For example, a person has a problem that he doesn’t have any income. His first response should be to get up, pray to Hashem every day for his material needs, and start looking for a job. But instead, he finds an easy way to open up a new credit account with a $10,000 limit. However, this decision causes him a lot of anxiety and depression, because he thinks, “How will I ever be able to pay back my debt to the bank? This question seems to be very difficult to answer, when, in fact, it is the answer: he shouldn’t open up the new credit account in the first place. Nonetheless, the person struggles to realize his mistaken line of thinking, because the question and the answer are mixed together in his mind.
Another example is that a person is supposed to learn Torah but he loses his motivation and doesn’t do so. After a while, he doesn’t know how to handle his guilty feelings for not studying, so the easiest way to cope is to tell himself that he’s just not cut out for learning. Based on this false assumption, the person develops a negative association with limud haTorah that causes him to feel depressed and nervous regarding learning. However, this issue comes from a lie. The truth is that the Torah is extremely accessible to us at all times and in all situations. There are plenty of sefarim in many languages with very clear commentaries. There are also very basic shiurim that a person can listen to.
Thus, the real solution is that, even if the person hasn’t studied Torah for a long time, he should simply get up and learn something very simple right now. However, since the problem that learning Torah gives the person negative emotions is tied together with the false assumption that he’s not cut out for learning Torah, the person doesn’t realize the mistake he made in the beginning of his train of thought.
