Invisible Girl


Mariel Hemingway - 2015
    The room is dark. I hear yelling, smashed plates, and wish it was all a terrible dream. Welcome to Mariel Hemingway's intimate diary of her years as a girl and teen. In this deeply moving, searingly honest young adult memoir, actress and mental health icon Mariel Hemingway shares in candid detail the story of her troubled childhood in a famous family haunted by depression, alcoholism, mental illness, and suicide. Born just a few months after her grandfather, Ernest Hemingway, shot himself, Mariel's mission as a girl was to escape the desperate cycles of debilitating mental health that had plagued generations of her family. In a voice that speaks to young readers everywhere, she recounts her childhood growing up in a family tortured by alcoholism (both parents), depression (her sister Margaux), suicide (her grandfather and four other members of her family), schizophrenia (her sister Muffet), and cancer (mother). It was all the young Mariel could do to keep her head. She reveals her painful struggle to stay sane as the youngest child in her family, and how she coped with the chaos by becoming OCD and obsessive about her food. Young readers who are sharing a similar painful childhood will see their lives and questions reflected on the pages of her diary, and they may even be inspired to start their own diary to channel their pain. Her voice will speak directly to teens across the world and tell them there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life


Melody Moezzi - 2013
     When at eighteen, she began battling a severe physical illness, her community stepped up, filling her hospital rooms with roses, lilies, and hyacinths. But when she attempted suicide and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, there were no flowers. Despite several stays in psychiatric hospitals, bombarded with tranquilizers, mood-stabilizers, and antipsychotics, she was encouraged to keep her illness a secret—by both her family and an increasingly callous and indifferent medical establishment. Refusing to be ashamed, Moezzi became an outspoken advocate, determined to fight the stigma surrounding mental illness and reclaim her life along the way.Both an irreverent memoir and a rousing call to action, Haldol and Hyacinths is the moving story of a woman who refused to become torn across cultural and social lines. Moezzi reports from the front lines of the no-man’s land between sickness and sanity, and the Midwest and the Middle East. A powerful, funny, and poignant narrative told through a unique and fascinating cultural lens, Haldol and Hyacinths is a tribute to the healing power of hope, humor, and acceptance.

Saturation


Jennifer Place - 2011
    My withdrawal/delirium tremens (DTs) were terrifying and excruciating.My story takes the reader through my experiences of late stage alcoholism, two arrests by my new husband of three months and my subsequent adventures through and between five inpatient treatment centers for alcohol abuse.

Sanity and Grace: A Journey of Suicide, Survival, and Strength


Judy Collins - 2003
    Sanity and Grace: A Journey of Suicide, Survival, and Strength

Becoming Human


Jean Vanier - 1998
    He proposes that by opening ourselves to others, those we perceive as weak, different, or inferior, we can achieve true personal and societal freedom.

Beyond the Tears: A True Survivor's Story


Lynn C. Tolson - 2003
    Tolson. The story begins with her suicide attempt at the age of twenty-five. In the aftermath, she commits to counseling to recover from anxiety and depression. The reader accompanies the author through therapy sessions, where the young woman reveals dysfunctional family relationships, including domestic violence, sexual abuse, and mental illness. She learns from her counselor that she'd been suffering from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) which was the underlying cause of self-destructive behaviors, such as addictions and alcoholism. Due to the therapeutic process, the author discovers the value of life. Her story illustrates physical, emotional, and spiritual transformation. In sharing her inspirational journey, she provides readers with a message of hope.Author Lynn C. Tolson appeals to the reader from the first paragraph of her powerful memoir Beyond the Tears: A True Survivor's Story. Tolson uses creative non-fiction to tell her story, fascinating the reader with metaphor, prose, and poetry. Tolson tells her riveting story in first-person narrative, enabling the reader to instantly bond with her authentic voice. Readers can readily visualize the settings, plot, and characters due to the author's well-developed descriptions and dialogue. This is not an average auto-biography: the book combines story-telling with self-help, affirmations, meditations, and therapeutic concepts. Each chapter begins with a quote appropriate to the content, which gives the reader even more to contemplate. The topics challenge the reader to explore social problems within the context of family relationships. However, Tolson uses her clever wit to offer the reader occasional comic relief. Readers say that they simultaneously laughed and cried on the same page. Some readers say that reading the book literally changed their lives. Readers also say they view themselves and their families with a fresh perspective.

The Happy Depressive: In Pursuit of Personal and Political Happiness


Alastair Campbell - 2012
    

How Hard It Really Is: A Short, Honest Book About Depression


J.S. Park - 2017
    I find it hard to believe it myself.This book is for those who believe, and for those who want to.Depression is encased in misconceptions. The pain of going through a mental illness is already hard enough; to add myths only make it that much more unbearable.By investigating the mystery of depression, it's possible to remove some of the fog around the fog. It's in sharing what we go through that we are empowered to make it through together.This book is a conversation so we can talk differently about depression, with the thoughtfulness it deserves.It is for both the person wrestling with depression and for those who want to help.How Hard It Really Is covers: • The science behind depression• The helpful (and unhelpful) dialogue around mental illness• The debate between seeing it as a choice and disease• Stories of survivors• A secret culture of suicide worship• An interview with a depressed doctor• The problem with finding a "cure"• A myriad of voices from nearly two-hundred surveys conducted over a year

What It Takes to Pull Me Through: Why Teenagers Get in Trouble and How Four of Them Got Out


David L. Marcus - 2005
    A journey inside a well-known therapeutic school traces the transformation of four teenagers as they struggle through an intensive program of academics, wilderness survival, and group therapy.

Unmasking Male Depression: Reconize the Root Cause to Many Problem Behaviors Such as Anger, Resentment, Abusiveness, Silence and Sexual Compulsions


Archibald D. Hart - 2000
    The consequences of not treating male depression are extremely serious. Studies show that suicide is more common in men than women, and tha the male suicide rate is three times higher at midlife than at any other life stage. In Unmasking Male Depression, Dr. Archibald Hart explores the many forms of depression and gives tools for coping with and healing depression in men. Hart also examines the lives of Christian leaders who struggled with depression, such as Charles Spurgeon, Martin Luther, and John Calvin, to reveal the myths surrounding this illness

Loss Adjustment


Linda Collins - 2019
    I have let this cowardice envelop me, and I can’t shake it off. I will commit the worst thing you can ever do to someone who loves you: killing yourself. The scary thing is, I’m okay with that.” —Victoria McLeod, Laptop journal, March 30, 2014.Loss Adjustment is a mother’s recount of her 17-year-old daughter’s suicide.In the wake of Victoria McLeod’s passing, she left behind a remarkable journal in her laptop of the final four months of her life. Linda Collins, her mother, has woven these into her memoir, which is at once cohesive, yet fragmented, reflecting a survivor's state of mind after devastating loss.Loss Adjustment involves the endless whys, the journey of Linda Collins and her husband in honouring Victoria, and the impossible question of what drove their daughter to this irretrievable act. A stunningly intimate portrait of loss and grief, Loss Adjustment is a breaking of silence—a book whose face society cannot turn away from.

Wasted: An Alcoholic Therapist's Fight for Recovery in a Flawed Treatment System


Michael Pond - 2016
    . . A riveting and anxiety-inducing read. Mike Pond tells his story of recovery from alcoholism with a brutally honest, warts-and-all approach that makes you want cheer for him and simultaneously slap him upside the head.” – Vancouver SunPsychotherapist Michael Pond is no stranger to the devastating consequences of alcoholism. He has helped hundreds of people conquer their addictions, but this knowledge did not prevent his own near-demise. In this riveting memoir, he recounts how he lost his Penticton-based practice, his home, and his family—all because of his drinking. After scores of visits to the ER, a tour of hellish recovery homes, a stint in intensive care for end-stage alcoholism, and jail, Pond devised his own personal plan for recovery. He met Maureen Palmer and together they investigated scientific alternatives to the rigid abstinence doctrine pushed by Alcoholics Anonymous.

The Addiction Treatment Planner


Robert R. Perkinson - 2001
    The bestselling treatment planning system for mental health professionalsThe Addiction Treatment Planner, Fifth Edition provides all the elements necessary to quickly and easily develop formal treatment plans that satisfy the demands of HMOs, managed care companies, third-party payors, and state and federal agencies.New edition features empirically supported, evidence-based treatment interventions Organized around 43 behaviorally based presenting problems, including substance use, eating disorders, schizoid traits, and others Over 1,000 prewritten treatment goals, objectives, and interventions--plus space to record your own treatment plan options Easy-to-use reference format helps locate treatment plan components by behavioral problem Includes a sample treatment plan that conforms to the requirements of most third-party payors and accrediting agencies including CARF, The Joint Commission (TJC), COA, and the NCQA

The teenage guide to dealing with stress


Nicola Morgan - 2014
    It also shows how to deal with and prevent the symptoms of stress.

Mother's House Payment


Ronnie Schiller - 2011
    She learns that her mother has passed on a genetic illness as a parting shot, and she must adjust to growing up with Bipolar Disorder.As she approaches her 30th year, she works hard to pick up the loose threads of her life and tie them into a lifeline for her future. It is a tale of survival, endurance, and acceptance through understanding.