Bill Brenner

Firing Someone For Mental Illness Is An Outrage

by Bill Brenner April 19, 2011 Children's issues

If someone does a lousy job at work, they deserve to be fired. If someone does the job well but is fired because they have a mental illness, that’s an outrage. Mood music: [spotify:track:0OGwOky2l941SPRkE56kU9] This morning’s tirade brought to you by this comment posted on the LinkedIn NAMI group discussion board: I lost my job as Director – Communications from a regional Chamber of Commerce after disclosing my 30 years of living and working with…  [Read More]

Stuff My Kids (and Their Friends) Say, Part 5

by Bill Brenner April 18, 2011 Children's issues

Welcome to another installment of Stuff My Kids Say. Life is full of daily struggle and it can be hard to stop for a moment and appreciate one’s blessings. Fortunately for me, my kids are good at pulling me back down to Earth. And, I realized this past weekend, so are their friends. Mood music: Primus, “John the Fisherman” Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 of this series were based on random moments around the…  [Read More]

The Pink FEAR-ies Strike Again

by Bill Brenner April 15, 2011 Children's issues

Since Duncan’s favorite color is pink, I get pretty pissed when I see stories about the high-and-mighty going nuts because they mistake a color for a gender or sexual orientation. Mood music: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwQ0fVShIZk&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0] The latest example is this J. Crew ad, where a mom is painting her son’s toe-nails hot pink: People have been going absolutely crazy over this, suggesting that the boy will be scarred for life and need thousands of dollars of…  [Read More]

Coffee With My Therapist, Part 3

by Bill Brenner April 14, 2011 Addiction

I had mixed emotions as I drove to my therapy appointment this morning. On the one hand, I was pissed that half my morning was getting blown out for the appointment. I wasn’t happy about all the tasks bearing down on me, either. On the other hand, the coffee I got at Starbucks was pretty damn good and the ride allowed me to get my fill of vintage Ozzy and Randy Rhoads. Mood music: [youtube…  [Read More]

Wear That Depression Like A Friggin’ Grown-Up

by Bill Brenner April 12, 2011 Depression

Two of my closest friends, God Bless ’em, always think they can read my mood in real time based on something I wrote in this blog a day, week or month ago. But sometimes the written word is just a snapshot in time — a feeling that either intensifies or goes away in short order. Mood music: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXahja5V9Wo&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0] The conversation usually goes something like this: Friend: “So, you’ve been kind of down lately, huh?”…  [Read More]

Run For Your Life (Action Re-Defined)

by Bill Brenner April 11, 2011 Mental disorders

A huge challenge of learning to live life in the middle lane is that much of my spiritual growth and sobriety-abstinence has come to revolve around the belief that like a shark, you either swim or you drown. Or, to earn my recovery and faith, I have to run for my life. MOOD MUSIC IS, APPROPRIATELY ENOUGH, THIS RARITY FROM MOTLEY CRUE CALLED “RUN FOR YOUR LIFE” To run for my life is to always…  [Read More]

You Think No Flour-Sugar Is Hard? Try This

by Bill Brenner April 8, 2011 Uncategorized

This week at the CSO Perspectives conference in Naples, Fla., I gained a whole new level of respect for Akamai CSO Andy Ellis. Without meaning to, he reminded me that my abstinence from flour and sugar is pretty easy compared to how it could be. Mood music: Andy is allergic to dairy. Just a trace of it will make him sick. An Air Force veteran, he ties it to an anthrax vaccine shot he received…  [Read More]

Back Where I Belong

by Bill Brenner April 7, 2011 Children's issues

I’m sitting at the airport in Ft. Myers, Fla. waiting to board a plane that’ll take me home. I like to go on these trips. But it’s always better to go home. MOOD MUSIC: “DRIFTAWAY” BY MOTLEY CRUE (the Corabi album) Ever since I shook myself free of the fear and anxiety that came with my earlier form of OCD, I’ve had a craving for these journeys, perhaps for the simple reason that I can…  [Read More]

Guilt: The Blessing and the Curse

by Bill Brenner April 7, 2011 Children's issues

Everyone struggles with guilt from time to time. Guilt is good in that feeling it means you have the desire to right a wrong. But when you mix it with OCD, the results are catastrophic. MOOD MUSIC: “Step Outside” by 360s I’ve always had a powerful guilty conscience. For the most part it has served me well. In my moments of anger, hatred, depression and despair, it has kept me from going too far in…  [Read More]

The Time I Almost Left Revere

by Bill Brenner April 6, 2011 Family

I sometimes wonder what kind of adolescence I would have had if we had followed through on plans to sell the Lynnway house and leave Revere in 1984. Mood music: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbrF00Y4qE8&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0] My father always talked about moving from Revere to Lynnfield, Mass., because he didn’t like the school system. At the same time, he fought for and won the Lynnway house in the divorce, partly on the promise that me and my siblings could…  [Read More]

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