A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness


S. Nassir Ghaemi - 2011
    By combining analysis of the historical evidence with the latest psychiatric research, Ghaemi demonstrates how he thinks these qualities have produced brilliant leadership under the toughest circumstances.individuals and society at large-however high the price for those who endure these illnesses.

Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life


Martin E.P. Seligman - 1990
    Seligman draws on more than twenty years of clinical research to demonstrate how optimism enchances the quality of life, and how anyone can learn to practice it. Offering many simple techniques, Dr. Seligman explains how to break an “I—give-up” habit, develop a more constructive explanatory style for interpreting your behavior, and experience the benefits of a more positive interior dialogue. These skills can help break up depression, boost your immune system, better develop your potential, and make you happier.. With generous additional advice on how to encourage optimistic behavior at school, at work and in children, Learned Optimism is both profound and practical–and valuable for every phase of life.

50 Things To Do Before Seeing a Psychiatrist: And How To Actually Do Them


Joe Baldizzone - 2017
    Holistic health coach and recovery expert, Joe Baldizzone, knows first-hand what it's like to live with depression and how to recover from debilitating panic, as well as addiction. In this book you will find simple strategies to help you get started on your own path to recovery. Do you feel anxious most of the time? Are you overwhelmed with persistent worries? Is depression keeping you in the house? Have you reached for drugs and alcohol to cope? Are you considering going to see a psychiatrist, but scared of being put on medication? If you're looking to change your life and find happiness without doctors and medications, try the proven methods Joe has to offer. Learn about Joe's recovery and how to use the 50 tools that have helped him as well as countless other people.

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience


Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - 1990
    During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness, unlock our potential, and greatly improve the quality of our lives.

How to Be a Person in the World: Ask Polly's Guide Through the Paradoxes of Modern Life


Heather Havrilesky - 2016
    Whether she’s responding to cheaters or loners, lovers or haters, the depressed or the down-and-out, Havrilesky writes with equal parts grace, humor, and compassion to remind you that even in your darkest moments you’re not alone.

Love Works Like This: Moving from One Kind of Life to Another


Lauren Slater - 2002
    Slater, career-oriented and willfully autonomous, charts her own personal journey and decision-making process, starting with a list of the pros and cons, about having a child. The cons are many, the pros only one: “learning a new kind of love.” But what will that love look like? How does one reconcile the needs of the self with the demands of others? How do couples go from the dyad that is a marriage to the triad that is a family? And how can Slater adjust to losing precious control of her own carefully developed life?Slater’s complex biological and psychological history also lies at the core of this unique and yet strikingly universal story. One of the first people ever to take Prozac, she chronicles the impossibly conflicting advice regarding pregnancy and antidepressants, and explains the rationale behind her eventual decision to stop taking the medication during her first trimester. This is Slater’s first encounter with self-sacrifice, and for her a crossroad at which modern medicine and basic human love meet. Love Works Like This is a richly written book by “an enormously poetic and ebullient writer” (Elle magazine), an author who writes with “beauty and bravery” (Los Angeles Times Book Review) about falling in love, about growing into the ability to put someone else’s life ahead of your own, and about the rich rewards we can draw from the courage to exchange one kind of happy life for another.

Just Get Me Through This!


Deborah A. Cohen - 2000
    Written in a unique girlfriend-to-girlfriend style, this book offers warm, reassuring and practical advice for surviving breast cancer from someone who as there.

Two Bipolar Chicks Guide To Survival: Tips for Living with Bipolar Disorder


Wendy K. Williamson - 2014
    Williamson and Honora Rose, comes this survival guide disguised as a low-key, how to manual. From their wellness vaults, they compiled three decades worth of tips for you. Filled with insightful anecdotes and personal viewpoints – which can differ – Wendy and Honora steer you through the swamps of bipolar disorder and teach you how to dodge the alligators. From advice on medication, to their own, personal journeys with acceptance, you’ll pick up tips on managing depression and mania. There is plenty of factual advice and information on treatments and tidbits for the novice, the pros and everyone in between. It could be an asset to anyone navigating the bipolar waters. Two Bipolar Chicks Guide to Survival: Tips for Living with Bipolar Disorder is the consummate bipolar mix of everything you’ll want - and need - inside. The most delicious part is it isn’t bogged down with scientific jargon, though they do explain what you need to know. You’ll hear more from the author you’ve grown to love and the co-author you soon will. It’s their personal insight that will make this a unique book. Divulging tidbits from manic sex and internet sites to how to not blow your life savings when in a manic episode, they blow the lid off telling it like it is. You wanted to know more and here it is! Wendy has also brought in her editor and partner Honora to double the fun. Wendy K. Williamson is the author of the best-selling, inspirational memoir I’m Not Crazy Just Bipolar. This is the book you wanted her to write next: more tips, more about wellness, more information. Voila! The Two Bipolar Chicks Guide To Wellness: Tips for Living with Bipolar Disorder was born. You’ll receive an education about treatments, including their own experience with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT). You’ll learn the importance of medication management and that not all generics or doctors were created equal. They’ll tell you how crucial little details can be from pill trays to choosing your pharmacy to locking up the credit cards when manic. Wendy and Honora will tell you what has worked - and not worked - for them. This book is designed to fill in the gaps of the scientific ones and keep you entertained so you won’t fall asleep. Wendy K. Williamson has been positively reviewed by Publisher’s Weekly and National Alliance on Mental Illness’ The Advocate. She also currently blogs for BPHope.com. Together, Wendy and Honora run The Red Bank Writers Group. www.twobipolarchicks.com www.wendykwilliamson.com

The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery


Sam Kean - 2014
     Early studies of the functions of the human brain used a simple method: wait for misfortune to strike-strokes, seizures, infectious diseases, lobotomies, horrendous accidents-and see how the victim coped. In many cases survival was miraculous, and observers could only marvel at the transformations that took place afterward, altering victims' personalities. An injury to one section can leave a person unable to recognize loved ones; some brain trauma can even make you a pathological gambler, pedophile, or liar. But a few scientists realized that these injuries were an opportunity for studying brain function at its extremes. With lucid explanations and incisive wit, Sam Kean explains the brain's secret passageways while recounting forgotten stories of common people whose struggles, resiliency, and deep humanity made modern neuroscience possible.

The Cure for Alcoholism: The Medically Proven Way to Eliminate Alcohol Addiction


Roy Eskapa - 2008
    This is the first step.Featuring new and updated information and studies, including an introduction by actress Claudia Christian, the second edition of The Cure for Alcoholism delivers exactly what millions of alcoholics and families of alcoholics have been hoping for: a painless, dignified, and medically proven cure for their addiction. Backed by 82 clinical trials and research that extends back to 1964, The Sinclair Method deploys an opiate-blocking medication in a very specific way—in combination with ongoing drinking—to extinguish the addictive “software” in the brain. The de-addiction process rolls back the addictive mechanism in the brain to its original pre-addicted state—before the first drink was consumed, making this program an actual cure for alcoholism.Drs. Roy Eskapa and David Sinclair of The Sinclair Method have put together a sound scientific book that proves that with this particular method, alcoholism can be cured in more than 78 percent of patients. What’s more, the treatment avoids the dangerous withdrawal symptoms, allowing patients to detox gradually and safely while they are still drinking. This removes the need for expensive and unpleasant inpatient rehabilitation programs. Actual drinking levels and cravings automatically decrease until control over alcohol is restored. The bottom line is that patients can control their drinking or stop altogether with the simple yet powerful process outlined in The Cure for Alcoholism.Including a new introduction by actress Claudia Christian about The Sinclair Method’s impact on her life, updated trial information, and a letter explaining the treatment that can be given to doctors by patients, The Cure for Alcoholism is a revolutionary book for anyone who wants to gain control over drinking.

Brave, Not Perfect: Fear Less, Fail More, and Live Bolder


Reshma Saujani - 2019
    If you didn't care how your life looked on Instagram, or worry about what total strangers thought of you. Imagine if you could let go of the guilt, and stop beating yourself up for tiny mistakes. What if, in every decision you faced, you took the bolder path?Too many of us feel crushed under the weight of our own expectations. We run ourselves ragged trying to please everyone, all the time. We lose sleep ruminating about whether we may have offended someone, pass up opportunities that take us out of our comfort zones, and avoid rejection at all costs.There's a reason we act this way, Reshma says. As girls, we were taught to play it safe. Well-meaning parents and teachers praised us for being quiet and polite, urged us to be careful so we didn't get hurt, and steered us to activities at which we could shine.The problem is that perfect girls grow up to be women who are afraid to fail. It's time to stop letting our fears drown out our dreams and narrow our world, along with our chance at happiness.By choosing bravery over perfection, we can find the power to claim our voice, to leave behind what makes us unhappy, and go for the things we genuinely, passionately want. Perfection may set us on a path that feels safe, but bravery leads us to the one we're authentically meant to follow.In Brave, Not Perfect, Reshma shares powerful insights and practices to help us override our perfect girl training and make bravery a lifelong habit. By being brave, not perfect, we can all become the authors of our biggest, boldest, and most joyful life.

Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts


Jennie Allen - 2020
    The visionary behind the million-strong IF:Gathering challenges you to exercise your God-given power to shift negative thinking patterns and take back control of your thoughts and emotions.Are your thoughts holding you captive? I’ll never be good enough. Other people have better lives than I do. God couldn’t really love me. Jennie Allen knows what it’s like to swirl in a spiral of destructive thoughts, but she also knows we don’t have to stay stuck in toxic thinking patterns. As she discovered in her own life, God built a way for us to escape that downward spiral. Freedom comes when we refuse to be victims to our thoughts and realize we have already been equipped with power from God to fight and win the war for our minds. In Get Out of Your Head, Jennie inspires and equips us to transform our emotions, our outlook, and even our circumstances by taking control of our thoughts. Our enemy is determined to get in our heads to make us feel helpless, overwhelmed, and incapable of making a difference for the kingdom of God. But when we submit our minds to Christ, the promises and goodness of God flood our lives in remarkable ways. It starts in your head. And from there, the possibilities are endless.

Exceptional You!: 7 Ways to Live Encouraged, Empowered, and Intentional


Victoria Osteen - 2019
    She says, "If you're going reach your highest potential in life, you're going to have to develop the ability to see beyond where you are right now." Through empowering, uplifting stories and biblical teachings, Victoria will encourage you to set your mind and intent towards the important things in life with seven exceptional practices:Keep your memory box full of encouragementLift up your eyesKnow that you are chosenLove wellKeep your accounts shortLive in your space of gratitudeStart your day off rightLive encouraged, live empowered, and live intentional, and see the new and exciting things God has in store for you.

A Mind of Its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives


Cordelia Fine - 2005
    Indeed, the brain's power is being confirmed every day in new studies and research. But there is a brain we don't generally hear about, a brain we might not want to hear about…the "prima donna within."Exposing the mind's deceptions and exploring how the mind defends and glorifies the ego, Dr. Cordelia Fine illustrates the brain's tendency to self-delusion. Whether it be hindsight bias, wishful thinking, unrealistic optimism, or moral excuse-making, each of us has a slew of inborn mind-bugs and ordinary prejudices that prevent us from seeing the truth about the world and ourselves. With fascinating studies to support her arguments, Dr. Fine takes us on an insightful, rip-roaringly funny tour through the brain you never knew you had.