Mental Health Relationships

Perhaps you want to be nicer to yourself but don’t really know how to get there. Or maybe you’re someone who assumes self-criticism is a permanent part of your personality. Rest assured you’re not alone. Millions of people struggle with the toll that excessive self-criticism takes on their minds, energy levels, jobs, and relationships. And problems with self-talk vary dramatically from one person to the next: they can appear as mild but persistent inner criticism, full-blown self-loathing, or the pain of internalized oppression or abuse.

An affair: It can rob a couple of their relationship, their happiness, their very identity. And yet this extremely common human experience is so poorly understood. Adultery has existed since marriage was invented, and so, too, the prohibition against it - in fact it has a tenacity that marriage can only envy. Iconic couples' therapist and best-selling author of Mating in Captivity Esther Perel returns with a groundbreaking and provocative look at infidelity, arguing for a more nuanced and less judgmental conversation about our transgressions.

In The Dominance Playbook, kink educator and lifelong power exchange fanatic Anton Fulmen builds on the fundamentals he established in The Heart of Dominance to explore beyond the basics of dominance and submission in both scenes and relationships. The playbook includes inspiration and practical advice for a wide range of power exchange practices: administering effective punishments, providing useful service, navigating the delicate territory of sexual objectification, and other fulfilling but sometimes tricky areas of kink.

An essential resource designed to help partners of people with bipolar disorder mend strained relationships, negotiate episodic crises, survive the turbulence manic behavior may cause, and more.

Rex Forehand, PhD, and Nicholas Long, PhD, have helped thousands of parents achieve discipline using positive reinforcement, without yelling or harming the child's self-esteem. Their clinically proven, five-week program gives you the tools you need to successfully manage your child's behavior, giving specific factors that cause or contribute to disruptive behavior, ways to develop a more positive atmosphere in your family and home, and strategies for managing specific behavior problems.

What if imagination and art are not, as many of us might think, the frosting on life but the fountainhead of human experience? What if our logic and science derive from art forms rather than the other way around? In this trenchant volume, Rollo May helps all of us find those creative impulses that, once liberated, offer new possibilities for achievement. A renowned therapist and inspiring guide, Dr. May draws on his experience to show how we can break out of old patterns in our lives.

If life with your teen has become a battleground, it's time to take action. This empathic book shows how. Trusted psychologists who have worked with thousands of families give you the tools you need to overcome defiance and get teen behavior back on track. Vivid stories and answers to frequently asked questions help you put the techniques into action. The updated second edition incorporates new scientific research on why some teens have more problems with self-control than others.

Pete Earley had no idea. He'd been a journalist for over 30 years, and the author of several award-winning, even best-selling, nonfiction books about crime and punishment and society. Yet he'd always been on the outside looking in. He had no idea what it was like to be on the inside looking out until his son, Mike, was declared mentally ill, and Earley was thrown headlong into the maze of contradictions, disparities, and catch-22s that is America's mental health system.

The first love in our lives is our mother. Recognizing her face, her voice, the meaning of her moods, and her facial expressions is crucial to survival. In this book, Dr. Christine Ann Lawson vividly describes how mothers who suffer from borderline personality disorder produce children who may flounder in life even as adults, futilely struggling to reach the safety of a parental harbor, unable to recognize that their borderline parent lacks a pier, or even a discernible shore.

Anger is a completely normal, healthy human emotion. But when it gets out of control and turns destructive, it can lead to problems - at work, in personal relationships, and in the overall quality of life. Anger Management for Dummies provides trusted and authoritative information on anger management methods, skills, and exercises that will help you or a loved one identify sources of anger and release them healthily.

Dr. Faith Harper lays it all out: what anxiety is, what it's good for - that's right, it's actually a necessary response that helps to keep us alive in bad situations - how to know when it's gone overboard, and practical tips on how to deal with it when it gets bad. This book is a lifesaver for panic attacks, breaking out of flight-or-fight-or-freeze responses, and for chronic anxiety. It's also good for folks who aren't daily burdened by anxiety, but want to better cope with those tough situations that affect us all.

Kaeleigh and Raeanne are 16-year-old identical twins, the daughters of a district court judge father and politician mother running for U.S. Congress. Everything on the surface seems fine, but underneath run very deep and damaging secrets. When the girls were nine, Daddy turned to his beloved Kaeleigh in ways a father never should. Raeanne needs to numb the pain of not being Daddy's favorite; Kaeleigh wants to do everything she can to feel something normal, even if it means cutting herself and vomiting after every binge.

Most children are afraid of the dark. Some fear monsters under the bed. But 10 percent of children have excessive fears and worries - phobias, separation anxiety, panic attacks, social anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive disorder - that can hold them back and keep them from fully enjoying childhood. If your child suffers from any of these forms of anxiety, the program in this book offers practical, scientifically proven tools that can help.

Here, Dr. Patricia Love offers adults real hope - and help in overcoming the hurtful legacy of being a chosen child. Based on proven therapeutic techniques and using real-life case histories, her total program of recovery will help you identify the signs of emotional incest, confront your parents - and your past - with love and understanding, disentangle your life from theirs, and create a positive relationship with your parents - and your own children.

If you have a child with anxiety, you need quick, in-the-moment solutions you can easily use now to help your child face their fears and worries. Created by a psychologist and expert in childhood anxiety, this guide offers proven-effective cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and exposure skills you can use at home, in social settings, or anywhere anxiety takes hold.

In our busy, get-it-done-now culture, stress has become the new normal - a normal that's embedding itself into our minds and our bodies. If left unchecked, stress can dictate how we think, feel, and act. Overwhelm, anxiousness, malaise, and unease are a daily experience. And over time, these stress-reactions turn into habits, leaving us stuck in a mental and physical rut. So, how can you soothe stress before it becomes your go-to? In this practical and accessible guide, you'll find powerful and effective tools for calming stress in both mind and body.

For highly sensitive people, parenting offers unique stresses - but the good news is that sensitivity can also be a parent’s most valuable asset, leading to increased personal joy and a closer, happier relationship with their child. Dr. Elaine Aron, world-renowned author of the classic The Highly Sensitive Person and other best-selling books on the trait of high sensitivity, has written an indispensable guide for these parents. Drawing on extensive research and her own experience, she helps highly sensitive parents identify and address the implications of their heightened sensitivity.

Emma O'Donovan is 18, beautiful, and fearless. It's the beginning of summer in a quiet Irish town and, tonight, she and her friends have dressed to impress. Everyone is at the party, and all eyes are on Emma. The next morning, Emma's parents discover her collapsed on the doorstop of their home, unconscious. She is disheveled, bleeding, and disoriented, looking as if she had been dumped there. To her distress, Emma can't remember what happened the night before.

One wrong move can undercut your message. Believe it or not, our bodies speak louder than our words. Postures, gestures, and expressions convey reams of information - and often not what you'd expect. A smile, for example, is usually considered welcoming. But crook one corner of your mouth higher, and you project superiority, subconsciously chasing other people away. Without Saying a Word explains how even the subtlest motions have meaning.

Contrary to what many people believe, we can recover from emotional trauma relatively quickly and completely on our own. Keep Pain in the Past explains a process that allows you to do most, if not all, of the recovery on your own. It will teach you the critical skill of treating psychological wounds and help you identify and face this pain and find closure on your own. Use Dr. Chris Cortman's easy-to-master method to remember, feel, express, release, and reframe the trauma that has been haunting you for years.