Mental Health Biography

The gripping story of James Harris, following the journey of his life altering Traumatic Brain Injury, that ended his promising Military career and tells of his path to recovery in a journey of self discovery. When he was told by the medical world, that he would never read or write or even work again. Rather than accept this, he looked for an alternative path to walk and during this recovery, found out that true inspiration lies within. From that moment when his skull cracked off the concrete and his world went black and he though this is it “I am dying”.

Many people struggle with their own mental health while providing for the needs of others on a daily basis. Follow W.P. Matisko through his spiritual journey, as he reflects and provides insights into the experiences that God used to shape him and mold him into the man that he is today.

Rise to the Sun: 7 Footsteps and 7 Prayers for Getting Out of Hell plays with travel and journey in two senses - forward on a physical road and into the heart of the self. This book on spiritual healing is a voyage to freedom set in the context of our times. A timely and necessary work, Rise to the Sun illustrates how humankind must seek to heal its own innate suffering before it can hope to succeed in healing the various external crises affecting our planet. The 7 Footsteps and 7 Prayers unlock a kinder, gentler, and long-lasting engine for transformation.

At 24, life was good for Georgie Dent. After graduating with top marks she landed her dream job at a prestigious Sydney law firm and moved in with a boyfriend she adored. She had the world at her feet and no right to break. But she did. Badly. Within a year Georgie was unemployed, back living with her parents and suffering such crippling anxiety that she ended up in a psychiatric hospital. Breaking Badly is the story of a nervous breakdown in slow motion, a life that fell apart and what it took to put it back together again.

A mid-century doctor's raw, unvarnished account of his own descent into madness, and his daughter's attempt to piece his life back together and make sense of her own. Texas-born and Harvard-educated, Dr. Perry Baird was a rising medical star in the late 1920s and 1930s. Early in his career, ahead of his time, he grew fascinated with identifying the biochemical root of manic depression, just as he began to suffer from it himself.

On August 26, 2015, Emmy Award-winning 24-year-old reporter Alison Parker was murdered on live television, along with her colleague, photojournalist Adam Ward. Their interviewee was also shot but survived. In the wake of his daughter's murder, Andy Parker became a national advocate for commonsense gun safety legislation. The night of the murder, with his emotions still raw, he went on Fox News and vowed to do "whatever it takes" to end gun violence in America.

On July 10, 1981, David Mellor was just a baseball-crazed kid, a star high school pitcher preparing to go to college and dreaming of one day taking the mound in Fenway Park for his beloved Boston Red Sox. His dream was derailed as he crossed the parking lot of a McDonald’s, where a car sent him flying through the air and into a wall. In the wake of the accident, even as he reached the major leagues as a groundskeeper, David was tortured by the aftermath of his injuries. One Base at a Time recounts in vivid detail his subsequent 29-year struggle with PTSD.

From Sandy Hook, Connecticut, to Aurora, Colorado, to Tucson, Arizona, this nation has been racked from coast to coast with mass shootings perpetrated by criminals with sick minds. Authors Dr. Liebert and Dr. Birnes believe the increase in violence is an epidemic and dig deep into the causes of mental illness to determine what exactly is going on with these individuals and society as a whole, and what action can be taken to slow this frightening trend toward mass violence.

If the universe, Buddha, Jesus, God, or whatever your religion came together to get this book into your hands, your understanding of the complex world of mental illness will be more advanced, so congratulations! Any person, regardless of their religion, nationality, color, or economic power is subject to this disease or its different symptoms and can also fall into the mistake of believing that absurd, erroneous behaviors, or those that are outside of what is socially accepted, are part of the personality.

Plagued by depression her entire life, it wasn’t until her early 50s that writer and book critic Bethanne Patrick, advocating for her own care, received a medical diagnosis that would set her on the path to wellness and stability. Recognizing the intergenerational effects of trauma and mental health struggles, Patrick unearths the stories of her past in order to forge a better future for herself and her two daughters, dismantling the stigmas surrounding mental health challenges that can plague families into silence and resignation.

In Heroes Are Human: Lessons in Resilience, Courage and Wisdom from the COVID Front Lines, we hear gripping firsthand accounts by those thrust into the depths of the crisis. This book is a must-listen for health care workers who have been besieged by the ongoing pandemic, for those who love them, and for any listener wanting to gain a deeper understanding of their immense sacrifices and struggles. Heroes Are Human also offers invaluable self-care insights in the face of trauma.

For many of us, what lies beyond conventional portrayals of mental illness is often shrouded in mystery, misconception and fear. Dr Sean Baumann spent decades as a Psychiatrist at Valkenberg Hospital and, through his personal engagement with patients’ various forms of psychosis, he describes the lived experiences of those who suffer from schizophrenia, depression, bipolar and other disorders. The stories told are authentic, mysterious and compelling, representing both vivid expressions of minds in turmoil and the struggle to give form and meaning to distress.

Nyna Giles was picking up groceries at the supermarket one day when she looked down and saw the headline on the cover of a tabloid: "Former Bridesmaid of Princess Grace Lives in Homeless Shelter". Nyna was stunned, shocked to see her family’s private ordeal made so public - the woman mentioned on that cover, Carolyn Scott Reybold, was her mother. In this powerful memoir of friendship and motherhood, Nyna Giles uncovers her mother’s past to answer the questions she never knew to ask.

Sometimes the hardest battle is the one after the war. As one of the soldiers on the front line of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Lieutenant Scotti was taught that weakness is what gets you killed: No hesitation, focus your energies on your objective, and complete the mission. Upon returning from war, Scotti approached his new life the same way. He ignored the creeping depression and numbness he called "The Blue Cascade" and charged ahead toward his goal to get an MBA, secure a high-paying finance job, and retire young and rich.

On April 14, 1865 John Wilkes Booth changed the world with a single bullet. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln had many repercussions and for Henry Rathbone they were profound. Henry was the only man to confront Booth and attempt to apprehend the assassin. Henry was also the man that let Booth escape. While Henry wasn't officially blamed for allowing John Wilkes Booth to kill Abraham Lincoln, he blamed himself.

In the Shadow of Fame, by the daughter of world-renowned psychoanalyst and theorist Erik Erikson, is the intimate story of her struggle to come to terms with her father's fame and to develop a sense of self in a family, and world, in which being famous is the very definition of being a worthwhile human being. And, while her story is unique in its personal details, it is also a description of the struggle faced by all of us in a modern world.

Balena è la storia di un corpo che cambia e diventa gigantesco, ma è anche la storia di una donna che si riappropria di sé grazie a quel corpo. Dopo la perdita del padre, a soli undici anni, Giulia inizia a cercare di colmare quel vuoto enorme col cibo, finendo per passare da 40 a 96 chili in pochi mesi. Poi, insieme al corpo, cominciano a crescere il rifiuto di sé e la vergogna, mentre compagni e insegnanti iniziano a trattarla in modo diverso. Un memoir toccante e acuto che racconta la stigmatizzazione del corpo, il superamento del lutto e la ricerca di un nuovo inizio.

Wenn ich heute in den Spiegel schaue, sehe ich einen gutaussehenden (Mal mehr, mal weniger) jungen Mann. Nicht perfekt. Narben überall am Körper, ein kleines Bäuchlein, Lovehandles, nicht sehr groß oder gar muskulös. Aber ein Anblick der mir gefällt. Das war nicht immer so und der Weg dahin war gepflastert mit Ängsten, Schmerzen, Abscheu, Komplikationen, Depressionen und Hoffnung. Mein Name ist Riyas Hoge und in I did it my way - Maskenball nehme ich euch mit auf meinen Weg in ein freies Leben.

One day in December, Natasha Walter's mother Ruth took her own life. At first, the grief and guilt that Natasha felt were overwhelming. As the author of feminist books and the founder of the charity Women for Refugee Women, Natasha had always been active in movements for social justice. But in the aftermath of her mother's suicide, her personal grief intertwines with a sense of political despair. Gradually, she starts to search back through Ruth's history, trying to understand how her life led to this death.

Mawunyo Gbogbo is a church-going African Australian girl growing up in the sleepy mining town of Muswellbrook, NSW. At home, her parents fight all the time, and sibling rivalry runs deep. At primary school, Black Is Beautiful until a racist bully dares to tell her otherwise. But at high school, she falls in love with two things that will alter the course of her adult life: the seductive thrill of hip hop music and charismatic bad boy Tyce Carrington. Tyce also feels like an alien in Australia, despite his Aboriginality—or because of it.