I bought a copy of Dr. Abramowitz’s Getting Over OCD: A 10-Step Workbook for Taking Back Your Life, it arrived yesterday. I’ve read it in 3 or 4 small chunks over the past 24 hours. It is really difficult for me to read. Not because Dr. Abramowitz doesn’t know what he is talking about or …
Trigger Warning: Among other topics this post discusses suicide. Five is the first time I clearly recall the obsessive thought and the driving compulsion. I was in Kindergarten. The room had two rows of shelves facing each other forming a corridor in the middle of the room. The layout was similar to that of a …
Not all of us who struggle with mental health issues use humor, nor do some of us find lighthearted portrayals of our suffering funny…but I do…and I’m not alone. Why humor about suffering? Perhaps because it is a means of coping with suffering. If I can laugh about it, I don’t have to cry…or perhaps …
I subscribe to Christianity Today and in their most recent issue (Nov. 2015, Vol. 59, Num. 9) they have an article by Douglas Groothuis, a well-known professor and author of theology and philosophy with the title “When Islands of Meaning Sink Beneath Us.” (pp. 50-55) The title alone lifted my spirits, but the contents are …
Sleep settled on me before I wanted it to – 11:30 pm. Then released me from its grasp before I desired – 2 am. It refuses to return for several hours, begrudgingly settling over me at 6 am. Having insomnia is frustrating, having it with zombies only amplifies this frustration. Last night my dreams were …
Introduction I’ve been blogging over the last number of weeks about my experiences with light therapy. I now have six full weeks of data – one week demonstrating what was a typical pre-light therapy nap pattern and the other five post-light therapy nap pattern. The aggregate data seems to indicate that the light therapy is …
I recently finished a small volume entitled The Hidden Price of Greatness by Ray Beeson and Ranelda Mack Hunsicker. It is subtitled, “Encouragement from the lives of well-known Christians whose suffering produced spiritual growth.” The book, including bibliography clocks in at 169 pp. I’ll be honest, I didn’t read the volume in its entirety. I read …
Who and Why JJ Heller has been, without contest, the most important musical artist in my struggles with anxiety. I’m listening to her song Have Mercy on Me and bawling my eyes out…something which I’ve been doing little of in recent weeks.1For a long time I needed to cry, but then I got to the point …
This is from an old book I stumbled upon that contains several hundred prayers by Floyd W. Tomkins – an individual whom I know nothing about, other than that his heart for God shines through in every prayer. This is not his entire prayer (though his prayers are short – around a paragraph), only a …
I’ve struggled throughout my life with OCD – for which I now take 60 mg daily of Prozac. I’ve struggled with ADD – for which I now take 20 mg daily of Adderall XR (extended release). I’ve struggled with dysthymia and major depressive episodes – for which I now take 300 mg Wellbutrin SR (sustained …