Mental health

The Easier, Softer Way

by Bill Brenner May 18, 2011 Addiction

A reader asked me the other day if I still take medication for OCD. Yes, I told him. He told me that when he was diagnosed with OCD, he thought about trying something other than therapy or meds, but after a while realized that it wasn’t that easy. He’s right. Mood music: I know a lot of people who have struggled to control their own addictions and mental illnesses using alternative methods. Many times it works…  [Read More]

How Flour & Sugar Nearly Destroyed Me

by Bill Brenner May 17, 2011 Addiction

When people ask about my giving up flour and sugar, they have an easy time grasping the raw health benefits. What’s harder for them to understand is how these things can form a mixture as addictive as heroin. Here’s my attempt to explain it. First, the point I need to make is that for us addicts, the substance isn’t the root of our problem. Two other things bring us down: –A hole in our soul…  [Read More]

Back Story Of THE OCD DIARIES

by Bill Brenner May 14, 2011 Addiction

Since I’ve been adding new readers along the way, I always get questions about why I started this thing. I recently expanded the “about” section, and that’s a good starting point. But more of a back story is in order. Mood music: Before I started THE OCD DIARIES in December 2009 with a post about depression hitting me during the holidays, I had always toyed with the idea of doing this. The reason for wanting…  [Read More]

Facebook Dysfunction: A Family Affair

by Bill Brenner May 11, 2011 Adventures in writing

Let’s face it: We all have connections on Facebook that we constantly consider defriending because they say and do irritating things. I have no doubt there are people out there who feel that way about me. Mood music: I have no problem with people un-friending me. Not anymore, anyway. At one point, I had to admit that my obsessive-compulsive demons were latching onto the Facebook friend count, and that each loss of a connection felt…  [Read More]

“Do Something Every Day That Scares You”

by Bill Brenner May 9, 2011 Courage

During some leadership training at work a few months ago, the facilitators urged us to follow the advice of Eleanor Roosevelt and “Do something every day that scares you.” Now comes this new Sixx A.M. album and a song  called “Are You With Me Now” with the line, “Find the places that scare you, come on I dare you…” Mood music:  A cosmic reminder to get out of my comfort zone? Perhaps. But it’s a…  [Read More]

The Sinister Minister’s Definition of Normal

by Bill Brenner May 4, 2011 Mental health

The news of Osama bin Laden’s death makes me wonder: Are we all hoping now that things will go back to normal, to the way life was before 9-11?  I can’t help but think of wars of the past, and how there was always a craving to “go back to normal.” Mood music: <object width=”640″ height=”510″><param name=”movie” value=”https://www.youtube.com/v/x19KvsqI4Zc?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param>[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x19KvsqI4Zc&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]</object> One of the better examples of our craving for normal was in…  [Read More]

Had He Lived

by Bill Brenner May 3, 2011 Gratitude

Today would have been my brother’s 45th birthday. I sometimes wonder what he’d be doing and saying in the crazy world we inhabit today. Mood music: <object width=”640″ height=”510″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/ZADcJdFY-0w?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param>[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZADcJdFY-0w&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]</object> Let’s go back to 1984, the year he left us. He probably would have been amused to find me hanging out with Sean Marley and listening to Motley Crue and Def Leppard. He would have noticed my widening girth…  [Read More]

Crohn’s Disease in Revere, Mass.

by Bill Brenner May 1, 2011 Crohn's Disease

An old friend from Revere came over last night, and somewhere in the conversation the subject turned to Crohn’s Disease and why so many of our old friends have it. <object width=”640″ height=”510″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/1eqkNuCjiHw?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param>[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eqkNuCjiHw&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]</object> I’ve had the disease since the 1970s, and my struggles with it are well documented in this blog. But my friend noted how many of our friends from the Point of Pines, Oak Island and…  [Read More]

OCD and ADHD Linked? Maybe

by Bill Brenner April 29, 2011 Children's issues

I recently wrote about our challenges with Duncan and how I often curse myself for a lack of patience with him, given my own history with OCD. This morning I came across a column from  Dr. Keith Ablow that might explain a lot. Mood music (Still some coding weirdness with the video embedding, but the music works): <object width=”640″ height=”510″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/MDiF3POJdyU?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param>[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDiF3POJdyU&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]</object> Let’s start with a few paragraphs from Ablow’s column:…  [Read More]

‘Binge Eating? Come On, Man’

by Bill Brenner April 23, 2011 Addiction

Every now and then, someone expresses shock at my classifying a compulsive binge eating disorder as addictive behavior. So it was when an acquaintance in the infosec world contacted me this morning. Mood music: [spotify:track:0ydzdWYWIFlGBurhjEXwit] Rather than run the entire message verbatim, I’m going to address certain chunks. His text is in italics, followed my my responses. First, I want to point out that I like this guy. He does great work in our industry….  [Read More]

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