Author: Overcoming Adversity | Buteau’s Odyssey

I’m knee-deep in writing my memoir. I have 350 pages of the first draft written and I haven’t even begun the narrative of my work with my former psychiatrist, Dr. Lev. That’s an additional 11 years of therapy. My writing instructor says the first draft is basically “word vomit,” and then you go back and edit, edit, edit. As the saying goes, every writer needs to “kill her darlings.” In preparation for writing about that time with Dr. Lev, whom I first saw in September 2005 and then was hospitalized six times in the subsequent 18 months for intense suicidality,…

I’m obsessed with urban legends. I love how they tell a detailed story about the people and culture of the those who see them. However, only a few of them fascinate me as much as Spring-Heeled Jack. Not because the story is particularly scary, but because it highlights something we’ve lost in our internet age. The slow burn of a mystery that unfolded over decades. Sure, we still get internet folklore like Slender Man, but most of those dry up after years or even months. Spring-Heeled Jack is an entity in English folklore whose first reported sighting was in 1837. But…

Bob Fingerman’s Recess Pieces was released previously by Dark Horse Comics back in 2006, but has been out of print for some time. Now, we have word that Recess Pieces has been reanimated… Courtesy of Cosmic Lion Productions and Bob Fingerman, Recess Pieces is back this October with reworked art and brand-new pages. According to Cosmic Lion, almost 60% of the release is brand new, and we have an exclusive extended preview just for Daily Dead readers! RECESS PIECES: REANIMATED features reworked art and BRAND NEW pages from the master cartoonist! Over 50% new material. “A fun romp through a…

Retirement has been a longtime dream as you’ve endured long commutes, office politics, and not enough time with each other. You’ve dreamed of lovely, unstructured days together—lingering over coffee in the morning, enjoying day trips and maybe exotic travels, rediscovering the fun of your courtship. But now retirement is here, and the dream has become something of a nightmare or, at best, underwhelming. If this scenario sounds familiar, you’re not alone. You can budget for years for retirement. You can plan long-postponed travel adventures. You might even relocate to an active adult resort community or to a place that you’ve…

Director David F. Sandberg is taking a swing at reviving The Amityville Horror franchise. The horror tale as old as time, or at least since the mid 1970’s, will be produced by Amazon MGM studios. Instead of a direct remake, the approach has been announced as more of a re-imagining. The original movie is based off of Jay Anson’s 1977 book of the same title. The film starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder dramatizes Anson’s work. The two brought the Lutz family’s horrifying story to life on the big screen in 1979. In the midst of America’s era of Satanic…

Rachel (not her real name) is the go-to person at work for everything, from helping you perfect your presentation, to unjamming the copier. She can get meetings with high-level people organized in record time, fix spreadsheets so that they make sense, mentor rising stars, and deliver presentations in a way that gets people motivated to take action. Everyone relies on Rachel because she’s so competent at so many different tasks. It’s almost as if she’s a specialist in everything. But despite her reliability, she feels overlooked for promotions or recognition. Sound familiar? Why does being so good at so many…

Living off-grid with three children thanks to the reckless actions of her ex-husband, single mother Tess finds herself stuck between a “sentient rock and a criminal hard place” after she inherits an island that’s home to ancient gods and one hell of a catch: as its new caretaker, she can’t leave the island after arriving. Such is the unique premise of Archaic, the five-issue comic book series from writer Melissa F. Olson, artist Sally Cantirino, and colorist Gab Contreras that is being collected in a trade paperback from AHOY Comics. Ahead of the trade paperback’s release on October 8th, we…

A previous post summarized the many myths about desire differences and the sex-therapy approach to resolving them—using either self-help or professional therapy. The sex-therapy program helps many couples—but not all. Recently, Canadian researchers reported an effective new approach, eight weeks of group therapy that produced significant benefits. It’s based on reimagining lovemaking to facilitate sex worth wanting. What if Low Desire Is a Reasonable Response to Lackluster Sex? Back in 2005, the Canadian team was not focused on desire differences. They wanted to understand what produces fantastic sex for long-term couples. They interviewed 64 longtime spouses who said they had…

What do you say when a colleague loses a loved one? Or when tragedy strikes your team? Many leaders want to help but freeze in the moment. Silence, however well-intentioned, often deepens the pain and leaves employees feeling unseen. Grief isn’t left at the office door. It travels with people, affecting focus, sleep, and motivation. Studies estimate unresolved grief costs billions annually in absenteeism, turnover, and lost productivity. But the impact isn’t just financial—it’s also cultural. Unacknowledged grief erodes trust, while compassionate leadership builds resilience and connection. What Trauma Can Look Like at Work Drawing from clinical criteria for trauma-related…

When I was seven months pregnant, someone handed me a copy of Twelve Hours by Twelve Weeks, a bestselling baby sleep manual. I devoured it like scripture. Everyone had warned me that the sleep deprivation would be brutal. This book promised salvation, if I just followed the rules: stretch feedings, track ounces, ignore midnight cries. My baby would sleep through the night by three months. I printed the feeding charts. I whispered affirmations. I believed I could teach my baby to sleep through the night. But when Lily arrived, with undiagnosed reflux and a need to feed every two hours,…