Courage

Happily Ever After Is Bullshit & That’s OK

by Bill Brenner September 21, 2010 Addiction

Often, when depression slaps me upside the head, it’s on the heels of a prolonged period of good feelings and positive energy. Especially this time of year, when the daylight recedes early and returns late. These setbacks can be discouraging, but you can survive them with the right perspective. Mood music: It’s easy for people who fight mental illness and addictive behavior to go on an endless, futile search for the happily ever after, where…  [Read More]

Run Out of Town (Or Off Facebook, Twitter)

by Bill Brenner September 16, 2010 Communication Skills

One of my security friends thinks she needs to delete her social network accounts because she lacks social skills. She tends to offend people sometimes, you see, and she wants to go away until she can learn to behave. Though admirable, it’s a bad idea for lots of reasons. At the height of my mental illness and addictive behavior, social skills were alien to me. Isolating myself from the rest of the world was the…  [Read More]

Walking Toward Sanity

by Bill Brenner September 12, 2010 Coping tools

As a kid living on Revere Beach, long walks were my lifeline to sanity. At least once a day, I walked the entire length of the crescent-shaped coastline, from the edge of Revere Beach Boulevard to the city’s border with Winthrop. In more recent years, I haven’t walked much. But recent events are rekindling my love for it. Mood music: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwKEdFoUB0o&fs=1&hl=en_US] I spent a lot of time walking around New York City this morning. I’m…  [Read More]

Just a Little Patience

by Bill Brenner May 26, 2010 Addiction

I recently stumbled upon this live version of GnR’s “Patience” and wanted to post it here because it’s always been an inspirational song to me. Being an OCD-wired control freak with a knack for impatience and  endless attempts at recovery before I finally pulled it off, patience was a virtue I simply did not possess. It would be a stretch to say I’ve mastered it at this point in my life, but I at least…  [Read More]

Howie Mandel Fights The Stigma

by Bill Brenner May 23, 2010 Courage

Truth be told, I’ve never been much of a Howie Mandel fan. I liked his brand of humor in the beginning but eventually lost interest. But I give him a lot of credit for being open about his own struggle with OCD and taking the fight to The Stigma: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiZ84SZcPps&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

My Personal Ground Zero

by Bill Brenner May 19, 2010 Courage

A walk past Ground Zero takes the author from the darkness to the light. Mood music for this post: “The Engine Driver” by The Decemberists: If ever there was a day when I could relapse my way into McDonald’s to down $40 bags of junk and wash it down with four glasses of wine, this was it. My mood took a deep dive this afternoon. And the source was the last thing I would have…  [Read More]

The Priest Who Came Clean

by Bill Brenner April 11, 2010 Addiction

I’ve met many priests, some good and some not-so-good. People criticize priests because they’re athiests or they’re angry about the sex abuse scandal. Father Dennis Nason made a believer out of me by coming clean about his own sins. You would have to be sick in the head NOT to be outraged by the sex abuse, and especially of the cover-up. In the end, though, people forget that priests are human, with all the sin-making…  [Read More]

An OCD Diaries Primer

by Bill Brenner March 20, 2010 Addiction

A collection of posts that form the back story of this blog. Mood music: [spotify:track:19n9s9SfnLtwPEODqk8KCT] The Long History of OCD An OCD Christmas. The first entry, where I give an overview of how I got to crazy and found my way to sane. The Bad Pill Kept Me from the Good Pill. How the drug Prednisone brought me to the brink, and how Prozac was part of my salvation. The Crazy-Ass Guy in the Newsroom….  [Read More]

Powerless

by Bill Brenner February 27, 2010 Coping tools

That was one hell of a storm. The power went out around 11 p.m. Thursday and is still out as I write this Saturday morning. It gives me a new appreciation for what people went through after the ice storm in December 2008. No power for weeks for these people. Yeesh. We spent the night at the home of dear friends, and that was what I’d call making the best of things. But I won’t…  [Read More]

Courage in the Crosshairs

by Bill Brenner January 19, 2010 Courage

The author has been thinking a lot about courage lately. Some have told him it takes courage to write about his OCD battles. He thinks it’s more about being tired of running. Over the weekend, I got this e-mail from an associate in the IT security industry I write about for a living: “I’ve been reading your OCD diaries lately. This is perhaps one of the most courageous blogs on the planet and the work…  [Read More]

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