Mental Health
102 Articles & Excerpts
Into the Sun
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D. I was standing with my head back, one pigtail caught between my teeth, listening to the jet overhead. The noise was loud, unusually so, which meant that it was close. My elementary school was near Andrews Air Force Base, just outside Washington
The Irritable Male Syndrome: What Is It, and Is It Real?
The Irritable Male Syndrome: Managing the Four Key Causes of Depression and Aggression by Jed Diamond Q: What do you call a man who is always tired, miserable, and irritable? A: Normal. Q: How can you tell if a man has Irritable Male Syndrome? A: You ask him to pass the salt, and he yells, 'Take, take, take-that's all you ever do!'
Learn as much as possible about how your brain works
Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot : Unleashing Your Brain's Potential by Richard M. Restak, M.D. This is the most important factor in getting smart and staying smart. In order to do this, you don't have to become a neurologist or subscribe to scholarly journals on neuroscience (the study of the brain at every operating level ranging from everyday
Introduction
Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless by Steve Salerno For decades I have been tracking the self-help movement without fully realizing its place in the zeitgeist, even though I've written often about its component parts. My first book, in 1985, described the mainstreaming of veteran sales and motivational
Right before the devastation
72 Hour Hold by Bebe Moore Campbell Right before the devastation, I had a good day. God should have pulled my coattail then and there: “Enjoy this while you can, honey, because Satan beat me in a poker game last night, and he's claiming you and yours sometime soon.”
Mind, Mood, and Medications
The Mind/Mood Pill Book by Robert E. Hales, M.D., Dianne Hales Why do I feel this way? Why am I so moody? Is there anything I can do to feel better? Can anyone help? At some point in life, almost everyone asks these questions. We all experience sadness, worry, rage, self-doubt, even despair.
The Biology of Everyday Life
Shadow Syndromes: The Mild Forms of Major Mental Disorders That Sabotage Us by John J. Ratey, M.D., Catherine Johnson, Ph.D. Neuropsychiatry is now discovering that a great deal of what we thought was due to (poor) upbringing in fact is heavily influenced by the genetics, structure, and neurochemistry of the brain.
The Seventh Sense
The Sociopath Next Door: The Ruthless Versus the Rest of Us by Martha Stout, Ph.D. This morning, Joe, a thirty-year-old attorney, is running five minutes late for an extremely important meeting that, with or without him, will start promptly at eight o'clock. He needs to keep up a good impression with the more senior members of his firm
The Basic Myths About Criminals
Inside the Criminal Mind by Stanton E. Samenow, Ph.D. IN NEARLY A HALF-CENTURY, little has changed in terms of deeply ingrained beliefs about the causes of crime. In the classic, still often performed, 1957 musical West Side Story, Stephen Sondheim parodied what then was the current thinking about juvenile
Medication Treatment of the Chemical Imbalance by Joseph M. Carver, Ph.D. Understanding these four neurotransmitters provides a window to understanding the majority of psychiatric conditions, ranging from depression to schizophrenia. Mental health professionals use psychological testing, interviews, questionnaires, and patient
GABA: Mania and Seizures to Relaxation and Impulse Control by Joseph M. Carver, Ph.D. Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) is a neurotransmitter that is inhibitory, that is, it decreases the ability of other neurotransmitters to work. GABA is involved in our level of excitability. Rather than encouraging communication between cells
Norepinephrine: From Arousal to Panic by Joseph M. Carver, Ph.D. Norepinephrine (NE) is the neurotransmitter often associated with the fight or flight response to stress. Strongly linked to physical responses and reactions it can increase heart rate and blood pressure as well as create a sense of panic and overwhelming
Serotonin: From Bliss to Despair by Joseph M. Carver, Ph.D. Serotonin, first isolated in 1933, is the neurotransmitter that has been identified in multiple psychiatric disorders including depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anorexia, bulimia, body dysmorphic disorder
Dopamine: Parkinson's Disease and ADHD to Smoking and Paranoia by Joseph M. Carver, Ph.D. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter linked to motor/movement disorders, ADHD, addictions, paranoia, and schizophrenia. Dopamine strongly influences both motor and thinking areas of the brain. One type of Dopamine works in the brain movement and motor system.
The Chemical Imbalance in Mental Health Problems by Joseph M. Carver, Ph.D. Over the years, advances in neurology and research have simplified the way psychologists, psychiatrists, and others diagnosis and treat mental health problems. In over one hundred years of mental health treatment, the symptoms and behaviors associated
Smoking and Mental Illness by Rethink A proportionally large number of people with mental illness smoke. The smoking rate in the general population is just over 20% (Glassman 1999), while the proportion of people with schizophrenia who smoke may be as high as 90%. Why Do People With Mental
Coping With Hearing Voices by Rethink Most people in modern-day western culture think of hearing voices as a clear sign of mental illness but it's as well to remember that not everyone shares this opinion. A report published by the British Psychological Society in (2000) claims that 10-15%
Parents with Mental Illness by Rethink Being a parent with mental illness can be both challenging and rewarding. People often stigmatise and assume that children born to people with mental illness will experience social and emotional difficulties, that they may be abused or neglected
Recovery from Severe Mental Illness by Rethink Approaches to Recovery: The medical model. The medical model is the traditional approach to recovery from severe mental illness. It considers recovery to be a reduction in symptoms, a reduced need for medication and a reduced need for medical and social
Mental Illness: Advocacy by Rethink What Is Advocacy? Advocacy is a means of supporting and helping people to speak up or act for themselves. The key aims of mental health advocacy are to empower people who use mental health services and to protect their rights as citizens by helping them
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