A Pity Party Is Still a Party by
Most of us try to avoid feeling sad, but in this candid, comical, and deeply-felt book, therapist Chelsea Harvey Garner doesn't just argue that the future will be brighter if we learn to enjoy the unenjoyable and support each other when the vibes aren't so good, she also shows us how. What if all the advice we've received about "looking on the bright side" is wrong? What if sadness is actually the key to happiness, and can even be . . . fun? Garner is here to make that case. In this feel-good guide to feeling bad, she claims it's not enough for us to tolerate hard feelings. We need to embrace them. We need to let them show by crying with others. Often. In public. Playful, at times irreverent, but always sincere, Garner is the grown-up Miss Frizzle for the therapy generation. She believes that if we want to build a world where mental health is the norm, we have to lean into connection and count on each other, even--and perhaps especially--at our worst. Through anecdotes about her own hardships and insights gained in her clinical practice, Garner illuminates the power (and embarrassment) of opening up. Featuring solo exercises, group activities, and journal prompts alongside personal essays, she invites us to see emotions in a new light and engage with them in a healthier way. A Pity Party is Still a Party helps us find the silver lining, but only after we've played in the rain.
Super-Women by
"For women with anxiety, depression, and trauma, each day can feel like a battle. Using a unique blend of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and "superhero therapy," this one-of-a-kind guide helps women explore and process painful experiences, rewrite their "origin stories," and use mindfulness and self-compassion to tap into their own unique superpowers for lasting healing.
Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen by
Black women are beautiful, intelligent and capable --but mostly they embrace strong. Esteemed clinical psychologist, Dr. Inger Burnett-Zeigler, praises the strength of women, while exploring how trauma and adversity have led to deep emotional pain and shaped how they walk through the world. Black women's strength is intimately tied to their unacknowledged suffering. An estimated eight in ten have endured some form of trauma--sexual abuse, domestic abuse, poverty, childhood abandonment, victim/witness to violence, and regular confrontation with racism and sexism. Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen shows that trauma often impacts mental and physical well-being. It can contribute to stress, anxiety, PTSD, and depression. Unaddressed it can lead to hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, overeating, and alcohol and drug abuse, and other chronic health issues. Dr. Burnett-Zeigler explains that the strong Black woman image does not take into account the urgency of Black women's needs, which must be identified in order to lead abundant lives. It interferes with her relationships and ability to function day to day. Through mindfulness and compassionate self-care, the psychologist offers methods for establishing authentic strength from the inside out. This informative guide to healing, is life-changing, showing Black women how to prioritize the self and find everyday joys in self-worth, as well as discover the fullness and beauty within both her strength and vulnerability.
Unwinding Anxiety by
We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember. Whether facing issues as public as a pandemic or as personal as having kids at home and fighting the urge to reach for the wine bottle every night, we are feeling overwhelmed and out of control. But in this timely book, Judson Brewer explains how to uproot anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques and small hacks accessible to anyone.
Nervous Energy by
A roadmap for high achievers to harness restlessness, roadblocks, and distractions into a productive drive towards personal and professional fulfillment. Many people reach success by deliberately being their own worst critic and obsessively double-checking their work; or by pushing their feelings aside. This strategy is seductive because it does work, at least up to a certain point. The problems arise once you advance beyond school and early career stages. The higher you climb, the more complex projectsand issues in your life become. Meanwhile, you may have become so good at putting your emotions aside in certain situations that it's hard to reconnect with them. This is when the old tools no longer suffice. The "somewhat OCD" tendencies we pride ourselves on, or rather, the "Nervous Energy" we possess, can become mismanaged, and lead us down a rabbit hole of excessive self-criticism, anxiety, and pessimism. In Nervous Energy, Dr. Chloe Carmichael outlines nine tools with step-by-step instructions that can help you harness your Nervous Energy in order to live a more productive and fulfilling life.
The Anatomy of Anxiety by
From acclaimed psychiatrist Dr. Ellen Vora comes a groundbreaking understanding of how anxiety manifests in the body and mind--and what we can do to overcome it. In The Anatomy of Anxiety, holistic psychiatrist Dr. Ellen Vora offers nothing less than a paradigm shift in our understanding of anxiety and mental health, suggesting that anxiety is not simply a brain disorder but a whole-body condition. In her clinical work, Dr. Vora has found time and again that the symptoms of anxiety can often be traced to imbalances in the body. The emotional and physical discomfort we experience--sleeplessness, brain fog, stomach pain, jitters--is a result of the body's stress response. This physiological state can be triggered by challenging experiences as well as seemingly innocuous factors, such as diet and use of technology. The good news is that this body-based anxiety, or, as Dr. Vora terms it, "false anxiety," is easily treated. Once the body's needs are addressed, Dr. Vora reframes any remaining symptoms not as a disorder but rather as an urgent plea from within. This "true anxiety" is a signal that something else is out of balance--in our lives, in our relationships, in the world. True anxiety serves as our inner compass, helping us recalibrate when we're feeling lost. Practical, informative, and deeply hopeful, The Anatomy of Anxiety is the first book to fully explain the origins of anxiety and offer a detailed road map for healing and growth.
Happy Not Perfect by
Even before the pandemic brought on a crushing wave of stress, anxiety, isolation, life change, and financial struggle, there was already a growing mental health crisis. Due to a culture that encourages perfection, hustle, and fictional life/work balance, many are burning out. Behind her Instagram-projected image of "happy wellness founder," Poppy Jamie was also struggling mightily with perfectionism and life purpose. She began working with mental health experts and researchers to find practical tools to overcome her inner critic and rewire her mind. She discovered that it is possible to create new neural pathways in your brain to break patterns of avoidance, challenge fears of not being good enough, and turn failure around by stretching the mind with new, healthier thought habits. The old wiring (and habits) that you've been stuck with can be written-over. You can actually upgrade your headspace to make curiosity, vulnerability, compassion, and emotional flexibility your default settings. Our emotional resilience may continue to be tested, but the new perspectives and strategies in Happy Not Perfect will help us bring confidence, adaptability, and acceptance to whatever comes next.
Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me by
Depression is a havoc-wreaking illness that masquerades as personal failing and hijacks your life. After a major suicide attempt in her early twenties, Anna Mehler Paperny resolved to put her reporter's skills to use to get to know her enemy, setting off on a journey to understand her condition, the dizzying array of medical treatments on offer, and a medical profession in search of answers. Charting the way depression wrecks so many lives, she maps competing schools of therapy, pharmacology, cutting-edge medicine, the pill-popping pitfalls of long-term treatment, the glaring unknowns and the institutional shortcomings that both patients and practitioners are up against. She interviews leading medical experts across the US and Canada, from psychiatrists to neurologists, brain-mapping pioneers to family practitioners, and others dabbling in strange hypotheses--and shares compassionate conversations with fellow sufferers. Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me tracks Anna's quest for knowledge and her desire to get well. Impeccably reported, it is a profoundly compelling story about the human spirit and the myriad ways we treat (and fail to treat) the disease that accounts for more years swallowed up by disability than any other in the world. If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, help is available. Contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255.
The Inflamed Mind by
In this game-changing book, University of Cambridge Professor of Psychiatry Edward Bullmore reveals the breakthrough new science on the link between depression and inflammation of the body and brain. He explains how and why we now know that mental disorders can have their root cause in the immune system, and outlines a future revolution in which treatments could be specifically targeted to break the vicious cycle of stress, inflammation and depression. The Inflamed Mind goes far beyond the clinic and thelab, representing a whole new way of looking at how mind, brain and body all work together in a sometimes misguided effort to help us survive in a hostile world. It offers insights into the story of Western medicine, how we have got it wrong as well as right in the past, and how we could start getting to grips with depression and other mental disorders much more effectively in the future.
This Is Depression by
Depression sucks. It's a debilitating illness that affects the mind and the body-and chances are that you or someone you love will battle depression at some point in your lifetime. This Is Depression is your guide through the darkness. A widely respected authority on the diagnosis and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders, psychiatrist Dr. Diane McIntosh provides all the information you need to understand and combat this serious and isolating disorder. Written in an accessible format with compassion and humor, Dr. McIntosh takes an evidence-based approach as she outlines the causes, impact, and treatment of depression and along the way provides encouragement that it can be overcome.
The Hilarious World of Depression by
For years John Moe, critically-acclaimed public radio personality and host of The Hilarious World of Depression podcast, struggled with depression; it plagued his family and claimed the life of his brother in 2007. As Moe came to terms with his own illness, he began to see similar patterns of behavior and coping mechanisms surfacing in conversations with others, including high-profile comedians who'd struggled with the disease. Moe saw that there was tremendous comfort and community in open dialogue about these shared experiences and that humor had a unique power. Thus was born the podcast The Hilarious World of Depression. Inspired by the immediate success of the podcast, Moe has written a remarkable investigation of the disease, part memoir of his own journey, part treasure trove of laugh-out-loud stories and insights drawn from years of interviews with some of the most brilliant minds facing similar challenges.
Helping Others with Depression by
The book is meant for those who want to help a loved one with depression. The book details what depression is and what its main symptoms and manifestations are, followed by proven strategies for encouraging someone to get treatment and suggestions for how to tell when depressive symptoms are getting worse and may indicate a risk for suicide.
I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by
A successful young social media director at a publishing house chronicles her ten years of psychiatric treatment for depression and she fought back against the harmful behaviors that kept her locked in a cycle of self-abuse.
The Scar by
When her first-born child died two days after birth, Cregan was plunged into suicidal despair. Decades later, sustained by her work, a second marriage, and a son, Cregan reflects on this pivotal experience and attempts to make sense of it. She weaves together literature and research while considering her life as part of the larger history of our understanding of depression. Weighing the benefits of shock treatment against its terrifying pop culture depictions, Cregan also explores the controversy around antidepressants and how little we know about them, and sifts through the history of the hospital where her recovery began.
A Cure for Darkness by
Weaving in personal and family history, an award-winning science writer, reporting on the field of global mental health from its colonial past to the present day, presents a fascinating look at the treatment of depression.
Depression in Later Life by
The geriatric population, defined as men and women 65 years and older, is the fastest growing population in the world. While gerontology, the study of the aging process in human beings, has brought insights about the physical, emotional, and social needs of this population, little attention has been given to the mental health of the aging, and often treatable disorders are overlooked entirely. Depression is one of the leading mental disorders in any age group, but among the elderly it is often viewed as a normal part of aging. But it?s not. Depression at any age requires attention and treatment. For sufferers and their families and caregivers, this go-to guide introduces readers to depression among the aging and elderly.
The Night Parade by
In this genre-bending and deeply emotional memoir that mirrors the sensation of being caught between realms, the author, after the death of her father, grapples with her bipolar disorder and sets out to interrogate the very notion of recovery through the lens of figures from Japanese, Taiwanese and Okinawan legend.
When the Sun Bursts by
Many schizophrenics experience their condition as one of radical incarceration, mind-altering medications, isolation, and dehumanization. At a time when the treatment of choice is anti-psychotic medication, world-renowned psychoanalyst Christopher Bollas asserts that schizophrenics can be helped by much more humane treatments, and that they have a chance to survive and even reverse the process if they have someone to talk to them regularly and for a sustained period, soon after their first breakdown. In this sensitive and evocative narrative, he draws on his personal experiences working with schizophrenics since the 1960's. He offers his interpretation of how schizophrenia develops, typically in the teens, as an adaptation in the difficult transition to adulthood.
Footprints of Schizophrenia by
Of all the mental illnesses, schizophrenia eludes us the most. No matter the strides scientists have made in neurological research nor doctors have made in psychiatric treatment, schizophrenia remains misunderstood, almost complacently mythologized. Without a reason for the illness, patients feel even more alienated than they already do, families are left hopeless, and doctors struggle to provide accurate care. Steven Lesk, though, after a medical career dedicated to those affected by schizophrenia and a determination to find the answer to its existence, presents a groundbreaking theory that will forever change the lives of the mentally ill. In Footprints of Schizophrenia: The Evolutionary Roots of Madness, Lesk threads evolutionary evidence with neurological evidence, turning the mysteries of our minds into a tapestry of logic. With his breakthrough theory and this unprecedented book, Lesk will invite necessary cultural dialogue about this stigmatized illness, provoke new psychiatric and pharmacological research, and provide unequivocal comfort to those afflicted and affected by schizophrenia.
Malady of the Mind by
This brilliant portait of schizophrenia-the most malignant and least understood mental illness-by renowned psychiatrist Jeffrey Lieberman, Chair of Columbia's legendary Psychiatry department, interweaves cultural and scientific history with dramatic patient portraits and clinical experiences to impart a revolutionary message of hope: that for the first time in human history, schizophrenia can not just be effectively treated, but even prevented. Of the many myths and misconceptions that have historically obscured our understanding of schizophrenia, the most pernicious is that there is no effective treatment or cure. The reality couldn't be more different: the truth is that today's treatments have the potential to be game-changing-and often lifesaving. In this rigorously researched, deeply compelling biography of schizophrenia, Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman draws on his four-decade career to tell the story of the past, present, and future of this historically dreaded, often disabling illness.
Like Crazy by
Dan Mathews knew that his eccentric mother, Perry Lawrence, was outspoken, foul-mouthed, and, at seventy-nine years old, unable to maintain her fiercely independent lifestyle-so he flew her across the country (with a gay man as her escort) to live with him in a dilapidated Victorian townhouse in Portsmouth, Virginia. What he didn't know was that she was schizophrenic. Over the next five years, Dan and Perry built a rollicking life together fueled by costume parties, experiments in drug use, and an unshakeable sense of humor as they faced down illness, natural disasters, and Perry's steady decline. With the help of an ever-expanding circle of friends-boyfriends new and old, strippers, DJs, gun nuts, Evangelical Christians, and everyone in between-they flipped the parent-child relationship on its head, with the globe-trotting animal rights activist finally learning to slow down and care for the woman who raised him.
Break the Cycle by
The definitive, paradigm-shifting guide to healing intergenerational trauma-weaving together scientific research with practical exercises and stories from the therapy room-from Dr. Mariel Buqué, PhD, a Columbia University-trained trauma-informed psychologist and practitioner of holistic healing.
The Evil Hours by
In the tradition of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Noonday Demon, a moving, eye-opening exploration of PTSD. Just as polio loomed over the 1950s, and AIDS stalked the 1980s and '90s, posttraumatic stress disorder haunts us in the early years of the twenty-first century. Over a decade into the United States' "global war on terror," PTSD afflicts as many as 30 percent of the conflict's veterans. But the disorder's reach extends far beyond the armed forces. In total, some twenty-seven million Americans are believed to be PTSD survivors. Yet to many of us, the disorder remains shrouded in mystery, secrecy, and shame.Now, David J. Morris -- a war correspondent, former Marine, and PTSD sufferer himself -- has written the essential account of this illness. Through interviews with individuals living with PTSD, forays into the scientific, literary, and cultural history of the illness, and memoir, Morris crafts a moving work that will speak not only to those with the condition and to their loved ones, but also to all of us struggling to make sense of an anxious and uncertain time.
Finding Your Best Self by
Addiction and trauma are two of the most common and difficult issues that people face. In this motivating book, leading expert Lisa Najavits explains the link between addiction and trauma and presents science-based self-help strategies that you can use no matter where you are in your recovery. Every chapter features inspiring words from people who have "been there," plus carefully designed reflection questions, exercises, and other practical tools.
40 Mental Health Resources for Seniors - Senior Lifestyle
Anxiety & Depression Association of America
Crisis & Trauma Resource Institute
Depression: Supporting a Family Member or Friend - Mayo Clinic
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance