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  Excerpt from Tips, Tools, and Anecdotes to Help during a Pandemic by Joanna Charnas.  6. The Same Pep Talk   I’ve had the same chronic illness for forty years, and I continue to have occasional relapses that necessitate staying home for one to two weeks to recover. I’m frightened every time this happens, and with each episode, I give myself the same pep talk. I remind myself that, with one notable exception (when I had a relapse and a sinus infection simultaneously), I always recover within two weeks. I tell myself my illness isn’t progressive, and so this relapse will be like all of the others, and I’ll be able to resume my regular activities in at most two weeks. I remember that eventually I always return to a functional state, and all I need to do is take care of myself and I’ll be fine. These re lapses never get easier and they still frighten me, but giving myself a pep talk and remembering how well I’ve managed over the decades helps me get through them. Paperback co

Part of a series on the coronavirus pandemic written by MSI Press authors to share expertise, help, and hope,  Tips, Techniques, and Anecdotes to Help during a Pandemic  focuses on physical and mental well being during any time of crisis. Topics include meditation and mindfulness; positivity; managing setbacks; laughing at oneself; overcoming chal lenges; friends, family, and others; managing daily tasks; adaptive solutions; tricks and tools; and miscellaneous musings. Joanna is also author of: Living Well with Chronic Illness 100 Tips and Tools for Managing Chronic Illness and A Movie Lover's Search for Romance . More posts about and by Joanna Charnas may be found HERE .

Being sick is the pits! The authors of these recommended books know. They are not only experts; they have also lived the experience. Read one, read them all! They are available at discount from MSI Press webstore (use code FF25 for a 25% discount). All are available on Kindle. How to Be a Good Mommy When You're Sick Soon after receiving her Bachelor's Degree, Dr. Emily Graves was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis and given a prognosis that she would be confined to a wheelchair within ten years. Shortly thereafter, pregnant with her first and only child, Emily's kidneys shut down. Thus, began a new chapter in Emily's life: balancing chronic illness, motherhood, and the professional ambitions that had caused her to excel as an academic and meet her husband. Today she is still fighting chronic illness, but she has found some answers as to how to manage that fight while being a good mother and spouse and continuing to pursue her professional ambitions. In this

  Excerpt from Tips, Tools, and Anecdotes to Help during a Pandemic (Charnas) 5. TOUGH TIMES   Running a therapy group on happiness is one of my favorite job responsibilities. There’s a huge industry focused on happiness. While doing research for the group, I learned that optimism boosts happiness, so we discuss this concept in the group. Like many of the things that make people happy, optimism may be innate, or we may have to mindfully develop the habits and skills that boost this attitude. Here’s my template for optimism:   Be hopeful. Show up. Do your best. Let go. Repeat.   Over the years, I’ve found it’s a winning formula. For more posts by and about Joanna and her books, click HERE . For more book excerpts, click HERE . For more pandemic books that are still relevant, click HERE . 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 .

  A HERO'S SUICIDE   b y Joanna J. Charnas   This following essay was written in 2017 but has not been previously published.   Earlier this week I learned that one of my former patients killed himself. I’m devastated and can’t stop thinking about him. His name was Ryan Larkin.   Ryan was a Navy SEAL. He completed four tours of duty, two in Iraq and two in Afghanistan as a corpsman. Ryan arrived at the inpatient psychiatry ward of the hospital that employs me four weeks prior to discharging from the Navy, and he remained with us for a month.   While he was in our care, I became concerned about Ryan’s treatment. His attending psychiatrist was a skilled and caring provider, but the other players in the larger mental health system seemed mostly fearful of Ryan. Fear is not an optimal state in which to deliver care. My colleagues repeatedly expressed concern about his opioid use and labeled him “drug seeking.” In 2016 the country had a new awareness of the burgeoning opioid abuse epidem

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES 1. DO WHAT WORKS: VILE COUGH DROPS As I recovered from a splenectomy, I caught the horrible cold that was going around my work place. It started with a hacking cough in my chest. The day the cough started, I went to the Nex (Navy exchange, similar to a 7-Eleven) in the basement of my building and bought cough drops. They were vile but wonderfully effective. I hated them but needed them to be even marginally functional and to get to sleep. I ran into my neighbor a couple of days after the coughing started and mentioned the horrible cough drops. He said he’d had the same illness and recommended a better- tasting brand. He fished one out of his pocket and gave it to me. His brand tasted much better, but I didn’t have the time or energy to go to the drug store right then, so I continued to ingest the horrid ones for a while longer. I often advise my mental health patients do what works to improve their health even if they don’t like the options, su

 In honor of Caturday, we are sharing a picture of Joanna Charnas's foster failure. It probably is difficult to give up a foster cat -- one gets attached. To get a better understanding about Joanna, read her book, A Movie Lover's Search for Romance .  A diverting and informative story of searching for love in mid-life by a divorced social worker, who intertwines entertaining stories of successful love interests with well-known movies containing similar plots and themes. Written as diary entries covering a 15-year period, the author shares openly, in detail, and with insights her experiences with dating, friendships, affairs, and relationships. Written candidly with a light hand and turns of phrase that reflect her personality and make the book hard to put down. Joanna has also written award-winning non-fiction about coping with chronic illness. Check out: Managing chronic illness demands constant mindfulness and management. It’s a process that constantly evolves over a lifetime

  Now is a good time to take a few minutes away from running errands and other busyness and become reacquainted with MSI Press author, Joanna Charnas, who just updated her author page with new information, new photo, and nifty links. Joanna's four books ( Living Well with Chronic Illness , 100 Tips and Tools to Manage Chronic Illness , A Movie Lover's Search for Romance , and Tips, Tools, and Anecdotes to Help during a Pandemic ) have won a number of awards. You can link up with each of them on Joanna's updated page. For more posts about Joanna and her books, 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 th

  Excerpt from A Movie Lover's Search for Romance (Joanna Charnas) THE NEW GUY   You don’t always know when you’re experiencing burnout until you’re hip deep in its muck. You also don’t comprehend how completely addicting Internet dating is until you’re hooked. So if you find yourself burned out from Internet dating, as I did, the prudent thing is to give it a rest. Although I planned to take a break from Internet dating, I’d become too addicted to stop. It didn’t matter that I was emotionally exhausted from too many blind dates. Which is when Simon entered my life.  I met Simon on an Internet dating site. When we first spoke on the phone, he asked if I’d meet him that evening at a party given in honor of a couple of his friends. Simon explained that his schedule was booked for the rest of the week, but he wanted to meet me right away. The party started in mid-afternoon, and assuming I wouldn’t be enslaved and forced into the sex trade, I agreed to rendezvous at his friends’ house