MSI Press Blog

  Just released - the audiobook edition of Anxiety Anonymous . Book description: When you are in the grip of anxiety, fear, or worry: - Do you feel powerless to stop your reacting? - Does your life feel unmanageable? - Does your craving for control interfere with your life? - Do you feel hopeless for a cure? If you answer "yes" to these questions, you anxiety has become an addiction. It acts like a drug that excites, numbs, and possesses you, causing you to avoid a full life. Viewing anxiety as an addiction, Dennis Ortman, Ph.D. guides you through the time-tested Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous to find relief from your anxiety. He shows how the Steps offer practical wisdom on how to transform your anxious habits of thinking into constructive action. The Steps invite you to stop, look, listen, and then consciously act to create a new life, awakening your true self. Award Finalist, American Book Fest Best Books Award For more posts about Dennis and his books, click  HERE .

  Excerpt from  Anxiety Anonymous  by Dr. Dennis Ortman --  Introduction   “Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe.” —Tao Te Ching  In our fast-paced society, living with stress seems normal. There is so much to do and so little time to do it. You may rationalize the stress as the inevitable price of ambition and success.  What you call stress is really anxiety. It is your fearful, nervous reaction to the many challenges of your life. That anxiety may escalate and persist to the point that you tell yourself: “I’m powerless over my anxiety, and my life has become unmanageable because of it.”   If your anxious reactions become harmfully excessive and beyond your control, you have crossed a line. You have become addicted to your anxiety. You experience it as powerful as any drug, taking over your life.  Nancy’s Story   Tonight was a special night for Nancy. She planned a surprise thirtieth birthday dinner for her husband Rick. It would be an intimate celebration for j

  Excerpt from Anxiety Anonymous -  Steps to Wholeness Appreciating the addictive quality of anxiety may open the door to a different way of finding relief and enable you to be more patient with yourself. Conventional therapy has been limited in helping because it does not reach to the deeper roots of anxiety in the human psyche. Therapy, including medication, addresses the symptoms and not the underlying cause in the human condition. In the 1930s, it became clear that psychology had failed in treating alcoholics. Carl Jung, the renowned Swiss psychologist, announced the failure and the need for a spiritual conversion. He called alcoholics “frustrated mystics” who looked for the Spirit in the spirits. Bill Wilson, a hopeless alcoholic, found recovery outside the walls of traditional psychological treatment. He and Dr. Bob Smith founded the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous and formulated the Twelve Steps as the guideposts of recovery. They realized from personal experience that only

  Dr. Ortman writes -  I wrote three “Anonymous” books for recovery from anxiety, depression, and anger. I view these mood states as similar to drug addictions that can be relieved by working the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. The seeds for these books were planted in my childhood. I was raised in an alcoholic family where I learned about the tragedy and power of addiction. As an adult, I sought healing and growth through therapy and participation in Adult Children of Alcoholics and Al-Anon groups. In graduate school, I wrote my dissertation on treating those with a dual diagnosis, that is, with both a substance use and mental health problem. Working with my patients in private practice for the past thirty years, I observed that many suffered from chemical dependencies and process addictions, such as gambling, shopping, and sexual acting out. I further noticed that many of my patients who suffered from anxiety, depression, and anger felt possessed by their moods and powerles

  Excerpt from Anxiety Anonymous Déjà Vu All Over Again All addictions begin with “stinking thinking.” After many experiences of the soothing effects of alcohol, a tranquilizer, the budding alcoholic begins to believe that she can find happiness in a bottle and cannot live without it. She continually tells herself, “I need a drink,” whether she is anxious, sad, angry, or happy. She rationalizes many reasons for drinking. Over time, as the addiction takes hold, she becomes more preoccupied with the thought of drinking. It becomes her obsession. She begins to plan her life around drinking opportunities on weekends with friends or at home alone to chill out. Her obsession with drinking spills over into compulsive behaviors. She develops drinking routines, going to the same bar every Friday evening, meeting the same people. Cocktail hour, with the same drink, mixed in the same way, happens every day at precisely 4:00 p.m. She may make rigid rules for herself to assure herself that she is n

The following guest post by Dr. Dennis Ortman, psychologist, former priest, and MSI Press author, will form the basis of a forthcoming book on coping with pandemic conditions, called The Pandemic and Hope . POST-PANDEMIC STR ESS DISORDER  By Dennis Ortman, Ph.D.     I have a fantasy. President Trump will eventually announce victory over the Coronavirus. He will declare, “We have won the war. We have shown our greatness as a nation in working together to defeat this invisible enemy.” He will then express gratitude to all the healthcare workers, who risked their lives, those who supported all the essential services, and the entire nation. He will also report remarkable progress on a vaccine and treatment. American ingenuity again triumphs. Hopefully, this day will come sooner than later.  However, while the war may be won on one front, another remains, the inner battle against fear. We cannot rest on our laurels. Many have aptly compared this epidemic