US VS. OURSELVES is exactly what it sounds like. It is the battle that we face with our own self every day. It is the battle with the most challenging competitor that we've ever had to conquer. This particular challenger we can't simply run and hide from like the others, but even if we try, we feel it and eventually have to face this person. We look at this person every day in the mirror, and a lot of the time we are successful at manipulating the image we see staring back at us, or convincing ourselves we see more than what we actually know is in that reflection that is staring back at us as hard, and for as long or short, that we choose to stare at it. Why do you convince yourself of anything else but the truth about who and what you see? Are you proud of what you see? Do you believe you need to change who and what you see? Is it simply better and easier to not even look at that person at all? The issues that haunt us and are so problematic and revolving are the sole responsibility of the person in that mirror, and no one else will feel the joys and pains like the one staring in it or looking back out of it. Once that person stopped being the victim to others is when they became a victim to their own self unintentionally. What you know is wrong about yourself, you find it easier to blame it off on everyone and everything else that won't even feel the hurts that you do and will continue to feel. Do you wonder why you're spiraling? Do you wonder why you're experiencing misfortunes? Do you wonder why substance abuse, relationship toxicity, and the unpleasant past plague you? It is because of YOU! Change starts with YOU. Nothing changes without YOU. And until you realize you are now a victim of your own SELF; you will continuously see what you see staring back at you in that mirror. This book speaks to teens as well. Especially the teens who think they are fine being as destructive as they want to be just because they are still young. Everyone will learn that no matter how old you are, once you understand what you are doing then you too are held accountable for your actions, and they follow you well into your adult life as well. Young adults will be able to unlock parts of their mind they may not have attempted to open while reading this book as they navigate through early adulthood and the challenges they face without the necessary mental stimulation they may need. Even I would've benefitted from the content in this book in my earlier stages just as much as I still benefit from the knowledge now. The real issue is that no one talked to me in this way that would have opened my mind to the mental toxicity that I wrote off as being who I was or proud to be. What I know now would've saved me so much grief and also allowed me so much more time to get on the levels that I should've been on years ago in my opinion. Just when I thought it was OK to blame the world and those around me, I learned I was only holding myself back instead, and no one was going to pay for it like I would. NO ONE BUT ME!