MOODSTRControl Your Mood – Control Your Life

Description

This volume provides up-to-date, scientifically-based alternative treatment algorithms for various kinds of mood disorders. It is one of the first publications to enunciate step-wise, specified pharmacological management procedures recommended for major depressive, bipolar and dysthymic disorders. In addition, it indicates the role for special forms of treatment for depression, including light and electroconvulsive therapies, based on published peer-reviewed scientific literature and extensive in-depth clinical experience. It should be of particular interest to psychiatric residents, internists, family physicians, general practitioners, nurses, medical students and other mental health professionals who are committed to a scientifically based approach to the management of patients with mood disorders.

Description

After receiving a bipolar diagnosis, you need clear answers. Bipolar 101 is a straightforward guide to understanding bipolar disorder. It includes all the information you need to control your symptoms and live better. Authored by both a psychologist and a mental health expert who has bipolar disorder herself, this pocket guide is the only book on bipolar disorder you'll ever need.The best primer ever written on the topic of bipolar disorder. -Stephen Hinshaw, editor of Psychological Bulletin and chair of the department of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley

Description

This book is aimed at anyone suffering from depression or anyone with an interest in depression.When people think of depression unipolar depression is the often the kind that comes to mind but this is just one of many different types. This book introduces you to some of the different kinds, the reasons for depression and the risk factors that may make you more likely to develop depression and finally goes on to look at ways you can help yourself.Hayley Daniels-Lake is a Counsellor and Cognitive Behavioural Therapist working both online and in person. Visit her site to find out some more at http://www.hayleydaniels.co.uk

Description

Mood swings may be a part of your life, but the struggle to control them doesn’t have to dominate it. Together with the right course of medication, The Bipolar Workbook can put you back in control. Dr. Monica Ramirez Basco has assembled a versatile toolkit of proven self-help strategies designed to help you recognize the early warning signs of relapse, resist the seductive pull of manic episodes, and escape the paralysis of depression. Whether you’re new to the diagnosis (and not quite sure it fits) or want to enhance your current treatment, this simple program puts you in charge. Easy-to-follow guidelines and worksheets help you identify problem areas and minimize their impact, including ways to: *Reduce the recurrence and severity of your symptoms.*Slow things down and get the sleep you need when mania strikes.*Keep motivated and avoid procrastination when you’re depressed.*Fine-tune medical treatments to maximize your gains.*Rein in emotional reactions.*Stay focused and achieve your goals. Since every individual’s experience with bipolar disorder is unique, Dr. Basco encourages you to customize a plan that suits your needs. So take charge and make a better life.

Description

Bipolar Disorder was a medical term Cynthia Sabotka knew nothing about. But it was the mania of her illness that seduced her. "Life Is Like a Line" is the eloquent journey into the mind of an individual suffering since childhood from a mood disorder that has preyed on her emotions and affected her in every conceivable way. Frequently exhilarated, often violently angry, and nearly constantly terrified, high achiever Cynthia Sabotka has spent her life running, nearly always at full speed. For most of her life, she had no idea what she was running from. With suicidal ideation leading her ever closer to the brink of disaster, Cynthia embarked upon a journey of discovery. A determined psychiatrist, medication, and therapy ultimately saved her life, as well as her marriage. After several false starts and medication side effects so debilitating many individuals would have given up rather than endure them, she learned that she can live life on the line. Life on the line means Cynthia lives a stable, rational, emotionally predictable life, rather than soaring maniacally above the line, where she drives faster, talks louder, and takes appallingly dangerous risks, or plummeting below the line, where she hides, nearly paralyzed with terror and confusion, in the sanctuary of her bedroom. Complicated by family members and a family history as complex as they come. Life Is Like a Line is ultimately the memoir of one woman s triumph over the myriad forces that inexplicably but inevitably worked to bring her to the brink of despair and disaster. Engrossing and enlightening, it offers an intimate peek into a fascinating mind and its triumph over itself.

Description

Are you plagued by fears, phobias, or panic attacks? Do you toss and turn at night with a knot in your stomach, worrying about your job, your family, work, your health, or relationships? Do you suffer from crippling shyness, obsessive doubts, or feelings of insecurity?What you may not realize is that these fears are almost never based on reality. Anxiety is one of the world’s oldest cons. When you’re anxious, you’re actually fooling yourself. You are telling yourself things that simply aren’t true. See if you can recognize yourself in any of these distortions:All-or-Nothing Thinking: “My mind will go blank when I give my presentation at work, and everyone will think I’m an idiot.”Fortune Telling: “I just know I’ll freeze up and blow it when I take my test.”Mind Reading: “Everyone at this party can see how nervous I am.”Magnification: “Flying is so dangerous. I think this plane is going to crash!”Should Statements: “I shouldn’t be so anxious and insecure. Other people don’t feel this way.”Emotional Reasoning: “I feel like I’m on the verge of cracking up!”Self-Blame: “What’s wrong with me? I’m such a loser!”Mental Filter: “Why can’t I get anything done? My life seems like one long procrastination.”Now imagine what it be like to live a life that’s free of worries and self-doubt; to go to sleep at night feeling peaceful and relaxed; to overcome your shyness and have fun with other people; to give dynamic presentations without worrying yourself sick ahead of time; to enjoy greater creativity, productivity and self-confidence.Does that sound impossible? The truth is you can defeat your fears. In When Panic Attacks, Dr. Burns takes you by the hand and shows you how to overcome every conceivable kind of anxiety. In fact, you will learn how to use more than forty simple, effective techniques, and the moment you put the lie to the distorted thoughts that plague you, your fears will immediately disappear. Dr. Burns also shares the latest research on the drugs commonly prescribed for anxiety and depression and explains why they may sometimes do more harm than good.This is not pop psychology but proven, fast-acting techniques that have been shown to be more effective than medications. When Panic Attacks is an indispensable handbook for anyone who’s worried sick and sick of worrying.

Description

When first published in 1999, Your Drug May Be Your Problem was ahead of its time. The only book to provide an uncensored description of the dangers involved in taking every kind of psychiatric medication, it was also the first and only book to explain how to safely stop taking them. In the time elapsed, there have been numerous studies suggesting or proving the dangers of some psychiatric medications and even the FDA now acknowledges the problems; more studies are under way to determine their long-term and withdrawal effects. In the meantime, this book continues to be ever relevant and helpful. Fully updated to include study results and new medications that have come to market, Your Drug May Be Your Problem will help countless readers exert control over their own psychiatric treatment.

Psychiatric drugs are prescribed to more than 20 million Americans. This book aims to convince us to stop taking these drugs, and to show us how to do it safely. The authors contend that after 15 minutes with a physician or psychiatrist, Americans are prescribed medications that we may take for years or a lifetime, which can do more harm than good. We're irritable, anxious, emotionally numbed, physically fatigued, and mentally dulled. Yet when we stop taking the drugs, we encounter a whole new set of problems and setbacks. The book lists the adverse medical reactions you may encounter, plus additional personal, psychological, and philosophical reasons for limiting or rejecting psychiatric drugs. About half the book covers withdrawing from your drug--how to do it carefully and slowly, what to expect, and how to get help--with specifics for certain drugs and a chapter on easing your child off them as well. If you suffer from depression or another condition that warrants taking prescription drugs, you might refute the authors' contention that "the degree to which we suffer indicates the degree to which we are alive. When we take drugs to ease our suffering, we stifle our psychological and spiritual life." Certainly it would be lovely if we could "find a way to untangle that twisted energy and to redirect it more creatively," but is this really possible in all cases? The authors blame our dependence on drugs and psychiatry on big pharmaceutical-company bucks, psychiatric organizations, and even government agencies. Certainly we are an overmedicated society--but is the answer to take everyone off drugs? This provocative book says yes, and it's bound to be controversial. Of course, do not go off any prescribed medication without working closely with the medical professional who prescribed it, and do not use this book as a substitute for professional help. --Joan Price

Description

Although advised over 37 years ago that he would probably always need to take psychiatric medication, retired Realtor Neal Engelking chose to find alternatives. Learn about the powerful options he either created or discovered in his successful quest to be free of these powerful stimulants.