I'm with you on this and I come from a fairly peaceful background. After Slumdog was over, I sat totally drained - angry, sad, exhausted - in the theater while people with happy, smiley faces did cartwheels out into the lobby.

My feeling is why watch this stuff when there is more than enough of it in real life.

I've never been able to tolerate any kind of meanness, torture, bad treatment of people and animals. For me it exemplifies that which is bad about human beings and what is wrong with the world. I think it is absolutely horrible what is on TV "these days" before 9 or 10 o'clock. Also, ads for later programs are scary and dark, very graphic. I also happen to think the sitcoms are obsessed with sex and I don't see how this is good for little kids.

I think its a sign of the lack of creativity and brilliance on the part of TV people - so they go for the cheap stuff. Lame!

I think you are absolutely dead on about the nutrition part Cary. This country is inhabited by a great number of people who are under the influence ... of junk food & lack of exercise. Teenagers who can't wake up in the morning, grumpy people, sad people, angry people, depressed people. I'm not saying eating better would fix all this, but it would help. Therapists and doctors need to embrace better nutrition as an important piece of treatment.

& Lamoyne, I hear you

Beautifully written today. Thank you!

I am finding this theme really interesting right now because of a few people in my life who are "dishonest". They are not stealing stuff, but they are lying about what they do and about who they are.

I agree with writers here who think you really should look into the source of your dishonesty. Is it coming up in other places in your life? Why did you think you were entitled to take something that didn't belong to you? I worry more about repeat offenses for you if you do not explore this issue with a therapist. It seems to me that stealing is just a symptom of something much larger and if you don't work on that, you will continue to have problems in this area. Maybe the other problems you had were related to being dishonest.

There is some work to be done here. That would probably make you feel better - having a plan for a future of truthfulness.

I don't think you ever "get over it" n the sense that "it" is no longer meaningful, painful and significant. Why would you want to? However, an emotionally paralyzing and anxiety-producing memory is not doing you any good. I've seen people who are perfectly willing to bask in someone else's glow but eventually this doesn't work. And based on how this memory has stopped you in your tracks, it sounds like you could be one of those people. You don't need to get over it, but you do need to work on building up a life that is satisfying in some way, building up a way of thinking that is comforting so that you are not being run ragged by memory. And work is definitely the right term Work as though your very breath depended upon it. Work harder than you have ever done. But necessary. Therapy, finding what to read that resonates, change your work, hobbies, interests. But you need to have in mind what your end result will be. What do you want? Work towards that. Good luck to you.

on a regular basis is THE most selfish thing you could do. Is that really what you want?

I'm not so sure this is always about self-esteem. I was raised in a fairly puritanical household. Work hard and play a little. Wen I was pregnant with my first child, women told me how hard/how much work it was to labor through childbirth. Well, I believed them! And I almost had that little baby on my living room floor thinking it was gonna get worse! Same thing with marriage/relationships - we constantly from hear that marriage is work. So some of us take that to heart and forget about the "but ..." part where it should also be fun, loving, good for us. Maybe this is self-esteem - I don't know. Just a thought.