Every human being is striving to meet certain psychological and emotional needs.   These needs or drives can be simplified into common themes.  It is not the search to obtain one or more of these that are problematic, but how people go about doing so.

When seeking to meet or fulfill these needs, people frequently create problems by elevating them to demands that must be achieved rather than desires that would be a preference.  Each theme is worthwhile and worthy, it is the efforts that one uses that determines if it is healthy or an unhealthy way to approach possessing these things.

• To be capable and successful or achieving at something
  
• To feel cared for and belong to a group
  
• To have power and control in one’s life
  
• To give of ourselves and help others
  
• To be stimulated in mind and body, and have fun
  
• To understand reality, and possess knowledge
  
• To have a sense of meaning or purpose in life and be connected to the divine.