Welcome!

“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

Recent Posts

  • Leadership the World Desperately Needs

    Leadership training programs were all the rage in the corporate world a dozen or so years ago. I know that they’re still around, but I have the sense that they’re …

  • The Pursuit of Happiness

    Back in the day, Catholic seminary students were required to study philosophy during their college years. It was considered to be a good preparation for the four years of theological …

  • Setting Our Hand to the Plow

    If you’re like me, you’ve had enough of the Christmas season by the time Dec. 26 rolls around. After all, Christmas decorations have been up for at least a month …

  • About, and from, the Heart

    “Sooooo, you had excruciating pain in your chest and abdomen. “We think you had a myocardial infarction (sounding like something for which you should at least say “excuse me.”) Tests …

  • Skeptical Faith

    Hi, readers of Dr. Ted’s Thoughts. My apologies for missing two weeks of publication of the Skeptical Faith. I had very unexpected quadruple bypass surgery 10 days ago. I’m home …

Dr. Ted’s Mailing List

Recent

Past Posts

mm Tom Carney

Did You Get Your Invitation?

Dec 21, 2017

When I worked as a priest among the Aymara-speaking people of Bolivia, it wasn’t unusual when walking to communities high in the mountains to find remnants of pagan worship....

mm Ted

Third Sunday of Advent

Dec 17, 2017

“A man named John was sent from God.” Jn. 1:1   Something had to change. Something drastic had to happen. The Jewish world of first century Palestine was awash...

mm Tom Carney

Resilience, and the Search for God

Dec 16, 2017

When I was a kid, starting when I was about 8 or 9 years old, I believe, my friends and I used to be gone from our houses for...

mm Ted

Catholic advocates in full-court press on tax reform plan

Dec 13, 2017

Published on National Catholic Reporter. Click the link below to view: https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/catholic-advocates-full-court-press-tax-reform-plan

mm Ted

Second Sunday of Advent

Dec 08, 2017

  “Prepare the way of the Lord.” Mk. 1:1   Have you ever noticed that the people God chooses to announce his presence and prepare His way in the...

mm Tom Carney

There Should Be Some Grinch in All Believers

Dec 07, 2017

Around this time of year, I grumble about the lights and decorations at the malls and in neighborhoods, about the Christmas music that will have to be endured for...

mm Ted

First Sunday of Advent

Nov 30, 2017

  “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.” Mk: 13:1   Isaiah, one of the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, spoke these...

mm Tom Carney

Is Faith Childish?

Nov 30, 2017

At a recent visit to the house of my son and daughter-in-law near Chicago, my 3-year-old grandson pointed to the bald spot on the back of my head and...