Don't Get Too Excited

Publisher: Green Writers Press

Jen Epstein was born a worrier. As a child she worried her uvula would break off and she would swallow it and choke to death. Then she worried high voltage wires would get her. Eventually she was diagnosed with learning disabilities and later, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Smart but challenged, Jen navigates two years in Israel as a high school student and squabbling with technical support for her TV. She survives a two-night stay in the hospital, with all its dangers of contamination, and the nursing staff traipsing into her room at all hours of the night wanting her bodily fluids.     

    Whether pondering motherhood or refusing to drink ice water in Costa Rica, Jen, with her self-deprecating humor, exposes her inner demons with stories that are sometimes heartbreaking and always deeply personal, tapping into the minutiae of her life with distinctive style and themes of universal appeal.

Writer, activist, worker bee, Jen Epstein was raised by two mental health professionals and suffered as a child from anxiety and irrational fears. These fears evolved over time into Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

   Despite this, Jen received her BA in communication arts at Ramapo College of New Jersey and an MA in media studies at the New School. She has held positions in the television industry as a project manager and completed a documentary arts fellowship at UnionDocs in Brooklyn, both while working full-time for the nonfiction media company Discovery. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.