RichardBly

Dont take it too personally. You are right you didnt MENTION depression but a lot of the underlying drivers for the phenomena are just that-- depression and one of the biggest and most painful places is in the arena of parenting. Not clear if you have kids, but divorce, economic hardship and separation create a great deal of pain which can feed things like procastination and rebellion as described in the original post

Thats the conventional wisdom. It might work if your kids are in front of you every day crying, but if you are separated from them and have to maintain a mental picture of their need in the same brain, its a disaster.