How Healthy are Your Coping Mechanisms?

For this episode, a listener writes in and asks: is it a problem that I go shopping every time I get bad news or have a bad day? This listener isn’t alone - #primetherapy is a hashtag that trends on social media on a regular basis. So what gives? Why are humans constantly medicating and anaesthetizing with shopping, with social media, with TV, with exercise addiction, with food, with alcohol, gambling, drugs, and more? I respond to the listener question drawing on personal experience and on my expertise in a field of the humanities called affect theory. Affect theorists study human beings as animals that are constantly seeking promises of satisfaction. In what sorts of things do you seek satisfaction? Are they healthy? Can they ever be healthy? --------- To enter the weekly giveaway for a FREE book, write a review of the podcast on iTunes (http://stefaniruper.com/listen), take a screen shot of your review, then email it to [email protected]. Then you'll be PERMANENTLY entered into the drawing! Check out the list of books you can get @ http://stefaniruper.com/bookgiveaway. Guests for this show are carefully curated and vetted by a team of content experts to bring you nothing less than the most interesting, engaging, insightful, provocative guests out there. The host of Naked Humanity is Oxford PhD candidate in religion and science Stefani Ruper. *Subscribe on Youtube: http://bit.ly/2Y8fkfV Instagram: http://instagram.com/stefani.ruper Twitter: http://twitter.com/stefaniruper Facebook: http://facebook.com/stefaniruper Website: http://stefaniruper.com *Subscribe on a podcasting app: iTunes: https://apple.co/2JJM4Is Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2Ye2b9x Google Play: http://bit.ly/2Y1vXig