This paper is part of a larger project in "therapeutic metaethics" -- i.e. metaethics done with the aim of helping us to overcome socio-psychological maladies like normlessness, nihilism, etc. In this part of the project, I offer an account of what brings about and sustains normlessness and nihilism -- and in particular, a view about the causal role that our acceptance of certain metaethical theories or proto-theories plays with regard to normlessness and nihilism.