Nothing in your compulsive behavior is random — the moment you develop a habit that soothes you, drains you, or distracts you, someone out there finds a way to profit from it. In practice this means your phone addiction feeds algorithms, your emotional eating feeds corporations, your porn consumption feeds an industry built on overstimulation, your anxiety feeds wellness markets, and your loneliness feeds anything that promises connection for a fee. What people think of as “personal struggle” is really an economic opportunity the system exploits ruthlessly: the more dysregulated you are, the more money you spend trying to stabilize yourself. Men often fall into addictions that numb (porn, gaming, alcohol), while women fall into addictions that regulate (shopping, self-help loops, aesthetic lifestyle content) — but the mechanism is identical. The blade cuts deepest when you understand that your addiction isn’t simply unhealthy — it’s profitable, and the world is designed to keep it that way.