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“Do Not Be Afraid … You Are My Dearest Friends”*

Toxic Fear is perhaps life’s greatest hostage-taker. One psychiatrist calls it a “disease of the imagination.” Fear and disabling Worry can start off like a tiny seed and, watered by thoughts that emphasize worst-case scenarios, grow into a virus-like fiend that ends up dominating our mental state. It then holds us back from our ability to enjoy nearly every dimension of our life: our talents, our work, our love, our play, and our approach to a life in the Spirit.

This website is dedicated to three major Defense Systems that can be effective in helping us overcome the insidious nature of fear, as well as other mental health demons like depression. It will also focus on how we can better live out our lives free of those persistent foragers that roam throughout the corners of our minds… relentlessly haunting us.

Those three Defense Systems are: Spirituality, Psychology and Addiction. All three of these provide newly developed means of delving into the root causes of fear and depression and other mental health disorders, and assisting people in finding improved pathways to freedom, joy, and peace.

“Do not be afraid” – a phrase found 365 times in Sacred Scripture!

*Luke 12:32; translation found in The Bible in Contemporary Language, Eugene H. Peterson

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mm Tom Carney

A Pivotal Choice

May 29, 2026

“I asked AI for a prayer before dinner. It thanked the cloud.” “The church livestream added AI captions. “Prince of Peace” became “prints of peas.” These are jokes ChatGPT...

mm Tom Carney

An Antidote to Absurdity?

May 22, 2026

Back when I was studying philosophy, we briefly considered the writings of Albert Camus (1913-1960), a French Algerian novelist, essayist, playwright, and moral philosopher. A leading voice of mid-20th-century...

mm Tom Carney

The False or True Self

May 15, 2026

When writing about this subject I know I’m at risk of engaging in amateur psychology. Yes, the theme is evident in the writings of psychologists like Karl Jung and...

mm Tom Carney

Who Cares?

May 08, 2026

I haven’t recently written about the care of our earth because every time I do, I can almost feel the collective yawn. Data on my readership on Blogger always...

mm Tom Carney

Just War?

May 01, 2026

This blog is about the “just war theory,” but the title could just as easily apply to the proclivity of the U.S. and other powers to rely principally on...

mm Tom Carney

Never Too Late

Apr 24, 2026

Many news outlets have reported results of a recent Gallup poll showing an unprecedented increase in the number of young Americans who say religion is “very important” in their...

mm Tom Carney

A Sad State of Affairs?

Apr 17, 2026

I often wonder if I’m being too negative in these blogs. After all, I don’t want them to be downers, because my purpose is to help people who have...

mm Tom Carney

Our Trouble with Eyesight

Mar 27, 2026

A gospel reading from the evangelist John in a recent Catholic liturgy presented a story that is among my favorites because the characters are so relatable. Jesus and his...