Imagine there is a toll, wherein if you give payment, you can buy peace. Handing it over prevents you from hearing harsh criticism or judgmental questions. It guarantees a fleeting nod of approval and keeps you safe from emotional harm. Now, imagine if this currency from which you make the payment is your food. Yes, the very food, whose purpose scientifically is fuel of the body. It is our most basic biological need, required to keep our organs functioning and our bodies alive. Yet, many...

Introversion is often the first explanation people reach for when they talk about feeling invisible. In therapy rooms, it is common to hear clients say something like, “Maybe this is just how introverts are,” as though the experience of not being noticed is an inevitable by-product of their temperament. But as a psychologist, I think this assumption deserves closer examination. The experience of feeling invisible does not fit neatly into conventional ideas of loneliness. What is missing is...

A lady recently told me, “I’m always distracted. I wish people talked at 2× speed.” She wasn’t exaggerating. She watches videos at double speed, listens to podcasts faster than they were meant to be heard, and finds ordinary conversations unbearably slow. Then she added, this impatience shows up most when she’s talking to relatives. That detail matters. Because when slowness becomes uncomfortable only in certain spaces, distraction often isn’t about attention at all. It’s about what slowing...