Drink, screens, shopping, food, the bad week and when it's more than a habit

The rule holds for every remedy. A few of them, and a few situations, need their own paragraph.

Drink. The wine at six, poured for the flat half hour and not for dinner, is the most common evening remedy and the one most worth looking at, because alcohol has costs the other three don't. The NHS advice on stress is not to use alcohol to relieve it, and the ten-minute rule works on the six o'clock glass as it works on the biscuit. Name the flatness, give it ten minutes, and then pour the glass with dinner if you want it. I'll repeat the preface. If you drink every day and feel shaky, sweaty or sick without it, don't reduce on your own. See a GP and plan it with them. That's not a judgement. It's what the body does after regular heavy drinking, and it needs medical care.

Screens. The phone is the remedy that's always in the pocket, and so it catches more flickers than any other. The earlier book in this series on the phone gives it a whole method. Here, the one addition is that the ten minutes are hardest with the phone because the phone is already in your hand. Put it in a different pocket or a bag for a week, so that the reach has a step in it, and the step is where the word goes.

Shopping. The Sunday basket is a remedy with a delivery date, and the earlier book on buying has a rule for it, which is that nothing is bought on the day the want arrives. Here, the addition is that the flat Sunday is nearly always on the second list. It has a second word. Find it before you find the jacket.

Food. The biscuit at twenty past three is the remedy this book has used as its example, and the earlier book on eating outside hunger goes through the feelings one by one. Here, the one thing to add is the hunger check. Would an apple do? If yes, eat. If no, name the feeling. And if the reach is for large amounts with a feeling of being unable to stop, that's a different thing with its own help, through Beat and a GP.

Gambling. If the remedy is a bet, the NHS lists gambling alongside alcohol and drugs as things not to use to relieve stress, and there are NHS gambling services and a GP route. It's a remedy with a bill that can run away in a way the others can't, and I'd put it outside this book.

The bad week. Some weeks are made of sevens. A death, a diagnosis, a job lost. In those weeks the flickers aren't flickers and the ten-minute rule isn't the point. Be kind to yourself, keep the remedies moderate, and let the week be what it is. The method is for ordinary days, and the ordinary days come back.

Low mood. If the flat feeling has been there most of the day for two weeks, or nothing has felt good for that long, that's health. The ten minutes won't shift it and shouldn't be asked to. See a GP, or refer yourself to NHS talking therapies. The book will still be here.

Panic and self-harm. If the discomfort is panic, with the heart going and the breath short and the sense that something terrible is about to happen, that's a different thing with its own treatment, and a GP is the route. If you've had thoughts of harming yourself, that's urgent. Talk to a GP or call 111, and 999 if you're in danger. Samaritans are on 116 123.

Living with someone who reaches. You can't run the ten minutes for another person. What you can do is not supply the remedy, not comment on the reach, and be the answer for the feelings on their second list, which mostly means being someone they can say one true sentence to at dinner.