Author: Overcoming Adversity | Buteau’s Odyssey

The dose makes the poison. —Paracelsus, 1538 There are only a few molecules that humans consume that are both a nutrient and a drug. Coffee and alcohol are two excellent examples. The antioxidants in coffee offer many health benefits, while the caffeine, in sufficiently high doses, can be lethal. Obviously, dose matters. The same is true for alcohol. How Alcohol Affects the Body and Brain To start, let’s look at what alcohol does in the brain—particularly, how it interacts with three different neurotransmitters. First, at low doses, it enhances the action of the neurotransmitter GABA. Why does this matter? GABA…

When people think about trauma, they often focus on the event itself: a war, an assault, a serious accident, a natural disaster, or a sudden loss. But trauma is defined not only by what happened. It is also defined by what that experience disrupts inside a person. Many people say after trauma: I don`t feel safe anymore. I don`t trust people. I don’t feel like myself. I can’t make sense of what happened. These reactions are not random. They often reflect a deeper disruption in the psychological foundations that help people feel stable, connected, effective, respected, and oriented in life.…

Once upon a time there was a story people liked to tell about the future that went something like this: When technology will be good enough, life will become frictionless. The commute disappears. The tedious parts of work dissolve. Sweat and strain, bother and bottlenecks—all of it, automated away. What remains is only the part we enjoy. (But what is that part?) It is a seductive narrative. It is also a story about how to build an exquisitely comfortable kind of emptiness. Effort Is Part of Our Happiness’s DNA What separates people who crumble under failure from those who move…

If your mind never seems to shut off, it’s easy to assume you have anxiety—but that may not be the full story. This is especially true for women, who are more frequently diagnosed with anxiety in part because of the immense mental load they carry. Research from the Pew Research Center shows that women still take on a disproportionate share of household and caregiving responsibilities, even when working comparable hours to their partners. When your brain is constantly tracking schedules, anticipating needs, and managing details, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed. But for some women, this isn’t just about stress…

Four years ago, I saw “Sara” for a therapy intake. When asked what brought her in, she tearfully recounted that she had been using social media to watch videos about her interests, and videos started filtering in content related to being a late-diagnosed autistic adult. Wondering why these videos were showing up in her feed, she watched a few. As she watched, she had the realization that she was likely autistic. She had scheduled therapy with myself in order to learn more, and scheduled testing with a clinical psychologist, who gave her an autism diagnosis. While Sara was the first…

Is there any contemporary filmmaker with a more eclectic catalog than Ben Wheatley? His latest, Normal, is anything but that for the experimental Englishman. By teaming with “Action Pops Bob Odenkirk,” Wheatley takes a stab at small-town American exploitation, layered with mystery, egg rolls, and bloodshed. It’s a little Fargo, a dash of The Last Stand, and plenty of Hot Fuzz with a Midwestern accent. Crockpot hospitality gives way to intense shootouts that bring a community together in a despicable way, thanks to a charming yet chaotically carnage-laced screenplay from Derek Kolstad. Odenkirk stars as Ulysses, the interim sheriff of…

Team USA received criticism throughout the 2026 World Baseball Classic, including some opining that they didn’t show enough emotion for their country (e.g., Venezuela’s profound reaction to winning the tournament and the Dominican Republic’s infectious enthusiasm from pool play through their eventual semifinal-round loss to the United States). All that said, consider San Francisco Giants star right-hander Logan Webb “not a fan” of the negative notion surrounding Team USA.”I feel like there’s a narrative that we didn’t care. That’s complete b—s—,” Webb said about Team USA’s detractors on Thursday, according to The Mercury News. “I think we probably cared the most…

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We know more about creativity today than at any other time in history. This is the golden age of creativity research. Creativity research helps us solve pressing social problems, be more innovative at work, and live more fulfilling lives. Psychologists make new discoveries about creativity every year. Scientists aren’t the only people who study the world, but we have a special way of doing it. Other people who look at the world closely and write about it include newspaper reporters, anyone with a diary, and novelists. What makes psychology different is that we use rigorous methodologies that prevent the research…

This June, Mad Cave Studios will publish the first issue of Land of Never, a haunting new comic book series from writer Steve Orlando, with art and a main cover by Miguel Mora, colors by Fares Maese, lettering by Micah Myers, and a variant cover from Sebastián Píriz: “Blending psychological horror with crime-driven suspense, the series reframes a familiar childhood myth through the story of a father determined to uncover the truth behind his daughter’s disappearance.” Exclusively for Daily Dead readers, we have a look at the cover art and a preview of the first issue: Six months ago, Jim…