Psychology Mood Disorders

From insulin comas and lobotomy to incarceration and exile, Walter Brown chronicles the troubling history of the diagnosis and (often ineffective) treatment of bipolar disorder through the centuries, before the publication of a groundbreaking research paper in 1949. Cade's "Lithium Salts in the Treatment of Psychotic Excitement" described, for the first time, lithium's astonishing efficacy at both treating and preventing the recurrence of manic-depressive episodes, and would eventually transform the lives of patients, pharmaceutical researchers, and practicing physicians worldwide.

Today, you might be in the darkest place you can imagine. You are struggling to make it through the day, let alone be happy. It’s not that you don’t have the ability to turn your life around. It’s that you are missing the practical knowledge to do so. And here it is, at your fingertips!

Brooke Siem was among the first generation of minors to be prescribed antidepressants. Initially diagnosed and treated in the wake of her father’s sudden death, this psychiatric intervention sent a message that something was pathologically wrong with her and that the only “fix” was medication. As a teenager, she stepped into the hazy world of antidepressants just at the time when she was forming the foundation of her identity. For the following fifteen years, every situation she faced was seen through the lens of brokenness.

My name's Joe, and I have one job, every day: don't kill myself. I live with a complex mental illness called Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). 15% of people with BPD die by suicide, and 40% try. I'm already in the 40%. My job is to keep out of the 15%. In this book I want to try and explain what life is like when you have a brain that is essentially trying to murder you every day. It's a collection of the funny, sad and shocking stuff that has happened to me along the way.

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.

Wendy K. Williamson shows the effects of bipolar disorder on the mind, body and soul of those who suffer from it. Despite Wendy's struggles, this is a not a book that brings the listener down, rather a road map for wellness and a vastly informative, yet entertaining, guided tour of bipolar disorder for those who don't understand it. With her perceptive self-awareness, the author is equal parts comedienne and educator, and she tells the unbelievable highs and lows of her story with a clear, grounded candor.

Fully updated edition of the best-selling self-help book, now recommended on the national Reading Well scheme. This ever-popular guide offers a self-help programme, written by one of the UK's leading authorities on anxiety and based on CBT, for those suffering from anxiety problems. A whole range of anxieties and fears are explained, from panic attacks and phobias to obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and generalised anxiety.

Anxiety is a very serious issue and especially the fear of illness is a real ordeal for many sufferers. But fear is also a feeling that every human being carries within him or her, which is vital or essential for survival and is stronger or weaker in each person depending on their personality. Fear drives, inspires, mobilizes one's own forces, leads to success, but can also make you sick - so sick that life becomes hell. Hypochondria - as the fear of illness is specifically called - is a phenomenon of completely exaggerated fears that can push sufferers to their limits.

Depression has only one goal: to kill you. Be it by the means of a swift and intentional act or by a long, drawn-out process of slowly taking your life with alcohol and drug abuse, it only wants you dead. Those who fight depression with a bottle of gin or a needle in the arm are losing the fight. They're currently killing themselves slowly, just like depression wants them to. Every antidepressant has a possible side effect of making your depression worse.

Since it was introduce in 1987, the antidepressant Prozac has been prescribed to nearly five million Americans. But what is Prozac? Reported to turn shy people into social butterflies and to improve work performance, memory, even dexterity, Prozac has changed millions of troubled lives - but not without raising troubling questions of interest to anyone who has ever tried to improve his or her life.

We all experience self-doubt and anxiety at certain points throughout our lives, some of us more often and more intensely than others. Anxiety is an emotion, a chemical reaction, and a fundamental part of being human. It can help us to stay alert and focused, spur us to action, and motivate us to solve problems. But left unchecked, it can have the opposite effect, holding us back and preventing us from living the lives we want.

God cares deeply about you and your mental health. Author and mental health advocate Chris Morris has battled depression and suicidality his entire adult life. Even coming to Christ didn't change this, which is something many fellow Christians don't seem to understand. He still had to face the grief of unrelenting illness, the shame of struggling, and the pain of poor guidance. In this compassionate and engaging book, Chris shares how he overcame these challenges and invites you to do the same—no matter your diagnosis.

If you have bipolar disorder, you may be especially vulnerable to changes in circadian rhythms. If you've ever had low energy during the day, but couldn't sleep at night, you've experienced a dysregulated body clock. You've also likely experienced the myriad negative physical and mental consequences of out-of-sync circadian rhythms. So, how do you stabilize this biologic clock and your mood?

When you are criticized or rejected, do you have a tendency to lash out or withdraw entirely? Both types of kneejerk reactions can have lasting and unintended consequences, affecting our friendships, careers, families, and romantic relationships. The truth is, overreacting hurts us as much as it hurts the people around us. You may see overreacting as an unchangeable part of your personality, but in reality, this tendency, like any other, can be unlearned.

Depression affects eleven million people in the United States alone and 300 million people worldwide. It ruins lives, careers, families, and love of life. We often think of pharmaceutical treatments at the best way to treat depression, but the truth is that they don't work for everyone or they lose their efficacy for a third to half of all people with clinical depression. But help is on the way in the form of three alternative treatments coming to the forefront: electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), ketamine, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

If you suffer from depression, you’ve no doubt dealt with those around you not understanding. Maybe you’ve been told to smile more or get some sunshine. Well-meaning, but unfortunately useless advice. This book offers realistic advice from a retired therapist who also grappled with depression, as well as steps to take when you encounter unhelpful advice. With chapters that cover the most popular questions the author has been asked, and questions he himself would have liked the answers to, this book will help you better understand yourself and others struggling through depression.

From Wendy K. Williamson and Honora Rose, the "Two Bipolar Chicks," comes this survival guide written for the novice, the pros, and everyone in between. Wendy and Honora cracked their wellness vaults of three decades' worth of tips to tell you what has, and has not, worked. Two Bipolar Chicks Guide to Survival: Tips for Living with Bipolar Disorder is the resource guide they wish they had when diagnosed, dubbed by professionals and readers as the "manual to bipolar life."

We are often too busy or preoccupied to attend to our emotions until they hit with the strength of a tornado. When signs of anxiety and panic appear, they ravage our lives, our dreams, and our spirit. It is now possible to stop anxiety from stopping us in our tracks. In her book, Dr. Odessky helps you understand the process of anxiety, and how to arm yourself with strategies that work. Dr. Odessky draws on her 15 years of clinical experience to guide you through the process of not only learning how to overcome anxiety, but also how to enrich your life.

Wren Crawford is a social worker who finds herself overwhelmed with the troubles of the world. Her lifelong struggles with anxiety and depression are starting to overcome her. She finds solace in art, spiritual formation, and pastoral care along with traditional therapeutic interventions. But a complicated relationship from her past also threatens to undo her progress.

Historians have long puzzled over the apparent mental instability of great and terrible leaders alike: Napoleon, Lincoln, Churchill, Hitler, and others. In A First-Rate Madness, Nassir Ghaemi, director of the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts Medical Center, offers a myth-shattering exploration of the powerful connections between mental illness and leadership and sets forth a controversial, compelling thesis: The very qualities that mark those with mood disorders also make for the best leaders in times of crisis.