When You Pay Your Bills and Still Destroy Your Life Functional addiction is one of the most dangerous forms of denial, because it comes with paperwork that looks like proof. The rent is paid. The kids are fed. The job still exists. The car still starts. The WhatsApps still get answered, at least during … Read moreFunctional Addiction

“We’ll See If It Gets Worse”, Families say it like they are being reasonable. We will see if it gets worse. We will wait. We will give them one more chance. We will monitor it. We will handle it at home. We will keep an eye on things. It sounds calm, measured, even loving. In … Read moreThe Most Dangerous Plan A Family Can Have

The Sentence That Shows Up in Every Crisis Call Almost every family says it at some point, we tried everything. They say it with anger, exhaustion, and a kind of disbelief that this can still be happening after all the fights, tears, prayers, promises, and money spent. They list the things they have done, long … Read moreThe Truth Is You Tried Comfort, Not Consequences

The Weekend Myth Lets People Pretend  Across South Africa there is a comfortable cultural script that protects heavy drinkers from self reflection. It starts with the phrase “I only drink on weekends”. It is delivered with a shrug, the tone of someone announcing a harmless hobby, as though limiting alcohol use to Fridays and Saturdays … Read moreThe Lie That Turns Social Drinking Into Addiction

Most families do not introduce screens with the intention of creating dependence or emotional distance. Screens usually arrive during moments of exhaustion, pressure, or overload, when a child is restless and a parent has nothing left to give. A device brings instant calm, noise drops, conflict pauses, and the household feels manageable again. This relief … Read moreThe Silent Trade Off Screens for Peace at Home

The Silent Grief of Watching Someone You Love Disappear There is no addiction that rips through families the way methamphetamine does. “Tik” has a way of hollowing out a person’s personality long before it destroys their body. Families talk about their loved one as if they’ve died, but are still walking around breathing. Parents describe … Read moreUnderstanding the Emotional Trauma of Loving a Tik Addict

We live in an era where everyone has become their own brand. We curate, post, and perform. We know our best angles, our audience, and our filters. But somewhere between the selfies and the soundbites, something shifted, the self became a show. We used to think narcissism belonged to a few, the vain, the arrogant, … Read moreThe Narcissism Epidemic, How Self-Obsession Became a Modern Survival Strategy

Loving someone with bipolar disorder isn’t like being in an ordinary relationship. It’s loving a person who feels life louder, faster, and deeper than most. It’s living with two realities, one where everything feels euphoric, passionate, and alive, and another where everything collapses into silence. You wake up next to the same person every day, … Read moreThe Ups and Downs of Living With a Bipolar Partner

Depression doesn’t always look like sadness. Sometimes it’s anger, silence, exhaustion, or the quiet withdrawal of someone who’s given up trying to be understood. And in South Africa, those signs are everywhere, in our workplaces, our homes, our schools, our taxi queues, our WhatsApp chats. We talk about depression now more than ever, but talking … Read moreDepression in South Africa, Why We’re Still Getting It Wrong

Pregnancy is supposed to be a time of new beginnings, a story of hope, care, and connection. But for thousands of South African women, it’s also a time of terror. Not because they don’t love the life growing inside them, but because they can’t stop using the substances destroying them both. Addiction doesn’t take a … Read moreThe Silent Crisis of Pregnancy and Addiction in South Africa