Indeed, guilt and shame about breaking a good habit can make people feel so bad that they seek to make themselves feel better—­by indulging in the very habit that made them feel bad in the first place. This accounts for the striking poetic justice of bad habits. As I learned in my high school English class when we studied Dante’s Inferno, poetic justice dictates that the punishment be tailored to fit the crime. So in Dante’s vision of the Ninth Circle of Hell, a fiend punishes the sowers of discord and schism by continually splitting apart their bodies. The poetic justice of bad habits is relentless and cruel, because the punishment for a bad habit is . . . the bad habit. As a friend said to me, “I feel too anxious to tackle my bad habits, but my bad habits are what make me anxious.” One survey found that some women who worry about their finances use “retail therapy” to feel better10—­they shop in order to cope with their anxiety. Gamblers who worry about money distract themselves by gambling. --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]] **Source** -- **Source** -- [[20240806084000 - B - Better Than Before]]