Climax

Why is is that bad situations always have an escalation period?  Illicit affairs, drug use, troubles with relatives or friends, etc.  Is there a division of psychology devoted to this?  There should be.  It’s like learning the elements of plot in eleventh grade English:  exposition, rising action, build up, climax, falling action, resolution.  Except real life doesn’t always have a tidy resolution.  Sometimes we’re left at the climax.