurs right the up there with the worst. Why? For two main reasons: they come with an image which is then applied to millions of people that it doesn’t logically apply to, and they dehumanise an entire group in…