Let's Talk About It

It can be difficult to discuss topics such as depression, schizophrenia, and other psychological challenges, but it's important to remember that many individuals go through these experiences. These books not only shed light on the intricacies of our minds but also offer practical guidance, and sensitive perspectives to better support each other. Approaching these topics with compassion can help reduce the stigma and judgment that often surround them.

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

by Bessel Van Der Kolk

#1 New York Times bestseller

"Essential reading for anyone interested in understanding and treating traumatic stress and the scope of its impact on society." --Alexander McFarlane, Director of the Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies

A pioneering researcher transforms our understanding of trauma and offers a bold new paradigm for healing in this New York Times bestseller

Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world's foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers' capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust.

It Didn't Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle

by Mark Wolynn

"This groundbreaking book offers a compelling understanding of inherited trauma and fresh, powerful tools for relieving its suffering. Mark Wolynn is a wise and trustworthy guide on the journey toward healing." --Tara Brach, PhD, author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge

A groundbreaking approach to transforming traumatic legacies passed down in families over generations, by an acclaimed expert in the field

Depression. Anxiety. Chronic Pain. Phobias. Obsessive thoughts. The evidence is compelling: the roots of these difficulties may not reside in our immediate life experience or in chemical imbalances in our brains--but in the lives of our parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents. The latest scientific research, now making headlines, supports what many have long intuited--that traumatic experience can be passed down through generations.

Extra Focus: The Quick Start Guide to Adult ADHD

by Jesse J Anderson

Extra Focus is your personal roadmap to understanding and living with adult ADHD. It's a no-judgement zone filled with understanding and guidance from someone who understands what it's like to live with ADHD (in a world that doesn't seem to understand it).

The Anxiety First Aid Kit: Quick Tools for Extreme, Uncertain Times

by Rick Hanson - Matthew McKay - Martha Davis - Elizabeth Robbins Eshelman - Martin N Seif - Sally M Winston - David A Carbonell - Catherine M Pittman - Elizabeth M Karle

"Ideal for these unsettling times; highly recommended for general readers."
--Library Journal (starred review)

A quick-relief guide for calming anxiety and stress right now.

If you're feeling unprecedented levels of stress and anxiety right now, please know that you aren't alone. In these extreme and uncertain times, it's natural to be in a constant state of mental and physical strain. Whether you're dealing with job loss, a sick loved one, or just feeling the weight of the world during your 2 a.m. doomscroll--you need quick tools you can use right now, whenever and wherever you are, to lower stress and soothe anxiety. This emergency kit has you covered.

Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me: Depression in the First Person

by Anna Mehler Paperny

An engrossing memoir-meets-investigative report that takes a fresh, frank look at how we treat depression.

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.

Knockout

by Mia Kang

An intimate and unflinching memoir exploring Mia Kang's journey from self-loathing to self-love

Mia Kang is many things: a sought-after model, an immigrant, an eating disorder survivor, and a Muay Thai fighter. Her first book, Knockout, is the story of how she eschewed normative body standards and learned to use martial arts to redefine her sense of self-worth. In a charming, fierce, and intimate voice, Kang invites readers into her world. She once lived and died by her weight, but she is now defined by her confidence in being a woman who lives outside the mold of what we're taught is "feminine." After dealing with bullying, addiction, body dysmorphia, anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts, Mia acknowledges that she is lucky to still be alive to tell readers what she's learned: to not let anyone else dictate who you are supposed to be.

What's Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety

by Cole Kazdin

"What's Eating Us is a feat of reporting in the hope of helping people repair their relationship with their bodies and food." --Shondaland

Blending personal narrative and investigative reporting, Emmy Award-winning journalist Cole Kazdin reveals that disordered eating is an epidemic crisis killing millions of women.

Women of all ages struggle with disordered eating, preoccupation with food, and body anxiety. Journalist Cole Kazdin was one such woman, and she set out to discover why her own full recovery from an eating disorder felt so impossible. Interviewing women across the country as well as the world's most renowned researchers, she discovered that most people with eating disorders never receive treatment--the fact that she did made her one of the lucky ones.

The Way She Feels: My Life on the Borderline in Pictures and Pieces

by Courtney Cook

What does it feel like to fall in love too hard and too fast, to hate yourself in equal and opposite measure? To live in such fear of rejection that you drive friends and lovers away? Welcome to my world. I'm Courtney, and I have borderline personality disorder (BPD), along with over four million other people in the United States. Though I've shown every classic symptom of the disorder since childhood, I wasn't properly diagnosed until nearly a decade later, because the prevailing theory is that most people simply "grow out of it." Not me.

Surrounded by Narcissists: How to Effectively Recognize, Avoid, and Defend Yourself Against Toxic People (and Not Lose Your Mind) [The Surrounded

by Thomas Erikson

Are the narcissists in your life making you miserable? Are you worn out by their constant demands for attention, their absolute conviction they are right (even when they're clearly not), their determination to do whatever they want (regardless of the impact), and their baffling need to control everyone and everything around them?

In this thought-provoking, sanity-saving book, Thomas Erikson helps you understand what makes narcissists tick and, crucially, how to handle them without wearing yourself out in the process. With the help of the simple, four-color behavioral model made famous in Surrounded by Idiots, Erikson provides all the tools you need to manage not just the narcissists around you but everyday narcissistic behaviors as well-something that is becoming more widespread in the age of social media.

Soldiers Don't Go Mad: A Story of Brotherhood, Poetry, and Mental Illness During the First World War

by Charles Glass

A brilliant and poignant history of the friendship between two great war poets, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, alongside a narrative investigation of the origins of PTSD and the literary response to World War I

From the moment war broke out across Europe in 1914, the world entered a new, unparalleled era of modern warfare. Soldiers faced relentless machine gun shelling, incredible artillery power, flame throwers, and gas attacks. Within the first four months of the war, the British Army recorded the nervous collapse of ten percent of its officers; the loss of such manpower to mental illness - not to mention death and physical wounds - left the army unable to fill its ranks. Second Lieutenant Wilfred Owen was twenty-four years old when he was admitted to the newly established Craiglockhart War Hospital for treatment of shell shock.

Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses

by Sarah Fay

Over thirty years, doctors diagnosed Sarah Fay with six different mental illnesses--anorexia, major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and bipolar disorder.Pathological is the gripping story of what it was like to live with those diagnoses, and the crippling impact each had on her life. It is also a rigorous investigation into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)--psychiatry's "bible," the manual from which all mental illness diagnoses come. Yet as Fay found out, some of our most prominent psychiatrists have been trying to warn us that the DSM is fiction sold to the public as fact.

Of Fear and Strangers: A History of Xenophobia

by George Makari

By 2016, it was impossible to ignore an international resurgence of xenophobia. What had happened? Looking for clues, psychiatrist and historian George Makari started out in search of the idea's origins. To his astonishment, he discovered an unfolding series of never-told stories. While a fear and hatred of strangers may be ancient, he found that the notion of a dangerous bias called "xenophobia" arose not so long ago.

Coined by late-nineteenth-century doctors and political commentators and popularized by an eccentric stenographer, xenophobia emerged alongside Western nationalism, colonialism, mass migration, and genocide. Makari chronicles the concept's rise, from its popularization and perverse misuse to its spread as an ethical principle in the wake of a series of calamites that culminated in the Holocaust, and its sudden reappearance in the twenty-first century.

The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture

by Gabor Maté - Daniel Maté

In this revolutionary book, renowned physician Gabor Maté eloquently dissects how in Western countries that pride themselves on their healthcare systems, chronic illness and general ill health are on the rise. Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug; more than half take two. In Canada, every fifth person has high blood pressure. In Europe, hypertension is diagnosed in more than 30 percent of the population. And everywhere, adolescent mental illness is on the rise. So what is really "normal" when it comes to health?

Breaking Through Depression: A Guide to the Next Generation of Promising Research and Revolutionary New Treatments

by Philip William Gold

"A thorough, up-to-date, and upbeat introduction to current scientific thinking about mood disorders and their treatment. An important resource for patients and their families--and for anyone curious about progress in psychiatric research."―Peter D. Kramer, Listening to Prozac

This inspiring exploration of the recent advances in depression research and treatment shares new methods that offer promising paths to wellness.

Sincerely, Your Autistic Child: What People on the Autism Spectrum Wish Their Parents Knew about Growing Up, Acceptance, and Identity

by Emily Paige Ballou - Sharon Davanport - Morénike Giwa Onaiwu - Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network

A diverse collection of autistic voices that highlights how parents can avoid common mistakes and misconceptions, and make their child feel truly accepted, valued, and celebrated for who they are.

Most resources available for parents come from psychologists, educators, and doctors, offering parents a narrow and technical approach to autism. Sincerely, Your Autistic Child represents an authentic resource for parents written by autistic people themselves.

Finding Comfort During Hard Times: A Guide to Healing after Disaster, Violence, and Other Community Trauma

by Earl Johnson

Booklist Starred Review - Finding Comfort is about providing emotional and spiritual care following a mass fatality incident like a mass shooting, terrorist act or catastrophic natural disaster. Through examples and practical suggestions, it explores the needs of those who are suffering and how those needs can be met.

Malady of the Mind: Schizophrenia and the Path to Prevention

by Jeffrey a Lieberman

"The most important book about schizophrenia in decades, and perhaps ever...a total game-changer." --Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind

A comprehensive, deeply researched, and highly readable portrait of schizophrenia--its history, its various manifestations, and how today's treatments have promising and often lifesaving potential.

This "incredibly captivating" (Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies) portrait of schizophrenia, the most malignant and mysterious mental illness, by renowned psychiatrist Jeffrey Lieberman, interweaves cultural and scientific history with dramatic patient profiles and clinical experiences to impart a revolutionary message of hope. For the first time in history, we can effectively treat schizophrenia, limiting its disabling effects--and we're on the verge of being able to prevent the disease's onset entirely.

Presence: The Strange Science and True Stories of the Unseen Other

by Ben Alderson-Day

A psychologist's journey to understand one of the most unusual experiences known to humankind: the universal, disturbing feeling that someone or something is there when we are alone.

These experiences of sensing a Presence when no one else is there have been given many names--the Third Man, guardian angels, shadow figures, "social" hallucinations--and they have inspired, unsettled, and confounded in equal measure.

Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us

by Rachel Aviv

New York Times bestseller

Strangers to Ourselves poses fundamental questions about how we understand ourselves in periods of crisis and distress. Drawing on deep, original reporting as well as unpublished journals and memoirs, Rachel Aviv writes about people who have come up against the limits of psychiatric explanations for who they are. She follows an Indian woman celebrated as a saint who lives in healing temples in Kerala; an incarcerated mother vying for her children's forgiveness after recovering from psychosis; a man who devotes his life to seeking revenge upon his psychoanalysts; and an affluent young woman who, after a decade of defining herself through her diagnosis, decides to go off her meds because she doesn't know who she is without them. Animated by a profound sense of empathy, Aviv's gripping exploration is refracted through her own account of living in a hospital ward at the age of six and meeting a fellow patient with whom her life runs parallel--until it no longer does.

Featured Posts

Bookfinity