One in three American teenagers quits high school, and Armand DiMele and Dr. Kent Robertshaw, MD, Psychiatrist, trace why: boredom, family poverty, drug money, and a school system that mistakes college-prep drilling for real education. The conversation broadens into adult avoidance and the pharmaceutical industry’s role in suppressing discomfort rather than addressing its roots.
Anorexia is not really about food but about control, perfectionism, and a refusal to grow up. Armand DiMele, joined by Stephanie D’Ambra, LCSW and Christine Ulrich, traces how starvation becomes a way to freeze development, reject femininity, and rebel against family pressure without openly defying it.
Why are emotionally open people such easy targets? Armand traces the roots of emotional manipulation from childhood repression to adolescent psychopathy, then lands on internet trolling as its modern form, confessing he was once trolled on his own website without realizing it. The episode connects online provocation to everyday relationship dynamics.
