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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

What It Means to Be a Disciple

Jan 23, 2026

There’s a church in the U.S. that’s named “the Disciples of Christ.” I know little about it except from what I read on its web site. It was started...

mm Tom Carney

Our Blindness

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I recently read a book called “The Diary of Jesus Christ” by Bill Cain, who is an American playwright and Jesuit priest. It was a gift from a dear...

mm Tom Carney

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mm Tom Carney

The Pursuit of Happiness

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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...

mm Tom Carney

Setting Our Hand to the Plow

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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...

mm Tom Carney

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“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.”)...

mm Tom Carney

Skeptical Faith

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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...

mm Tom Carney

Between Belief and Faith?

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Many people think that either you’re a believer or you’re not. If you’re a believer, they may say, you must adhere to a faith that is expressed in dogma...