- Is the problem the substance you're addicted to, or that something controls you?
- When a homeless person asks for money, is giving cash the right response?
A 'chat confessional' on addictions: chocolate milk, daily gas-station stops for a breakfast sandwich, Karen's nail-polish shopping therapy, and whether the substance or the control matters. One host tells of giving a homeless man, Randy, the $7 in his pocket and trading prayer requests, sparking debate over giving cash versus doing more. The 'Book of Ben' mote-and-beam joke caps it.
More on Addiction
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Dear LFTP 1: the burned-out friend
- How do I approach a long friendship that has become one-sided and draining when the friend has anxiety, depression, OCD, narcissism, and a drinking problem?
Ben reads a letter from a listener burned out by a decade-long friendship with someone suffering anxiety, depression, OCD, narcissism, and a drinking problem who never asks how the listener is doing.
From No. 588 · hypokritēs
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Dear LFTP: husband's slot-machine addiction and a lost life's savings
- How should an 80-something wife respond when her husband's slot-machine addiction gambled away everything?
A letter from a woman in her eighties: her husband developed a slot-machine addiction, gambled away every asset from 58 years of marriage, and their son bailed them out as trustee of the land and home while doling out a tiny allowance.
From No. 581 · Silly Rabbit | Christianity, Culture, and Navigating Social Expectations
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Dear LFTP: dessert-free days, discipline, and soul over dirt
- How do I stop eating dessert on days I deemed dessert-free?
A listener allowed dessert only Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and can't stop on the other days. The hosts land on the simplest answer: you just stop; Dan's Atkins bars,…
From No. 581 · Silly Rabbit | Christianity, Culture, and Navigating Social Expectations
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Dear LFTP: AA member who witnessed a life-support withdrawal
- How do I come to terms with accidentally witnessing a fellow AA member's life-support withdrawal?
An AA member writes that while visiting a hospitalized fellow member with cookies, he arrived at the exact moment doctors withdrew life support and witnessed the family's raw grief; he now fears he intruded and caused harm.
From No. 568 · Like Jesus