No doubt, Luke, they are in a great deal of pain or have old wounds that have never been attended to or examined. With enough rigorous self-inquiry and support from those around us, we can actually rewire our neural pathways to bypass the old toxic responses... it's the "easily" part that eludes both conventional and alternative therapies. Some "friendly acquaintances" (Drs. Elaine & Art Aron) have done a lot of neuroscientific work to understand how our neural nets work and how we can "repair" our brains from toxic damage. Elaine syays the goal is to go from 10 years of conventional talk therapy to about 3-6 months of intensive co-counseling, working with a trusted partner.