WEBVTT
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I have had the same conversation in my office maybe six or more times this summer.
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Different clients, but the same story.
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Amber, my feed is full of conspiracy videos, hidden symbols, spiritual danger stuff, and conspiracies in the church, conspiracies in the government, and I feel like I have to watch it to protect my family, or some version of that.
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So I thought it was time that we all take a closer look at how doom scrolling may be fueling your anxiety, scrupulosity, and OCD.
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You just sit down because you want to watch World Cup highlights or Summer Olympic highlights.
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That's really all you wanted.
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But three videos later, the feed says maybe the opening ceremony was a Masonic ritual.
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And there's a part two.
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Watch before it gets taken down.
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You may not have even wanted to watch it, but something whispers that a serious Catholic has to know.
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That whisper, it can feel like faith and prudence, but it's not.
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Stay with me, and I'll prove to you it's anxiety.
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So since I've had this exact same conversation, it has to be something that other people are too.
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And so when I see patterns, I like to talk about it because it could be helpful to many of you.
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If you have anxiety or scrupulosity, I'm gonna make a good guess that in your algorithm, there are many conspiracy breakdowns, videos of hidden symbolism, content about spiritual danger, and that it's happening all summer long.
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Underneath every version of this sort of algorithm or content is this belief that I have to know this stuff so that I can protect myself and my family, so I can be in the know.
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So there won't be danger out there that I don't know about and sneaks up on me.
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And that instinct is good because it comes from love of your family and your faith.
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You want to guard people and the things that are important to you.
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And there's nothing wrong with that.
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The love is real, it's the strategy that's broken, and you may be starting to feel a little broken by it too.
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Here's why you can't just use your phone less or be on social media less.
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For most people, doom scrolling is about news, but for you, it may feel dressed up as or seriousness about your faith.
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It can look like devotion from the outside or being in the know or taking things seriously, but underneath there's a lot of fear and anxiety.
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So my promise to you is this that by the end of this episode, you will understand why I have to know is a phrase that's actually lying to you, and more importantly, what to do instead.
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Let me give you a reframe that may help.
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Many people think that the feed is an editor deciding what's important.
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So if something keeps appearing, then it must matter.
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It must be important for you.
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But the reality is your social media feed is like a mirror.
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It reflects your attention back to you, and it's nothing more.
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So to see why that matters for scrupulosity and anxiety in particular, you have to see how the whole machine actually works.
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And that's where I want to start.
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Your feed is not telling you something about the world, it's telling you something about you.
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I want to spend some real time here on purpose because this is where fear can start losing its grip.
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Let's talk about the machine first and then how it plugs into anxiety and scrupulosity.
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When you see the wiring, then the trick doesn't work as well, although we still have to be careful.
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Why is YouTube free?
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Why is Instagram free?
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Why is Facebook or any other social media free?
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Because you were never the customer.
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The advertisers are the customers.
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The product on this shelf is actually your attention and it's measured in minutes and clicks.
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Researchers who study this call it the attention economy.
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The feed is not a library, it's not a news service, it's a harvesting tool.
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The app was not built to inform you, it was built to keep you.
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Follow the money with me for 30 seconds because it really helps to explain everything that happens downstream.
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You open the app and the platform now holds something scarce, your attention.
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Behind the screen, advertisers bid in real-time auctions for the ad slots in your feed.
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The platform gets paid per view and per click.
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So a revenue is a function of one variable, how long you stay.
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And every design decision, every recommendation serves that one number.
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Every extra minute you scroll is inventory.
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You're not browsing a feed, you're stocking a shelf.
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While you're watching the feed, the feed is watching you back and it takes better notes than you do.
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It logs behavior, not your stated interest.
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Every pause, every replay, every video you finish at 1 a.m.
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What time of night your thumb slows down.
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Thousands of little signs build a working model of what moves you.
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This is what's important.
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The same profile that predicts which video holds you predicts which ads you land on to.
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And it knows what moves you better than you do.
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This is the most important slide in this whole section.
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The system has no category for true or false.
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It doesn't have categories for peace or panic.
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It has watch time, pauses, replays, and clicks.
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So when you hover on that symbolism video or conspiracy video with your stomach in a knot, the machine only logs one thing: interest.
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Your fear and your fascination and your anger produce identical data.
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You were terrified, but the machine or the algorithm writes down, she liked it.
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Give her more.
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It keeps her here.
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That's the whole tragedy of this whole thing.
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Want to know how much you're watching is actually your choice?
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YouTube itself said roughly 70% of what people watch comes from recommendations, not search, not subscriptions.
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So a full feed of conspiracy content is not a picture of what's out there.
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It's a picture of what the machine or the algorithm predicts about you.
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You think you're choosing videos, but mostly the videos are choosing you.
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So which content wins the auction for your attention?
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Here's where we have some good research.
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Marketing researchers studied what makes content spread.
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High arousal emotion always wins.
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Anger, anxiety, awe, but basely anger and anxiety.
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Calm content, nuanced content, true content often sit still.
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It's just not as interesting.
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Here's an important nuance though.
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The fear on purpose.
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It prefers whatever works.
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It's just that fear works, anger works.
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Being the remnant, the few people in the know works, which is why these conspiracy content videos are appealing.
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We want to be the only ones in the know.
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We want to be the ones who know the secret thing that other people don't.
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We want to be the ones who know where the danger is so we can protect ourselves and our family from it.
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But before you feel weak for falling for all of this, let me tell you why it works on literally everyone.
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Our brains have a negativity bias.
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Your brain's job is not to keep you happy, it's to keep you alive.
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Human brains hold on to threat information faster than good news.
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And that asymmetry has kept our ancestors alive.
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It's wiring, not weakness.
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It is far more dangerous to confuse a bush for a tiger than a tiger for a bush.
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Researchers tested this on 105,000 real headlines and found that negative words reliably increase clicks.
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So be gentle with yourself.
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Your normally wired human brain is facing an intelligent algorithm that has found the ancient lover.
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It doesn't mean your brain is weak.
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It's doing exactly what it's built to do.
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It's just that this machine or algorithm has industrialized the bait.
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No, let's put those two together.
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And conspiracy content widely described stops being mysterious.
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It's novelty, it's threatening, and it never resolves.
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The perfect attention cocktail for the negativity-biased brain.
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Engagement-ranked feeds consistently surface more emotionally charged content than chronological ones.
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A Berkeley team tracked eight million YouTube recommendations for over 15 months and documented a loop.
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Watch one, get offered more, and the offers escalate.
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It doesn't spread because it's true or important or real.
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Videos or ideas spread on social media because they hold attention.
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Those are very different things.
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But then the more that you see something coming from multiple people in multiple areas, the more your brain starts to believe maybe this is true.
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There's one more layer here, though, and it's one that is used in casinos.
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The slot machine creators figured it out first.
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Your feed runs on an intermittent variable reward.
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This is the same reinforcement schedule as a slot machine.
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Its unpredictable payoffs produce the most persistent and addictive behavior.
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This is decades-old behavioral psychology.
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If you give a mouse a lever and every time he hits the lever once, he gets food, or every time he hits the lever three times, he gets food, he'll do the thing, but not as long.
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But if sometimes he hits the lever two times and gets food, sometimes seven and gets food, sometimes a hundred and gets food, sometimes one and gets food, where the time between the reinforcement changes, this is intermittent reinforcement schedule and it is the most addictive.
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It's what slot machines use, but it's also what is baked into the algorithm.
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But for a viewer who struggles with scrupulosity or anxiety, the jackpot is certainty.
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The video that finally tells you everything you need to know so you can relax, or gives you the secret to the puzzle, or the danger that no one else is seeing, but now you do, that certainty is your jackpot.
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Here's where emotion and money start shaking hands.
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The feed will stir you up and then places ads inside the agitation because stirred up viewers keep watching and keep clicking.
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Notice what runs next to the fear content.
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Go ahead, pull out your Instagram and just start scrolling.
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And for each of the videos or each of the ads, write what you're supposed to feel.
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Just start making a list.
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You'll start to see some patterns.
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Supplements, security systems, survival gear, products that promise to resolve the exact unease that the content just created.
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Be measured on camera.
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I'm now I am not claiming a coordinated scheme.
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I'm just describing an incentive structure that has begun to work and in some ways has created itself.
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Fear creates a felt need, and a felt need is the easiest thing in the world to sell to.
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First, they rent your fear and then they sell you the remedy.
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It's the same transaction in different directions, though.
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Now, I do want to be careful not to trade one conspiracy thing for another.
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I'm not suggesting that there is a villain in the control room targeting Catholics with masionic or conspiracy content.
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It's much more simple than that.
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And honestly, a little bit more sobering.
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The machine or the algorithm is optimizing for revenue that has discovered the fear that holds your attention so that your fear gets fed.
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That is my clinical understanding of the research.
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And I stand behind that.
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It's not that someone hates you or someone's trying to hurt you.
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You're just profitable.
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And sometimes that's even worse.
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Now, let me give you the whole first section in a picture that I hope that you will remember at 11 p.m.
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tonight.
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The algorithm is like a vending machine that restocks whatever you flinched at first.
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If you paused on one strange video last June, then it's been restocking you that row ever since.
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Here's the translation: that is the algorithm.
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Now, why is this algorithm or machine so particularly dangerous for scrupulosity and anxiety?
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Messianic World Cup didn't find you because there's something real being revealed.
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It found you because you flinched, and then the algorithm took notes.
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Now, this is the part that can really land at home for people who struggle with scrupulosity and anxiety.
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Here's a quick definition for newcomers.
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Scrupulosity is an obsessive-compulsive pattern where the feared content is religious or moral rather than something we're more familiar with, like germs or health.
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It's different than being devout.
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It's different from a tender conscience.
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Scrupulosity runs on a very specific engine, and the feed is premium fuel for that.
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Clinicians have mapped this algorithm or engine.
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And I want you to see all four of the cylinders.
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Number one, intolerance for uncertainty.
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I can't rest until I'm sure.
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Number two, inflated responsibility.
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If something bad happens and I could prevent it, then that's on me.
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Number three, thought, action, fusion.
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Thinking it feels nearly as bad as doing it.
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And number four, reassurance seeking, checking, asking, researching, repeating.
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Hold these four in your mind because now let's look back at the machine or the algorithm that we just described.
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See where we're going here?
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This is the collision course that's at the center of this episode.
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Scrupulosity and anxiety at its core is about struggling with uncertainty.
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And the feed is an infinite uncertainty machine that keeps promising resolution.
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One more video from now.
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The condition, the anxiety, the scrupulosity demands certainty.
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And the machine, the algorithms, sells almost certainty, but forever.
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It never ends.
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And you pay in hours and in your peace.
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But you never get certainty or a surety because almost sure is actually the product that keeps you coming back.
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Now, under all of this scrolling, there's a fear underneath all of this scrolling.
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I have to know every dangerous situation so I can defend against it.
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This is threat monitoring.
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It is a safety behavior.
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Watching the ninth symbolism or conspiracy video, the same mechanism as checking the stove 14 times to make sure that it's off.
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The content is spiritual.
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The mechanism is anxiety.
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Anxiety alone.
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It's not discernment with a phone, it's checking.
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That's wearing the costume of discernment.
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But here's the truly cruelest part.
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One of the best replicated findings in anxiety research is this safety behaviors work for about a minute, but long term, they maintain the fear.
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This is because while you're monitoring for threat, your brain never runs the experiment that proves that the threat didn't come.
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And the checking actually blocks this learning of safety, this experience of safety that the threat didn't actually happen.
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The watching feels protective, but functionally, it preserves your attention to the platform.
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It keeps the fear fed and alive.
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Every video you watch to feel safe teaches your brain one lesson.
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We survived because we watched.
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Or we avoided this danger because we watched.
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And so you have to keep watching.
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The safety that this scrolling promises does not actually exist for three reasons.
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Number one, you can't verify any of it.
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You're building defenses against reports that you often can't confirm.
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Number two, knowing is not the same thing as controlling.
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Even if a symbol claim were true or a conspiracy were true.
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What does video nine let you actually do about it that you couldn't with video one?
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Number three, this is the one that has the real impact, though.
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You already possess the only fact that vigilance requires, that evil does exist.
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The church told you that at your baptism.
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The details are not important for us to know.
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Every possible expression in detail are not important for us to know.
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They just add anxiety, not safety.
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You can still respond.
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You can still respond after video one in the exact same way as after video 900, with all of the things that we already know: prayer, sacraments, staying in a state of grace.
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Everything we just walked through, Catholic tradition has planned for.
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Not the phones, of course, but the heart underneath them.
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Psychology describes the mechanism, but our church has understood this wound, this anxiety, this longing for certainty for centuries.
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Aquinas did not have a smartphone, but he does describe your feed, anyways.
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The desire to know is good.
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Aquinas says so.
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And then he shows you how this good thing can curl back on itself.
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The disordered version he calls curiositas, knowledge that pulls you from your actual duties, knowledge that pulls you from your actual duties, claims beyond your ability to evaluate so you fall into error and preoccupation with harmful things.
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That's from the Summa.
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Walk the three marks against the feed with me.
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The rosary you didn't pray because you had to watch part two.
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The symbol claims or the conspiracy claims that you have no reac no way to actually test or know, knowledge that serves, and the steady diet of darkness.
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The remedy is not ignorance.
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I'm not suggesting that we just don't think about that.
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It's it's what Aquinas calls studiositus, ordered study, knowledge that serves your actual life.
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He's describing the recommended feed all the way back in the 13th century.
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The church has seen this move before, and she has wisdom waiting.
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The catechism gets thirdly specific about the need to know.
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Order to feel safe.
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In paragraph 2115, it talks about divinization, the old temptation to secure the future by knowing it, putting oneself confidently into the hands of providence and giving up all unhealthy curiosity.
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The church looked at this impulse and has understood it in some ways a problem of trust or of the ability to tolerate uncertainty and uncertainty in life, but confidence in God's providence, it's not an information problem.
00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:42.880
So the catechism really under so surprisingly, the catechism totally gets our doom scrolling.
00:22:43.279 --> 00:22:45.039
Unhealthy curiosity.
00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:52.799
And its prescription is a type of trust that learns to tolerate the uncertainty of life.
00:22:53.119 --> 00:23:02.000
Paul actually writes a sentence that helps us with this whole question, and most of us haven't sat with it in this way before.
00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:07.759
Wise as to what is good and guileless to what is evil.
00:23:07.920 --> 00:23:09.680
Notice the asymmetry.
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:17.759
Deep expertise in the good, but deliberate non-expertise in the dark or evil.
00:23:18.079 --> 00:23:24.480
So something I tell my clients is this: you're not assigned to the intelligence desk.
00:23:24.799 --> 00:23:28.880
You are assigned to the goodness desk.
00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:33.359
An expert in the good, become an expert in the good.
00:23:33.599 --> 00:23:35.599
Stay a beginner in evil.
00:23:35.839 --> 00:23:38.720
That's the assignment for all of us in one verse.
00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:46.000
Now the objection that your anxiety might already be forming, because this is not my first rodeo.
00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:48.720
Doesn't Peter say to be watchful?
00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:50.000
He does.
00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:03.039
Your adversary, the devil, prowls like a roaring lion.
00:24:03.200 --> 00:24:05.920
But he finishes with verse 9.
00:24:06.240 --> 00:24:09.039
Resist him, firm in your faith.
00:24:09.279 --> 00:24:19.279
This says to us that vigilance is a posture, not a surveillance program, not a surveillance program that keeps us logged into the algorithm.
00:24:19.599 --> 00:24:22.319
Saint Ignatius also gives us a test.
00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:27.920
So I would invite you to run this test, honestly, in this context.
00:24:28.079 --> 00:24:34.400
In his Rules for Discernment, the enemy signatures agitation, obsessive turmoil, and loss of peace.
00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:40.240
So ask yourself, does this content claim to expose the enemy?
00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:47.759
So, this content that claims to expose the enemy's tactics, what does watching it produce inside of you?
00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:52.160
Peace or agitation, turmoil, and a loss of peace?
00:24:52.400 --> 00:25:03.359
The videos about the enemy's work are doing the enemy's work more reliably, and they're doing it with more reliability than whatever they claim to expose.
00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:07.359
Watch how the two threads of this channel meet in one place.
00:25:07.519 --> 00:25:16.079
Psychology says safety behavior, threat monitoring, it maintains the fear that it promises to relieve.
00:25:16.240 --> 00:25:25.440
And tradition says that curiosity, disordered trust, a heart trying to secure itself instead of resting in promise.
00:25:25.680 --> 00:25:37.680
But tradition calls it curiosity, a disordered trust, a heart trying to stay secure itself instead of resting in providence by learning to tolerate the uncertainty of everyday life.
00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:41.200
It really is the same type of wound.
00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:47.920
That's not me saying that people who have anxiety or scrupulosity simply don't trust God enough.
00:25:48.079 --> 00:25:50.720
That's not true, that's not fair.
00:25:50.880 --> 00:26:01.599
It's that they can't access trust in God because of the difficulty tolerating uncertainty, which is presented through their anxiety.
00:26:01.839 --> 00:26:15.839
Your brain and your soul are telling that they are both asking you to stop gripping and to start trusting by learning how to tolerate uncertainty.
00:26:16.079 --> 00:26:19.680
Okay, that is the diagnosis, so to speak.
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:23.119
Let's fix your feed and your evenings.
00:26:23.359 --> 00:26:24.799
I have four steps.
00:26:25.039 --> 00:26:26.720
You can do them all today.
00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:32.079
Name it, drop the research, retrain the feed, and run the church's protocol.
00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:37.920
You can't argue with the slot machine, but you can stand up from your seat and move away.
00:26:38.160 --> 00:26:38.720
Here's how.
00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:41.200
Number one, name the loop out loud.
00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:45.440
Step one costs you nothing and changes a whole lot downstream.
00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:53.920
The next time your thumb hovers and it feels like a duty to pull and refresh, say the truthing out loud.
00:26:54.079 --> 00:26:55.920
This is threat monitoring.
00:26:56.160 --> 00:26:57.680
This is not discernment.
00:26:58.079 --> 00:26:59.920
We aren't arguing with the fear here.
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:03.920
We're just refusing to believe its disguise.
00:27:04.079 --> 00:27:07.920
Your brain may need to hear this over and over, and that's okay.
00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:09.759
Anxiety can keep talking.
00:27:09.920 --> 00:27:14.000
It just doesn't get to keep talking unchallenged.
00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:16.400
Number two, the no research rule.
00:27:16.640 --> 00:27:18.480
Step two is the hard one.
00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:20.799
One sentence, then nothing else.
00:27:21.039 --> 00:27:21.920
Evil exists.
00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:23.680
I don't need to know the details.
00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:25.920
God holds the parts I can't see.
00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:30.880
Then, and I know exactly what I need to do to stay spiritually safe.
00:27:31.039 --> 00:27:39.519
Then no clicking, no checking, no one more video, no asking Reddit, no Googling again, no talking to someone to confirm that you're safe.
00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:41.519
Your anxiety might spike.
00:27:41.680 --> 00:27:42.880
You have to expect this.
00:27:43.039 --> 00:27:47.200
But remember that that spike is the loop dying or getting weaker.
00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:51.839
It's not proof that danger is rising.
00:27:52.079 --> 00:27:55.440
This is what dropping a compulsion feels like.
00:27:55.599 --> 00:27:57.039
It's very uncomfortable.
00:27:57.119 --> 00:28:02.319
But what it means is that we're saying something different about what the anxiety means.
00:28:02.559 --> 00:28:06.720
The anxiety doesn't mean danger, it means uncomfortableness.
00:28:06.880 --> 00:28:15.119
But the anxiety will quiet when you stop feeding it, not after it gets just one more video.
00:28:15.440 --> 00:28:19.119
And riding the wave is how we start weakening these loops.
00:28:19.279 --> 00:28:21.039
Step three, retrain the machine.
00:28:21.200 --> 00:28:25.839
Here's the flip side, though, that should really encourage you.
00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:30.559
The machine that learns your fear can actually learn peace.
00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:32.720
Remember that it reads behavior.
00:28:32.799 --> 00:28:34.559
So behave on purpose.
00:28:34.880 --> 00:28:40.559
Tap not interested or don't recommend that channel on the fear bait.
00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:44.079
Don't do any hate watching that tells the machine.
00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:47.039
The machine can't tell anger from love.
00:28:47.359 --> 00:28:49.279
It's only the minutes that count.
00:28:49.519 --> 00:28:51.759
Feed it with good deliberately.
00:28:51.920 --> 00:28:55.279
Watch, like save what you want more of.
00:28:55.519 --> 00:28:57.599
Give it a couple of weeks.
00:28:57.839 --> 00:28:59.759
And then also Philippians 4.8.
00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:03.759
Turns out to be an algorithmic strategy.
00:29:03.920 --> 00:29:07.440
Whatever is true, honorable, just think on these things.
00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:08.240
So St.
00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:12.319
Paul actually wrote a content strategy of sort 2,000 years earlier.
00:29:12.559 --> 00:29:14.799
Feed the machine the good and it will learn.
00:29:14.960 --> 00:29:18.079
And here's step four: run the church's actual protocol.
00:29:18.319 --> 00:29:24.480
This is what the church has been saying that we need to do to combat evil for 2,000 years.
00:29:24.720 --> 00:29:26.720
Renew your baptismal promises.
00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:32.400
The words that are set over you, I renounce Satan, all his works, and all of his empty promises.
00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:36.240
Use the sacraments, Eucharist, regular confession, the St.
00:29:36.400 --> 00:29:37.759
Michael prayer, if it helps.
00:29:37.920 --> 00:29:39.839
Then point out this list to your brain.
00:29:40.079 --> 00:29:45.200
Nowhere does the church ask you to gather intelligence about evil.
00:29:45.359 --> 00:29:50.799
There are no saints that became saints or canonized because of their expose research.
00:29:50.960 --> 00:29:55.839
It was because of how they lived their lives and how they loved the Lord.
00:29:56.079 --> 00:30:05.759
The protocol is trust by learning to tolerate uncertainty, sacraments, and resistance, not more information.
00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:09.359
Now, there may be two objections out there.
00:30:09.759 --> 00:30:11.519
So let's talk about them.
00:30:11.759 --> 00:30:13.039
They're good questions.
00:30:13.279 --> 00:30:14.559
Isn't this vigilant?
00:30:14.720 --> 00:30:16.480
Isn't vigilance a virtue?
00:30:16.720 --> 00:30:17.200
Yes.
00:30:17.519 --> 00:30:21.440
Prudence watches, but anxiety surveils.
00:30:21.680 --> 00:30:22.720
There's a difference.
00:30:22.960 --> 00:30:24.559
The test is in the fruit.
00:30:24.720 --> 00:30:30.960
Does this bring me peace and readiness or agitation and compulsion and a loss of peace?
00:30:31.200 --> 00:30:34.799
And then the other objection is but isn't some of this real?
00:30:35.519 --> 00:30:36.160
Sure.
00:30:36.480 --> 00:30:38.640
Some evil is absolutely real.
00:30:38.960 --> 00:30:48.240
And that reality is fully covered by the fact that you are baptized, that you regularly interface with the sacraments.
00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:51.359
The question is not whether evil is real.
00:30:51.599 --> 00:30:55.599
The question is whether the 14th video changes your defenses.
00:30:55.839 --> 00:30:57.279
And it doesn't.
00:30:57.519 --> 00:31:07.599
And for many of these topics, as we mentioned before, we really don't have a way to know if this particular thing that is evil is real.
00:31:07.759 --> 00:31:12.160
It's enough to know that evil is real and to do what the church has told us.
00:31:12.480 --> 00:31:16.400
Okay, let's review, put it in your pocket so you're ready to go.
00:31:16.640 --> 00:31:23.920
Remember that the feed is a business, your attention is the product, and your emotional wiring is how it gets harvested.
00:31:24.160 --> 00:31:27.599
I have to know every danger is threat monitoring.
00:31:27.839 --> 00:31:30.000
It's not prudence.
00:31:30.240 --> 00:31:34.720
We cannot verify, cannot control, and do not need it.
00:31:34.960 --> 00:31:40.960
Aquinas, the catechism, and Paul all point us to one same direction.
00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:49.039
Gain expertise in the good, trust for the rest, and be think on what is good, resist what is evil.
00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:58.880
If we can name this loop and how it works, stop the research, retrain the feed, and run the church's protocol, you are good to go.
00:31:59.039 --> 00:32:04.000
There's four moves, and you can do all of them tonight, right now, right here.
00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:07.039
None of them requires watching anything else.
00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:09.039
So this is what I want to leave you with.
00:32:09.279 --> 00:32:21.920
Some July evening this month, you're in the kitchen, phone in hand, full feed of what they don't want you to see, what they're trying to cover up, the conspiracy they're glad you don't know about.
00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:23.519
You can put that down.
00:32:23.759 --> 00:32:34.799
You can put it down, not because we have to be certain that it's fake or real, but because safety doesn't come from knowing whether it is.
00:32:35.039 --> 00:32:39.359
The father doesn't ask you to out-research the enemy.
00:32:39.599 --> 00:32:41.680
He asks for our trust.
00:32:41.920 --> 00:32:43.519
That's not naivety.
00:32:43.920 --> 00:32:53.440
It is a strategy which requires us being able to tolerate uncertainty, which requires us to manage our anxiety.
00:32:53.599 --> 00:33:04.000
Now, if you want to learn more about that, just know that we have an online course called Freedom from Scrupulosity and Intrusive Thoughts, a Catholic Educational Approach.
00:33:04.160 --> 00:33:07.519
I put everything that I know about scrupulosity into this course.
00:33:07.599 --> 00:33:13.200
And there's hours of videos and several hundred-page workbook that so many people have found helpful.
00:33:13.279 --> 00:33:16.000
I'll put a link if you want to go further.
00:33:16.240 --> 00:33:22.160
I also have a free summer scroll reset PDF linked below.
00:33:22.319 --> 00:33:24.240
So take care of yourself this week.
00:33:24.480 --> 00:33:31.279
And remember, there's always room for you and your doom scrolling, but also your piece on the Catholic Couch.
00:33:31.359 --> 00:33:32.880
I'll see you next time.
00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:06.719
I have had the same conversation in my office maybe six or more times this summer.
00:00:06.959 --> 00:00:09.119
Different clients, but the same story.
00:00:09.439 --> 00:00:28.719
Amber, my feed is full of conspiracy videos, hidden symbols, spiritual danger stuff, and conspiracies in the church, conspiracies in the government, and I feel like I have to watch it to protect my family, or some version of that.
00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:40.880
So I thought it was time that we all take a closer look at how doom scrolling may be fueling your anxiety, scrupulosity, and OCD.
00:01:02.799 --> 00:01:08.400
You just sit down because you want to watch World Cup highlights or Summer Olympic highlights.
00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:10.079
That's really all you wanted.
00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:17.840
But three videos later, the feed says maybe the opening ceremony was a Masonic ritual.
00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:19.359
And there's a part two.
00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:21.840
Watch before it gets taken down.
00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:29.920
You may not have even wanted to watch it, but something whispers that a serious Catholic has to know.
00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:35.439
That whisper, it can feel like faith and prudence, but it's not.
00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:39.680
Stay with me, and I'll prove to you it's anxiety.
00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:45.280
So since I've had this exact same conversation, it has to be something that other people are too.
00:01:45.439 --> 00:01:50.879
And so when I see patterns, I like to talk about it because it could be helpful to many of you.
00:01:51.120 --> 00:02:07.760
If you have anxiety or scrupulosity, I'm gonna make a good guess that in your algorithm, there are many conspiracy breakdowns, videos of hidden symbolism, content about spiritual danger, and that it's happening all summer long.
00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:20.240
Underneath every version of this sort of algorithm or content is this belief that I have to know this stuff so that I can protect myself and my family, so I can be in the know.
00:02:20.479 --> 00:02:26.080
So there won't be danger out there that I don't know about and sneaks up on me.
00:02:26.319 --> 00:02:32.240
And that instinct is good because it comes from love of your family and your faith.
00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:36.800
You want to guard people and the things that are important to you.
00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:39.280
And there's nothing wrong with that.
00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:47.759
The love is real, it's the strategy that's broken, and you may be starting to feel a little broken by it too.
00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:55.840
Here's why you can't just use your phone less or be on social media less.
00:02:56.159 --> 00:03:06.479
For most people, doom scrolling is about news, but for you, it may feel dressed up as or seriousness about your faith.
00:03:06.639 --> 00:03:16.479
It can look like devotion from the outside or being in the know or taking things seriously, but underneath there's a lot of fear and anxiety.
00:03:16.639 --> 00:03:28.479
So my promise to you is this that by the end of this episode, you will understand why I have to know is a phrase that's actually lying to you, and more importantly, what to do instead.
00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:31.759
Let me give you a reframe that may help.
00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:36.960
Many people think that the feed is an editor deciding what's important.
00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:41.039
So if something keeps appearing, then it must matter.
00:03:41.199 --> 00:03:43.199
It must be important for you.
00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:48.479
But the reality is your social media feed is like a mirror.
00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:53.360
It reflects your attention back to you, and it's nothing more.
00:03:53.680 --> 00:04:03.039
So to see why that matters for scrupulosity and anxiety in particular, you have to see how the whole machine actually works.
00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:05.360
And that's where I want to start.
00:04:05.599 --> 00:04:10.960
Your feed is not telling you something about the world, it's telling you something about you.
00:04:11.199 --> 00:04:19.839
I want to spend some real time here on purpose because this is where fear can start losing its grip.
00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:26.079
Let's talk about the machine first and then how it plugs into anxiety and scrupulosity.
00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:33.439
When you see the wiring, then the trick doesn't work as well, although we still have to be careful.
00:04:33.759 --> 00:04:36.319
Why is YouTube free?
00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:39.120
Why is Instagram free?
00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:43.199
Why is Facebook or any other social media free?
00:04:43.519 --> 00:04:47.279
Because you were never the customer.
00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:49.839
The advertisers are the customers.
00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:56.959
The product on this shelf is actually your attention and it's measured in minutes and clicks.
00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:02.000
Researchers who study this call it the attention economy.
00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:08.000
The feed is not a library, it's not a news service, it's a harvesting tool.
00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:12.720
The app was not built to inform you, it was built to keep you.
00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:20.560
Follow the money with me for 30 seconds because it really helps to explain everything that happens downstream.
00:05:20.879 --> 00:05:27.120
You open the app and the platform now holds something scarce, your attention.
00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:34.560
Behind the screen, advertisers bid in real-time auctions for the ad slots in your feed.
00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:38.639
The platform gets paid per view and per click.
00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:45.680
So a revenue is a function of one variable, how long you stay.
00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:50.959
And every design decision, every recommendation serves that one number.
00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:54.720
Every extra minute you scroll is inventory.
00:05:54.959 --> 00:05:58.240
You're not browsing a feed, you're stocking a shelf.
00:05:58.480 --> 00:06:04.879
While you're watching the feed, the feed is watching you back and it takes better notes than you do.
00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:08.959
It logs behavior, not your stated interest.
00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:13.439
Every pause, every replay, every video you finish at 1 a.m.
00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:16.319
What time of night your thumb slows down.
00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:21.120
Thousands of little signs build a working model of what moves you.
00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:22.480
This is what's important.
00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:29.920
The same profile that predicts which video holds you predicts which ads you land on to.
00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:33.920
And it knows what moves you better than you do.
00:06:34.240 --> 00:06:38.560
This is the most important slide in this whole section.
00:06:38.879 --> 00:06:43.199
The system has no category for true or false.
00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:46.959
It doesn't have categories for peace or panic.
00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:51.279
It has watch time, pauses, replays, and clicks.
00:06:51.600 --> 00:07:04.240
So when you hover on that symbolism video or conspiracy video with your stomach in a knot, the machine only logs one thing: interest.
00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:10.079
Your fear and your fascination and your anger produce identical data.
00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:15.279
You were terrified, but the machine or the algorithm writes down, she liked it.
00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:16.240
Give her more.
00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:17.519
It keeps her here.
00:07:17.759 --> 00:07:20.480
That's the whole tragedy of this whole thing.
00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:24.560
Want to know how much you're watching is actually your choice?
00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:33.519
YouTube itself said roughly 70% of what people watch comes from recommendations, not search, not subscriptions.
00:07:33.839 --> 00:07:40.879
So a full feed of conspiracy content is not a picture of what's out there.
00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:45.920
It's a picture of what the machine or the algorithm predicts about you.
00:07:46.399 --> 00:07:51.040
You think you're choosing videos, but mostly the videos are choosing you.
00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:55.279
So which content wins the auction for your attention?
00:07:55.519 --> 00:07:58.160
Here's where we have some good research.
00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:02.639
Marketing researchers studied what makes content spread.
00:08:03.360 --> 00:08:06.560
High arousal emotion always wins.
00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:10.879
Anger, anxiety, awe, but basely anger and anxiety.
00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:18.399
Calm content, nuanced content, true content often sit still.
00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:20.000
It's just not as interesting.
00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:22.000
Here's an important nuance though.
00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:23.519
The fear on purpose.
00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:25.680
It prefers whatever works.
00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:28.959
It's just that fear works, anger works.
00:08:29.120 --> 00:08:39.279
Being the remnant, the few people in the know works, which is why these conspiracy content videos are appealing.
00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:42.240
We want to be the only ones in the know.
00:08:42.399 --> 00:08:46.080
We want to be the ones who know the secret thing that other people don't.
00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:52.000
We want to be the ones who know where the danger is so we can protect ourselves and our family from it.
00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:58.399
But before you feel weak for falling for all of this, let me tell you why it works on literally everyone.
00:08:58.639 --> 00:09:00.799
Our brains have a negativity bias.
00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:04.879
Your brain's job is not to keep you happy, it's to keep you alive.
00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:10.080
Human brains hold on to threat information faster than good news.
00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:14.799
And that asymmetry has kept our ancestors alive.
00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:17.759
It's wiring, not weakness.
00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:24.559
It is far more dangerous to confuse a bush for a tiger than a tiger for a bush.
00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:34.960
Researchers tested this on 105,000 real headlines and found that negative words reliably increase clicks.
00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:36.720
So be gentle with yourself.
00:09:36.879 --> 00:09:44.480
Your normally wired human brain is facing an intelligent algorithm that has found the ancient lover.
00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:47.360
It doesn't mean your brain is weak.
00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:50.159
It's doing exactly what it's built to do.
00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:55.039
It's just that this machine or algorithm has industrialized the bait.
00:09:55.279 --> 00:09:58.080
No, let's put those two together.
00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:03.279
And conspiracy content widely described stops being mysterious.
00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:07.200
It's novelty, it's threatening, and it never resolves.
00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:12.240
The perfect attention cocktail for the negativity-biased brain.
00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:21.200
Engagement-ranked feeds consistently surface more emotionally charged content than chronological ones.
00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:29.600
A Berkeley team tracked eight million YouTube recommendations for over 15 months and documented a loop.
00:10:29.919 --> 00:10:34.480
Watch one, get offered more, and the offers escalate.
00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:40.480
It doesn't spread because it's true or important or real.
00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:47.919
Videos or ideas spread on social media because they hold attention.
00:10:48.159 --> 00:10:50.399
Those are very different things.
00:10:50.639 --> 00:11:00.960
But then the more that you see something coming from multiple people in multiple areas, the more your brain starts to believe maybe this is true.
00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:06.960
There's one more layer here, though, and it's one that is used in casinos.
00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:10.159
The slot machine creators figured it out first.
00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:15.279
Your feed runs on an intermittent variable reward.
00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:19.120
This is the same reinforcement schedule as a slot machine.
00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:24.159
Its unpredictable payoffs produce the most persistent and addictive behavior.
00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:26.960
This is decades-old behavioral psychology.
00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:38.639
If you give a mouse a lever and every time he hits the lever once, he gets food, or every time he hits the lever three times, he gets food, he'll do the thing, but not as long.
00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:56.000
But if sometimes he hits the lever two times and gets food, sometimes seven and gets food, sometimes a hundred and gets food, sometimes one and gets food, where the time between the reinforcement changes, this is intermittent reinforcement schedule and it is the most addictive.
00:11:56.159 --> 00:12:01.360
It's what slot machines use, but it's also what is baked into the algorithm.
00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:09.840
But for a viewer who struggles with scrupulosity or anxiety, the jackpot is certainty.
00:12:10.159 --> 00:12:29.519
The video that finally tells you everything you need to know so you can relax, or gives you the secret to the puzzle, or the danger that no one else is seeing, but now you do, that certainty is your jackpot.
00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:33.440
Here's where emotion and money start shaking hands.
00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:44.000
The feed will stir you up and then places ads inside the agitation because stirred up viewers keep watching and keep clicking.
00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:47.440
Notice what runs next to the fear content.
00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:51.519
Go ahead, pull out your Instagram and just start scrolling.
00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:57.039
And for each of the videos or each of the ads, write what you're supposed to feel.
00:12:57.200 --> 00:12:58.960
Just start making a list.
00:12:59.200 --> 00:13:01.120
You'll start to see some patterns.
00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:11.840
Supplements, security systems, survival gear, products that promise to resolve the exact unease that the content just created.
00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:13.679
Be measured on camera.
00:13:13.919 --> 00:13:17.919
I'm now I am not claiming a coordinated scheme.
00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:25.919
I'm just describing an incentive structure that has begun to work and in some ways has created itself.
00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:31.279
Fear creates a felt need, and a felt need is the easiest thing in the world to sell to.
00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:35.519
First, they rent your fear and then they sell you the remedy.
00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:39.039
It's the same transaction in different directions, though.
00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:43.600
Now, I do want to be careful not to trade one conspiracy thing for another.
00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:52.480
I'm not suggesting that there is a villain in the control room targeting Catholics with masionic or conspiracy content.
00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:55.519
It's much more simple than that.
00:13:55.759 --> 00:13:57.919
And honestly, a little bit more sobering.
00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:07.759
The machine or the algorithm is optimizing for revenue that has discovered the fear that holds your attention so that your fear gets fed.
00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:11.039
That is my clinical understanding of the research.
00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:13.120
And I stand behind that.
00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:17.679
It's not that someone hates you or someone's trying to hurt you.
00:14:17.919 --> 00:14:19.440
You're just profitable.
00:14:19.679 --> 00:14:22.879
And sometimes that's even worse.
00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:29.840
Now, let me give you the whole first section in a picture that I hope that you will remember at 11 p.m.
00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:30.480
tonight.
00:14:30.720 --> 00:14:36.879
The algorithm is like a vending machine that restocks whatever you flinched at first.
00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:45.039
If you paused on one strange video last June, then it's been restocking you that row ever since.
00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:48.960
Here's the translation: that is the algorithm.
00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:56.320
Now, why is this algorithm or machine so particularly dangerous for scrupulosity and anxiety?
00:14:56.559 --> 00:15:03.200
Messianic World Cup didn't find you because there's something real being revealed.
00:15:03.360 --> 00:15:07.600
It found you because you flinched, and then the algorithm took notes.
00:15:07.840 --> 00:15:15.200
Now, this is the part that can really land at home for people who struggle with scrupulosity and anxiety.
00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:17.840
Here's a quick definition for newcomers.
00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:29.840
Scrupulosity is an obsessive-compulsive pattern where the feared content is religious or moral rather than something we're more familiar with, like germs or health.
00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:31.759
It's different than being devout.
00:15:31.919 --> 00:15:33.919
It's different from a tender conscience.
00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:41.519
Scrupulosity runs on a very specific engine, and the feed is premium fuel for that.
00:15:41.679 --> 00:15:46.080
Clinicians have mapped this algorithm or engine.
00:15:46.639 --> 00:15:50.399
And I want you to see all four of the cylinders.
00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:53.200
Number one, intolerance for uncertainty.
00:15:53.360 --> 00:15:55.039
I can't rest until I'm sure.
00:15:55.200 --> 00:15:57.759
Number two, inflated responsibility.
00:15:57.919 --> 00:16:01.759
If something bad happens and I could prevent it, then that's on me.
00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:04.240
Number three, thought, action, fusion.
00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:07.519
Thinking it feels nearly as bad as doing it.
00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:12.879
And number four, reassurance seeking, checking, asking, researching, repeating.
00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:20.240
Hold these four in your mind because now let's look back at the machine or the algorithm that we just described.
00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:21.759
See where we're going here?
00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:26.159
This is the collision course that's at the center of this episode.
00:16:26.399 --> 00:16:32.720
Scrupulosity and anxiety at its core is about struggling with uncertainty.
00:16:32.960 --> 00:16:40.720
And the feed is an infinite uncertainty machine that keeps promising resolution.
00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:42.480
One more video from now.
00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:47.279
The condition, the anxiety, the scrupulosity demands certainty.
00:16:47.440 --> 00:16:53.120
And the machine, the algorithms, sells almost certainty, but forever.
00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:54.559
It never ends.
00:16:54.799 --> 00:16:59.120
And you pay in hours and in your peace.
00:16:59.519 --> 00:17:10.319
But you never get certainty or a surety because almost sure is actually the product that keeps you coming back.
00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:16.720
Now, under all of this scrolling, there's a fear underneath all of this scrolling.
00:17:17.119 --> 00:17:21.440
I have to know every dangerous situation so I can defend against it.
00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:24.319
This is threat monitoring.
00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:26.799
It is a safety behavior.
00:17:27.119 --> 00:17:37.680
Watching the ninth symbolism or conspiracy video, the same mechanism as checking the stove 14 times to make sure that it's off.
00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:39.839
The content is spiritual.
00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:42.400
The mechanism is anxiety.
00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:44.000
Anxiety alone.
00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:48.160
It's not discernment with a phone, it's checking.
00:17:48.319 --> 00:17:51.039
That's wearing the costume of discernment.
00:17:51.440 --> 00:17:53.920
But here's the truly cruelest part.
00:17:54.079 --> 00:18:05.920
One of the best replicated findings in anxiety research is this safety behaviors work for about a minute, but long term, they maintain the fear.
00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:15.119
This is because while you're monitoring for threat, your brain never runs the experiment that proves that the threat didn't come.
00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:25.839
And the checking actually blocks this learning of safety, this experience of safety that the threat didn't actually happen.
00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:33.680
The watching feels protective, but functionally, it preserves your attention to the platform.
00:18:33.839 --> 00:18:36.960
It keeps the fear fed and alive.
00:18:37.279 --> 00:18:44.000
Every video you watch to feel safe teaches your brain one lesson.
00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:47.680
We survived because we watched.
00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:52.480
Or we avoided this danger because we watched.
00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:55.359
And so you have to keep watching.
00:18:55.599 --> 00:19:02.960
The safety that this scrolling promises does not actually exist for three reasons.
00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:05.920
Number one, you can't verify any of it.
00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:10.720
You're building defenses against reports that you often can't confirm.
00:19:11.039 --> 00:19:14.799
Number two, knowing is not the same thing as controlling.
00:19:14.880 --> 00:19:19.359
Even if a symbol claim were true or a conspiracy were true.
00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:25.680
What does video nine let you actually do about it that you couldn't with video one?
00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:30.160
Number three, this is the one that has the real impact, though.
00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:37.680
You already possess the only fact that vigilance requires, that evil does exist.
00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:40.400
The church told you that at your baptism.
00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:45.200
The details are not important for us to know.
00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:50.640
Every possible expression in detail are not important for us to know.
00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:54.400
They just add anxiety, not safety.
00:19:54.880 --> 00:19:57.680
You can still respond.
00:19:58.400 --> 00:20:11.759
You can still respond after video one in the exact same way as after video 900, with all of the things that we already know: prayer, sacraments, staying in a state of grace.
00:20:12.079 --> 00:20:17.200
Everything we just walked through, Catholic tradition has planned for.
00:20:17.359 --> 00:20:20.960
Not the phones, of course, but the heart underneath them.
00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:31.119
Psychology describes the mechanism, but our church has understood this wound, this anxiety, this longing for certainty for centuries.
00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:38.079
Aquinas did not have a smartphone, but he does describe your feed, anyways.
00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:39.759
The desire to know is good.
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:41.440
Aquinas says so.
00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:46.640
And then he shows you how this good thing can curl back on itself.
00:20:46.880 --> 00:21:08.000
The disordered version he calls curiositas, knowledge that pulls you from your actual duties, knowledge that pulls you from your actual duties, claims beyond your ability to evaluate so you fall into error and preoccupation with harmful things.
00:21:08.240 --> 00:21:09.759
That's from the Summa.
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:13.279
Walk the three marks against the feed with me.
00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:16.799
The rosary you didn't pray because you had to watch part two.
00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:30.319
The symbol claims or the conspiracy claims that you have no reac no way to actually test or know, knowledge that serves, and the steady diet of darkness.
00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:32.480
The remedy is not ignorance.
00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:35.440
I'm not suggesting that we just don't think about that.
00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:44.880
It's it's what Aquinas calls studiositus, ordered study, knowledge that serves your actual life.
00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:50.480
He's describing the recommended feed all the way back in the 13th century.
00:21:50.720 --> 00:21:54.880
The church has seen this move before, and she has wisdom waiting.
00:21:55.039 --> 00:21:59.440
The catechism gets thirdly specific about the need to know.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:01.119
Order to feel safe.
00:22:01.359 --> 00:22:16.480
In paragraph 2115, it talks about divinization, the old temptation to secure the future by knowing it, putting oneself confidently into the hands of providence and giving up all unhealthy curiosity.
00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:35.440
The church looked at this impulse and has understood it in some ways a problem of trust or of the ability to tolerate uncertainty and uncertainty in life, but confidence in God's providence, it's not an information problem.
00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:42.880
So the catechism really under so surprisingly, the catechism totally gets our doom scrolling.
00:22:43.279 --> 00:22:45.039
Unhealthy curiosity.
00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:52.799
And its prescription is a type of trust that learns to tolerate the uncertainty of life.
00:22:53.119 --> 00:23:02.000
Paul actually writes a sentence that helps us with this whole question, and most of us haven't sat with it in this way before.
00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:07.759
Wise as to what is good and guileless to what is evil.
00:23:07.920 --> 00:23:09.680
Notice the asymmetry.
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:17.759
Deep expertise in the good, but deliberate non-expertise in the dark or evil.
00:23:18.079 --> 00:23:24.480
So something I tell my clients is this: you're not assigned to the intelligence desk.
00:23:24.799 --> 00:23:28.880
You are assigned to the goodness desk.
00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:33.359
An expert in the good, become an expert in the good.
00:23:33.599 --> 00:23:35.599
Stay a beginner in evil.
00:23:35.839 --> 00:23:38.720
That's the assignment for all of us in one verse.
00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:46.000
Now the objection that your anxiety might already be forming, because this is not my first rodeo.
00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:48.720
Doesn't Peter say to be watchful?
00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:50.000
He does.
00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:03.039
Your adversary, the devil, prowls like a roaring lion.
00:24:03.200 --> 00:24:05.920
But he finishes with verse 9.
00:24:06.240 --> 00:24:09.039
Resist him, firm in your faith.
00:24:09.279 --> 00:24:19.279
This says to us that vigilance is a posture, not a surveillance program, not a surveillance program that keeps us logged into the algorithm.
00:24:19.599 --> 00:24:22.319
Saint Ignatius also gives us a test.
00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:27.920
So I would invite you to run this test, honestly, in this context.
00:24:28.079 --> 00:24:34.400
In his Rules for Discernment, the enemy signatures agitation, obsessive turmoil, and loss of peace.
00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:40.240
So ask yourself, does this content claim to expose the enemy?
00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:47.759
So, this content that claims to expose the enemy's tactics, what does watching it produce inside of you?
00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:52.160
Peace or agitation, turmoil, and a loss of peace?
00:24:52.400 --> 00:25:03.359
The videos about the enemy's work are doing the enemy's work more reliably, and they're doing it with more reliability than whatever they claim to expose.
00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:07.359
Watch how the two threads of this channel meet in one place.
00:25:07.519 --> 00:25:16.079
Psychology says safety behavior, threat monitoring, it maintains the fear that it promises to relieve.
00:25:16.240 --> 00:25:25.440
And tradition says that curiosity, disordered trust, a heart trying to secure itself instead of resting in promise.
00:25:25.680 --> 00:25:37.680
But tradition calls it curiosity, a disordered trust, a heart trying to stay secure itself instead of resting in providence by learning to tolerate the uncertainty of everyday life.
00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:41.200
It really is the same type of wound.
00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:47.920
That's not me saying that people who have anxiety or scrupulosity simply don't trust God enough.
00:25:48.079 --> 00:25:50.720
That's not true, that's not fair.
00:25:50.880 --> 00:26:01.599
It's that they can't access trust in God because of the difficulty tolerating uncertainty, which is presented through their anxiety.
00:26:01.839 --> 00:26:15.839
Your brain and your soul are telling that they are both asking you to stop gripping and to start trusting by learning how to tolerate uncertainty.
00:26:16.079 --> 00:26:19.680
Okay, that is the diagnosis, so to speak.
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:23.119
Let's fix your feed and your evenings.
00:26:23.359 --> 00:26:24.799
I have four steps.
00:26:25.039 --> 00:26:26.720
You can do them all today.
00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:32.079
Name it, drop the research, retrain the feed, and run the church's protocol.
00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:37.920
You can't argue with the slot machine, but you can stand up from your seat and move away.
00:26:38.160 --> 00:26:38.720
Here's how.
00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:41.200
Number one, name the loop out loud.
00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:45.440
Step one costs you nothing and changes a whole lot downstream.
00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:53.920
The next time your thumb hovers and it feels like a duty to pull and refresh, say the truthing out loud.
00:26:54.079 --> 00:26:55.920
This is threat monitoring.
00:26:56.160 --> 00:26:57.680
This is not discernment.
00:26:58.079 --> 00:26:59.920
We aren't arguing with the fear here.
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:03.920
We're just refusing to believe its disguise.
00:27:04.079 --> 00:27:07.920
Your brain may need to hear this over and over, and that's okay.
00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:09.759
Anxiety can keep talking.
00:27:09.920 --> 00:27:14.000
It just doesn't get to keep talking unchallenged.
00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:16.400
Number two, the no research rule.
00:27:16.640 --> 00:27:18.480
Step two is the hard one.
00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:20.799
One sentence, then nothing else.
00:27:21.039 --> 00:27:21.920
Evil exists.
00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:23.680
I don't need to know the details.
00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:25.920
God holds the parts I can't see.
00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:30.880
Then, and I know exactly what I need to do to stay spiritually safe.
00:27:31.039 --> 00:27:39.519
Then no clicking, no checking, no one more video, no asking Reddit, no Googling again, no talking to someone to confirm that you're safe.
00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:41.519
Your anxiety might spike.
00:27:41.680 --> 00:27:42.880
You have to expect this.
00:27:43.039 --> 00:27:47.200
But remember that that spike is the loop dying or getting weaker.
00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:51.839
It's not proof that danger is rising.
00:27:52.079 --> 00:27:55.440
This is what dropping a compulsion feels like.
00:27:55.599 --> 00:27:57.039
It's very uncomfortable.
00:27:57.119 --> 00:28:02.319
But what it means is that we're saying something different about what the anxiety means.
00:28:02.559 --> 00:28:06.720
The anxiety doesn't mean danger, it means uncomfortableness.
00:28:06.880 --> 00:28:15.119
But the anxiety will quiet when you stop feeding it, not after it gets just one more video.
00:28:15.440 --> 00:28:19.119
And riding the wave is how we start weakening these loops.
00:28:19.279 --> 00:28:21.039
Step three, retrain the machine.
00:28:21.200 --> 00:28:25.839
Here's the flip side, though, that should really encourage you.
00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:30.559
The machine that learns your fear can actually learn peace.
00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:32.720
Remember that it reads behavior.
00:28:32.799 --> 00:28:34.559
So behave on purpose.
00:28:34.880 --> 00:28:40.559
Tap not interested or don't recommend that channel on the fear bait.
00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:44.079
Don't do any hate watching that tells the machine.
00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:47.039
The machine can't tell anger from love.
00:28:47.359 --> 00:28:49.279
It's only the minutes that count.
00:28:49.519 --> 00:28:51.759
Feed it with good deliberately.
00:28:51.920 --> 00:28:55.279
Watch, like save what you want more of.
00:28:55.519 --> 00:28:57.599
Give it a couple of weeks.
00:28:57.839 --> 00:28:59.759
And then also Philippians 4.8.
00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:03.759
Turns out to be an algorithmic strategy.
00:29:03.920 --> 00:29:07.440
Whatever is true, honorable, just think on these things.
00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:08.240
So St.
00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:12.319
Paul actually wrote a content strategy of sort 2,000 years earlier.
00:29:12.559 --> 00:29:14.799
Feed the machine the good and it will learn.
00:29:14.960 --> 00:29:18.079
And here's step four: run the church's actual protocol.
00:29:18.319 --> 00:29:24.480
This is what the church has been saying that we need to do to combat evil for 2,000 years.
00:29:24.720 --> 00:29:26.720
Renew your baptismal promises.
00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:32.400
The words that are set over you, I renounce Satan, all his works, and all of his empty promises.
00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:36.240
Use the sacraments, Eucharist, regular confession, the St.
00:29:36.400 --> 00:29:37.759
Michael prayer, if it helps.
00:29:37.920 --> 00:29:39.839
Then point out this list to your brain.
00:29:40.079 --> 00:29:45.200
Nowhere does the church ask you to gather intelligence about evil.
00:29:45.359 --> 00:29:50.799
There are no saints that became saints or canonized because of their expose research.
00:29:50.960 --> 00:29:55.839
It was because of how they lived their lives and how they loved the Lord.
00:29:56.079 --> 00:30:05.759
The protocol is trust by learning to tolerate uncertainty, sacraments, and resistance, not more information.
00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:09.359
Now, there may be two objections out there.
00:30:09.759 --> 00:30:11.519
So let's talk about them.
00:30:11.759 --> 00:30:13.039
They're good questions.
00:30:13.279 --> 00:30:14.559
Isn't this vigilant?
00:30:14.720 --> 00:30:16.480
Isn't vigilance a virtue?
00:30:16.720 --> 00:30:17.200
Yes.
00:30:17.519 --> 00:30:21.440
Prudence watches, but anxiety surveils.
00:30:21.680 --> 00:30:22.720
There's a difference.
00:30:22.960 --> 00:30:24.559
The test is in the fruit.
00:30:24.720 --> 00:30:30.960
Does this bring me peace and readiness or agitation and compulsion and a loss of peace?
00:30:31.200 --> 00:30:34.799
And then the other objection is but isn't some of this real?
00:30:35.519 --> 00:30:36.160
Sure.
00:30:36.480 --> 00:30:38.640
Some evil is absolutely real.
00:30:38.960 --> 00:30:48.240
And that reality is fully covered by the fact that you are baptized, that you regularly interface with the sacraments.
00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:51.359
The question is not whether evil is real.
00:30:51.599 --> 00:30:55.599
The question is whether the 14th video changes your defenses.
00:30:55.839 --> 00:30:57.279
And it doesn't.
00:30:57.519 --> 00:31:07.599
And for many of these topics, as we mentioned before, we really don't have a way to know if this particular thing that is evil is real.
00:31:07.759 --> 00:31:12.160
It's enough to know that evil is real and to do what the church has told us.
00:31:12.480 --> 00:31:16.400
Okay, let's review, put it in your pocket so you're ready to go.
00:31:16.640 --> 00:31:23.920
Remember that the feed is a business, your attention is the product, and your emotional wiring is how it gets harvested.
00:31:24.160 --> 00:31:27.599
I have to know every danger is threat monitoring.
00:31:27.839 --> 00:31:30.000
It's not prudence.
00:31:30.240 --> 00:31:34.720
We cannot verify, cannot control, and do not need it.
00:31:34.960 --> 00:31:40.960
Aquinas, the catechism, and Paul all point us to one same direction.
00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:49.039
Gain expertise in the good, trust for the rest, and be think on what is good, resist what is evil.
00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:58.880
If we can name this loop and how it works, stop the research, retrain the feed, and run the church's protocol, you are good to go.
00:31:59.039 --> 00:32:04.000
There's four moves, and you can do all of them tonight, right now, right here.
00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:07.039
None of them requires watching anything else.
00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:09.039
So this is what I want to leave you with.
00:32:09.279 --> 00:32:21.920
Some July evening this month, you're in the kitchen, phone in hand, full feed of what they don't want you to see, what they're trying to cover up, the conspiracy they're glad you don't know about.
00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:23.519
You can put that down.
00:32:23.759 --> 00:32:34.799
You can put it down, not because we have to be certain that it's fake or real, but because safety doesn't come from knowing whether it is.
00:32:35.039 --> 00:32:39.359
The father doesn't ask you to out-research the enemy.
00:32:39.599 --> 00:32:41.680
He asks for our trust.
00:32:41.920 --> 00:32:43.519
That's not naivety.
00:32:43.920 --> 00:32:53.440
It is a strategy which requires us being able to tolerate uncertainty, which requires us to manage our anxiety.
00:32:53.599 --> 00:33:04.000
Now, if you want to learn more about that, just know that we have an online course called Freedom from Scrupulosity and Intrusive Thoughts, a Catholic Educational Approach.
00:33:04.160 --> 00:33:07.519
I put everything that I know about scrupulosity into this course.
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And there's hours of videos and several hundred-page workbook that so many people have found helpful.
00:33:13.279 --> 00:33:16.000
I'll put a link if you want to go further.
00:33:16.240 --> 00:33:22.160
I also have a free summer scroll reset PDF linked below.
00:33:22.319 --> 00:33:24.240
So take care of yourself this week.
00:33:24.480 --> 00:33:31.279
And remember, there's always room for you and your doom scrolling, but also your piece on the Catholic Couch.
00:33:31.359 --> 00:33:32.880
I'll see you next time.
