New Years Roundup


Doc’s Thoughts

This is a bit of different weekly post. This one is a roundup of previous writing I’ve done around the New Year. But first, if you didn’t read the holiday posts on love, peace, and joy.

Last week, I talked about how curiosity can be the engine of change.

Turns out, I’ve written about New Years (and New Years adjacent) topics quite a bit. Rather than do another post, I thought I’d dust off the archive a bit. Here’s a bit of a round-up:

Happy Reading!

​
Love,

Doc

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Doc’s Thoughts

Every week, Dr. Justin Altschuler writes a post that provides new insight and perspective into the familiar parts of life, helping readers live a healthy, happy, meaningful life.

Read more from Doc’s Thoughts

Doc’s Thoughts When we love and care about someone, it is natural to want to help them—in fact, that is a part of love. We tell them they matter to us, offer kind words, give gifts, show up, listen, make dinner, sit beside them when things are hard. Love takes many forms, and much of what makes life worthwhile comes from these ordinary acts of caring. We also want to protect the people we love from suffering, to help them avoid the bad relationship, terrible decisions, and mistakes we can see...

Doc’s Thoughts In my work with people who use drugs, I often talk with people who are filled with regret, shame, and deep feelings of sadness about where their life is. One of the joys of my work is being a part of people moving from this place of unhappiness to a place of significantly more joy. This extends beyond just drug use. At heart, I am fairly optimistic, and believe in people’s ability to learn, to grow, and make peace with themselves. Bad endings While I hope this for everyone, I...

Doc’s Thoughts It is pretty easy to feel pessimistic about the future. We all have our own list of reasons: global warming, species extinction, AI, rising national debt, erosion of democratic norms, increasing authoritarianism, inequality. Looking at the world through that lens, it is not hard to understand why so many young people feel pessimistic and overwhelmed. There is plenty to be afraid of, and there are rational reasons to be fearful. But fear can also become the default lens through...