Although film critics have given Limitless tepid praise, I found this movie to be deeply meaningful as a therapist. Understand Limitless and you understand many of the dreams and nightmares that haunt modern life.

‘Feel good’ endorphins may be activated differently in the brains of social drinkers as compared to problem drinkers, according to recent neuroscience research. These insights may lead one day to finding more effective drugs to treat problem drinking.

“How do you know when your clients are lying? Their lips are moving!” a mentor once quipped to me. I believe clients’ lies have as much to say about therapists as they do about the people under our care.

Feeling that your freedom of choice has been taken away can be deeply frustrating, but even in very restrictive circumstances, we can still choose how to respond to what is going on in our lives — by recognising the limitations of our ability to exercise control and then making our choices within them.

Is there really such a thing as “sex addiction,” “food addiction,” “shopping addiction,” or “Internet addiction”? Addiction has less to do with what someone is addicted to and more about how their brain and behavior change over time. Recognizing the signature behaviors of addiction can save lives.

How does catching our own errors and correcting them protect us from stress? Can doing so also protect us from addiction?

An article by Connie Miller defines the concept of co-dependency beautifully, as “an absence of relationship with the self”. By looking outside to others for confirmation of who we are, and that we are OK, we lose contact with ourselves.