MSI Press Blog

  As a child, I imagined that the year 2020 would feature flying cars, magically calorie-free food, teleportation, and pets that were actually robots. What the actual year 2020 has brought is a complete dumpster fire. At the time of writing, we’re only halfway through, and so far we have experienced increasingly dangerous political divisions, major earthquakes, civic unrest, actual locusts (really), the deaths of cherished public figures, continuing protests for racial equality, massive fires, and murder hornets. We can’t forget about the murder hornets. Oh yes, as if all of this wasn’t already enough, we’re also facing an unprecedented global health crisis in the form of the coronavirus, otherwise known as COVID-19. The WHO first reported a novel virus on January 5, 2020, after a series of cases in Wuhan, China originally thought to be pneumonia proved to be from the same strand of a new disease. [1] The first cases outside China were reported on January 13. On January 20 t...

  The following excerpt comes from Seeking Balance in an Unbalanced Time by Steven Greenebaum. A FAMILY IN CRISIS               Pandemic. For most of us, and I certainly include myself, the notion of a worldwide pandemic has been ripped out of the realm of the theoretical and dumped with a thud in our laps. What do we do? How do we cope? How on Earth do we cope? How do we even try to lead some version of normal lives when life is no longer normal? How can we find and keep some kind of balance as we walk this pandemic tightrope? These are tough, important questions – and we want answers. Living a life of uncertainty 24/7 can break our heart and our spirit. Everything seems out of balance, especially our lives. So, what do we do?             The honest truth is, of course, there’s no one answer that solves this. There are so many different things for us to deal with as w...

  Excerpt from the pre-publication manuscript: Chapter 13 HOW DO WE USE OUR FREEDOM? “The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.” --Aung San Suu Kyi   ·        When the lockdowns began in March 2020 to stop the spread of the Coronavirus, “to flatten the curve,” we were shocked at this drastic measure. It underlined the seriousness and deadliness of the pandemic. We imagined the shutdown opening after a brief time. My friends and I exchanged humor and cartoons to help us cope with the shock and avoid panic. (The joking has slowed, almost to a standstill.) One cartoon was prescient of a coming attitude and agenda shift. It was a cartoon of a smiling Jim Carrey saying, “Hope they allow us off lockdown by July 4 th …so we can celebrate our freedom.” ·        His humor carries a stinging truth. Disillusionment has set in on a national scale. The lockdown was eased, but COVID-19 cases rose...

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!

  The following excerpt comes from Porn and the Pandemic (Joshua Shea). Preface A few words about this project: This book was researched and written between May 5, 2020, and May 21, 2020 during the COVID-19 “Coronavirus” pandemic. Any events of note regarding the pandemic that took place after May 21, 2020, are not reflected in this book. All statistics within the book were accurate at the time of writing and/or publication unless otherwise noted. The challenge with statistics is getting them from an independently audited source. Potential conflicts, where obvious, are noted. Although all of the original quotations or personal profiles were compiled during the research phase of this book, names were changed when requested by participants and some details condensed. All of the participants’ validity has been independently verified. While told in the first person, with several references to my former pornography addiction, the aim of this book is to capture a snapshot of bot...