fear and anxiety

When Living in the Past Is Your Only Sanctuary

by Bill Brenner December 13, 2012 Fear and anxiety

I had coffee with a friend and former coworker recently, and we reminisced about some of the colorful characters we’ve worked with. One person we particularly admired has suffered through a life of depression, fear and anxiety and is mostly a recluse these days. Mood music: [spotify:track:6KfzBFMXEOs7LgBcG4ZxyT] When this person does surface to talk to someone, the topic is always the old days. He carefully avoids the present because it’s so painful. Talking about the…  [Read More]

WebMD’s Symptom Checker: Crack for OCD Heads

by Bill Brenner November 16, 2012 Lighthearted

WebMD has a fantastic thing called the Symptom Checker. Have a headache and numbness in the toes? Just punch it into the symptom checker and get a diagnosis. Mood music: [spotify:track:79DVDD46pdqwjYucn91fny] In the hands of an OCD patient, this thing can provide hours of obsessive-compulsive fun, as you pinpoint every ache and pain in your body and have the Symptom Checker tell you what’s the matter. The first thing you do is point to parts…  [Read More]

Fear, Anxiety And Storms: From the Blizzard of ’78 to Sandy

by Bill Brenner October 26, 2012 Fear and anxiety

Written in the hours before Superstorm Sandy hit. For those who get scared about the weather… A lot of people are anxious over this “Frankenstorm” weather forecasters say could hit us early next week. They use words like “historic” and “unprecedented.” They draw comparisons to the “Perfect Storm” of 1991, saying this one could be worse. It’s the type of verbiage that alarms people. I feel for those who are freaked out right about now….  [Read More]

The Five Colors of the Anxiety Rainbow

by Bill Brenner August 29, 2012 Fear and anxiety

I broke free from fear-based anxiety a long time ago. But I still have episodes of anxiety. We all do, and it’s usually when we have trouble sorting through our emotions. To get a better handle on it, I’ve been trying to label the different kinds of anxiousness based on the colors of a rainbow. I decided to use the first five colors of Newton’s primary color system because if I broke this down by all seven…  [Read More]

Empire State Shootings Bring Back Old Fears, Timeless Lessons

by Bill Brenner August 24, 2012 Fear and anxiety

The shooting spree outside the Empire State Building this morning reminds me of the mind-numbing fear I used to carry inside me every day — the feelings of dread that kept me indoors, away from the life I should have been living. It also reminds me of some critical lessons I’ve learned from my experiences. Mood music: [spotify:track:5Sz3tl0ZqkyAg52CSQeVYj] As CNN reported news that Jeffrey Johnson, 58, had opened fire on a former co-worker and police outside…  [Read More]

Stoned and Panicked on the Interstate

by Bill Brenner July 31, 2012 Fear and anxiety

The memory was buried until yesterday, and frankly I’d have been happy had it stayed buried. Funny thing about suppressed memories — they spill out during the damndest moments, like a drive down I-95 in Maine. We were returning from a family camping trip near Old Orchard Beach yesterday, and as I drove the camper south, my stare caught the north-bound lanes. Sometime in the summer of 1991, Sean Marley, a couple others and I sped…  [Read More]

Impostor Syndrome

by Bill Brenner July 18, 2012 Fear and anxiety

A friend of mine, announcing on Twitter that he had landed a new, prestigious position, noted that he was feeling a bit of “Impostor Syndrome,” the fear that someday people will discover you’re really not as smart and talented as they currently think you are. It’s a feeling I’m very familiar with. I’ve had a lot of good luck in my career. I’ve survived the rough patches, such as when I was floundering as night…  [Read More]

Camping? Don’t Let Fear and Anxiety Ruin It for You

by Bill Brenner July 9, 2012 Fear and anxiety

I just got back from a weekend camping trip with the family. It’s the second time we did this in a camper, and I’ve done a few Cub Scout camping trips in the last year and a half. No small deal since OCD and anxiety used to make me fear such things. Mood music: [spotify:track:1v0rXeY3UipDeptRv73Xtx] Fear of dangerous situations used to keep me on the couch, and camping was one of those things that made…  [Read More]

Financial Fear and Anxiety? Try This Four-Step Exercise

by Bill Brenner June 29, 2012 Fear and anxiety

An old friend is racked with fear and anxiety. A clinical OCD case like me, he obsesses about the family budget, which he recently took over. He’s obsessed about everything that could go wrong with him in control. I know exactly what he’s going through. Mood music: [spotify:track:0vIvLrpvGepwfvmUK7i66J] Early in our marriage, Erin was chief budget keeper and bill payer. She insisted I try doing the bills so that I could get a better sense of…  [Read More]

Sometimes, Sobriety Sucks

by Bill Brenner June 1, 2012 Sobriety and abstinence

Some days I wish I could have a glass of wine or six. This leaves me with two choices: Fall off the wagon with zeal or stay sober and resent the world with zeal. It’s funny, because binge eating was the addictive behavior that got me into the most trouble and I don’t get this way over the flour and sugar I used to stuff myself with. Mood music: [spotify:track:1LHi4OZluPAa2iCf3QatBJ] Yesterday afternoon I was really…  [Read More]

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