MAKE EMPATHY GREAT AGAIN
 
YB÷ donates 50% of net profits to the First Step House to assist their efforts in providing "a safe, supportive alcohol and drug-free environment for men to make a new beginning in sobriety."
 
Addiction is often misunderstood as a simple matter of poor choices or moral failing, when in reality it is more accurately seen as a response to deep psychological and emotional distress. At its core, addiction is frequently the result of disconnection—whether from others, from one's community, or from a sense of meaning and self-worth.
 
Many individuals who struggle with addiction have grown up or lived in toxic environments, where trauma, neglect, abuse, or chronic stress erode the ability to feel safe in one’s own body or mind. In such contexts, the substance of choice—whether drugs, alcohol, or even behaviors like gambling—is less a cause than a coping mechanism, a way to numb pain, quiet anxiety, or fill the emptiness that disconnection leaves behind.
 
Over time, this disconnection fosters a profound discomfort in one's own skin—a restless, irritable, and discontented state of being. The drug of choice, then, is not the true problem but a temporary prescription for that deeper ache. It offers fleeting relief, a momentary escape from the spiritual void, but never the healing that is so desperately needed.
 
True recovery from addiction is not found through shame, punishment, or incarceration, but through genuine rehabilitation—through connection, compassion, and spiritual renewal. At its core, addiction demands a spiritual solution: a reconnection with something greater than oneself, often described as a higher power, and a life centered on service to others.
 
Salvation from addiction arises when individuals begin to live with purpose, humility, and love—when they step out of isolation and into community. As a society, we must replace judgment with empathy, and fear with understanding, recognizing that healing is possible when people are given the chance to find meaning and to help others as part of their own recovery.
 
Only through collective compassion and systemic change can we hope to address addiction at its roots.