MSI Press Blog

Proudly announcing the release of The Pandemic and Hope , the first book in our pandemic series -- a set of books dedicated to helping people make it safely (mentally and physically) through the pandemic. These books are written by experts in their fields, who are also authors by their own right of other MSI Press books, and  information about new books to be released in this series can be found on the MSI Press home page . Dr. Ortman has authored three hig hly respected, beloved, and extremely well reviewed MSI Press books related to various forms of addiction--all relevant to these times: Anger Anonymous Anxiety Anonymous Depression Anonymous   Find more posts about and by Dr. Ortman HERE . Find more posts about the pandemic (quarantine) HERE . And take the precautions needed to STAY WELL!

  excerpt from Depression Anonymous by Dr. Dennis Ortman PERSISTENT DEPRESSIVE DISORDER Alice, a woman feeling cheated by life: “I’ve been jinxed. Nothing has ever gone right for me. It began in childhood. I was the fat kid everyone picked on. In high school, no boys ever wanted to date me. And then there’s my health. I’ve suffered from asthma my whole life and had several auto accidents in which I was severely injured. I tried to make up for all my failures by being good at my job. I became an extremely competent executive secretary, a perfectionist. I took pride in my work. Would you believe I was fired because I complained so much about problems in the company? I just wanted the business to succeed. Even now, I’m the one who has to take care of our elderly parents because my siblings don’t want to have anything to do with them. You’d think my parents would appreciate all my help, but they just take me for granted. I often stay awake at night thinking about all the unfair thin

  Just released -- the hard cover version of the popular Depression Anonymous   by Dr. Dennis Ortman. Other versions of this book include paperback and Kindle . For more posts about Depression Anonymous , including excerpts, click HERE . For more posts about Dr. Ortman and his books, click HERE .

  Excerpt from The Pandemic and Hope (Ortman) -  A CRITICAL OPPORTUNITY The word “crisis” implies both danger and opportunity. The anxious mind sees only danger, what can go wrong. The wise mind glimpses opportunity and joins the battle with compassion and wisdom. We hear countless stories of people coming forth, risking their lives, to help others. So many people are responding to this tragedy with bravery, generosity, and compassion. There is a dawning awareness of our connectedness. But how far does it reach in our minds: to our community, our nation, the entire world? Will we hang on to a tribal view or open to a global consciousness? Our planet is a mere speck in the boundless, expanding universe. It is so fragile and cries out for care. It appears the epidemic will soon engulf the whole world. As our flu season ends, the time of disease will likely take hold in the southern hemisphere. We have an opportunity to extend our compassion to our southern neighbors, sharing our knowl

  MSI Press is happy to report the release of Life, Liberty, & Covid (Dr. Dennis Ortman)  as an e-book. The paperback version was released in December 2021. Congratulations to the two authors! To read posts about this book, including excerpts, and its authors, click  HERE .

  Life, Liberty, and Covid-19 (Ortrman) will be available for free through Kindle promotions Sep 22-Sep 26. For more posts by and about Dennis Ortman, click HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com. Want to communicate with one of our authors? You can! Find their contact information on our  Authors' Pages .

  In anticipation of the increasing sunniness of spring and the hope that such weather brings, we include here an excerpt from Dr. Dennis Ortman's book, The Pandemic and Hope . BREAKING BAD, MAKING GOOD How can we overcome the grip of our fears and let our natural light shine? It is a matter of breaking a bad habit of negative thinking and acting. Just as an alcoholic can have urges and still not drink, we can have anxious reactions and not indulge them. We have a choice to live with unavoidable anxiety or depression. If we refuse to change and grow, we will become depressed with a sense of a wasted life. If we want to mature, we will move out of our comfort zone and inevitably feel anxious. But in taking the risk and succeeding, we will grow in self-confidence, creating a larger comfort zone. So we choose our poison: growth-inhibiting depression or life-enhancing anxiety. Overcoming the bad habit of an anxiety-driven life involves four steps, requiring insight, courage, and persev

  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

  Excerpt from Depression Anonymous DEPRESSION AS A DRUG  All of us feel blue from time to time. After all, sadness, sorrow, and grief are natural reactions to the loss of persons and things that are important to us. Feeling sad, we withdraw into a cocoon to soothe ourselves and adjust to the change in our life. We withdraw to nurse the wound of the loss. Feeling the pain, we inwardly search for its meaning, looking for a way of making sense of it. In this grieving process, we slowly let go of all the energy we used to put into what was lost and come to accept the void in our lives. If we do not succumb to the temptation of bitterness, the accepted pain of sorrow opens our hearts to new life and to empathy for others.  But sometimes the loss can seem unbearable and the sorrow overwhelming. The sadness reaches to the core of our being and a black cloud envelops us. We cannot escape the darkness. Our bodies, minds, and spirits become possessed. We cannot sleep or eat normally,

    Excerpt from The Pandemic and Hope by Dr. Dennis Ortman -- PROLOGUE “There is no fear in love, for perfect love casts out fear.” I John 4:18 The Coronavirus has swept across the earth, not respecting national borders. It is truly a universal, global event. No social class is immune: the old and the young, the rich and the poor. The death toll rises each day. Its numbers are in the tens of thousands. Government leaders around the world are mobilizing their forces to fight this invisible enemy. COVID-19 has become a common enemy, surprisingly uniting countries with hostile relationships. Indeed, the media mantra rings true:”We are all in this together.” It appears to me that we are facing two invisible enemies: the Coronavirus and the fear virus. Both are equally pernicious and contagious in their own ways. The Coronavirus can kill the body. Fear can destroy our mental/emotional and spiritual wellbeing. It can lead to despair, and even suicide. We are witnessing today a worl

  ROMAN PILGRIMAGE   I had only one wish on my bucket list—to visit Rome. I lived there as a student nearly fifty years ago, and had never been back. Now was the time. I was excited by the prospect of visiting my old haunts. I wondered what I would discover, not so much about the eternal city, but about myself. How have I changed in those fifty years? The real journey, I realized, was inward. For the most part, I would be alone touring the city for two weeks. I expected the time to be a personal retreat, a spiritual pilgrimage. What it turned out to be was beyond my expectations.   I stayed at an airbnb near the Coliseum, in the center of the old city. Coincidentally, it was around the corner from the Hotel Forum where my mother stayed when visiting. The hotel became my landmark. Everything of interest to me was within walking distance. I had no agenda for each day and did not follow a guidebook. A fellow classmate had given me some suggestions of typical tourist sites, which I used as