Mental Illness > Families/Individuals

It can be extremely hard to figure out what's going on in our own heads when we are suffering when we feel alone and unworthy and can't stop our self-critical inner voice. And it's even more difficult to know where to go for answers. This book is a perfect first step. Here you'll find clear, honest, reassuring information about all the most common mental illnesses and what you can do to find help and to practice self-care.

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An essential resource--featuring 50 proven Quick Reference guides--for the millions of parents, siblings, and friends of people with mental illness, as well as professionals in the field.

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Escape the “family trap,” help your loved one on the road to recovery, and take back your life. If you have a family member who suffers from mental illness, but refuses to seek treatment, you may feel like you’re caught in a trap. If you try making life easier for your loved one, you wind up perpetuating dependency and entitlement. If you push for treatment, you are met with resistance or outright animosity. And when you reach out to professionals for help, you are told that nothing can be done unless your family member is ready to change. So, how can you escape the “family trap?” Written by clinicians and introducing the innovative family well-being approach (FWBA), this essential guide provides validation and doable strategies for anyone who feels trapped by a family member or loved one suffering from mental illness. Using the skills in this book, you’ll learn how your responses to your loved one can worsen and even perpetuate the very problems you are trying to resolve. You’ll also discover ways to promote healthy behavior in recovery avoiders, but only after the whole family is emotionally and strategically prepared to follow through successfully. The family well-being approach outlined in this book is based on established principles of behavior change, family interaction research, and more than three decades of clinical experience. If you’re feeling caught in a trap with a loved one who won’t seek help—also known as a recovery avoider—this practical guide can help you find your way out, once and for all.

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A Resource Book for Cognitive Therapy for Psychosis provides an effective step-by-step aid to understanding your problems, making positive changes and promoting recovery. Written by experts in the field, this book will help you to understand how your problems developed and what keeps them going, use the questionnaires and monitoring sheets to identify and track changes in the links between your experiences, how you make sense of these and how you feel and behave, learn how to change thoughts, feelings and behaviour for the better, practice skills between sessions using worksheets. Based on clinically proven techniques and filled with examples of how cognitive therapy can help people with distressing psychotic experiences, this book will be a valuable resource for people with psychosis.

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A Family Guide to Caring for People Who Have Alzheimer Disease, Other Dementias, and Memory Loss For 40 years, The 36-Hour Day has been the leading work on the care of people with dementia and their family members. Written by experts with decades of experience caring for individuals with memory loss, Alzheimer disease, and other dementias, the book's authoritative and compassionate approach to care features discussions of the causes of dementia and the management of its symptoms from the early stages to late-stage disease. This edition highlights the significant advances in diagnostic testing, treatment, and research that have occurred in recent years. Offering useful takeaway messages and informed by the latest practices in dementia care, this new edition has been thoroughly updated.

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Addie's mom is good at two things (three, if you count making French toast): surfing and telling stories. Addie and her brother, Billy, live with their mom in a shabby rental cabin in the tourist town of Cedarveil, BC, right off the beach. Their lives are a little different than some they often visit the food bank, and they don't have a phone or TV. For entertainment, their mom tells them stories before bed...if she's in a good mood, or home at all. Sometimes Mama copes with her depression by drinking; sometimes, she just disappears. When Addie wakes up one Monday, she senses a stillness that tells her Mama's gone again. Addie knows it's up to her to take care of everything until her mom gets back. It's either not let on that anything's amiss or she and Billy will be separated from one another. Once again she makes it through until her mom's return a week later, knowing that she's strong enough to survive alone but she's hoping this will be the last time.

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This wonderful book highlights a diverse group of well-known role models who all live with mental health issues including anxiety, depression, PTSD, anorexia, and more. The authors help readers to understand that it’s okay not to always be okay. The biggest lesson is that everyone struggles. They've taken 28 icons, from pop stars to sporting heroes, and highlighted how they overcame or learned to cope with a range of mental health issues and went on to live inspiring lives.

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Powerful and practical tools to help you support your loved one with serious mental illness, while also making room for your own needs. If you have a loved one-a spouse, adult child, or other family member-who has a mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or depression and is experiencing symptoms like psychosis, you need help right now. Authors Katherine Ponte and Izzy Goncalves have been there. They are there. During Katherine's ongoing eighteen-year recovery from severe bipolar disorder and depression, her husband Izzy has been her primary caregiver. Together through trial, trauma, and triumph, they have amassed an unmatched store of lived experiences, shared perspectives, and lessons learned. They now bravely share, for the first time, everything they have come to understand about the challenges they've faced and surmounted together. A vital resource for families combating mental illness, this book will help you: recognize the signs and symptoms of mental illness; maintain and improve communication between you and your loved one; better understand your loved one's feelings and emotions; handle special situations, including de-escalating an emergency; discover different options for treatment; and make room for self-care.

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Featuring real-life stories of people who have found hope and meaning in the midst of life's struggles, this is the go-to guide for teenagers who want to know about mental health, mental illness, trauma and recovery. For too long, mental health problems have been kept in the shadows, leaving people to suffer in silence, or worse, to be feared, bullied or pushed to the margins of society where survival is difficult. The book explores how mental health is more than just "in our heads" and includes the voices of Indigenous people who share a more holistic way of thinking about wellness, balancing mind, body, heart and spirit. Highlighting innovative approaches such as trauma-informed activities like yoga and hip-hop, police mental health teams, and peer support for youth, Heads Up shares the stories of people who are sparking change.

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Recognizing Symptoms & Getting Treatment If you think a family member or friend may be struggling with a mental illness, or isn't getting effective treatment, this guide will help you recognize symptoms, get the right treatment, and work together as a family to help your loved one get better. Inside you'll find step-by-step support and information for determining whether someone you care about is suffering from a mental disorder, and what you can do to help. The Family Intervention Guide to Mental Illness outlines the nine fundamental steps to recognizing, managing, and recovering from mental illness, and provides both diagnostic information and details about therapy options and useful medications.

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A Mindfulness-Based Guide for Reducing Stress and Making the Best of Your Journey Together. Caring for a Loved One with Dementia offers a compassionate and effective mindfulness-based dementia care (MBDC) guide to help you reduce stress, stay balanced, and bring ease into your interactions with the person with dementia. In this book, you'll learn how to approach caring with calm, centered presence; respond to your loved one with compassion; and maintain authentic communication, even in the absence of words. Most importantly, you'll discover ways to manage the grief, anger, depression, and other emotions often associated with dementia care, so you can find strength and meaning in each moment you spend with your loved one.

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Making Meaningful Connections with the Person Who Has Alzheimer's Disease or Other Dementia or Memory Loss Caring for someone with dementia means devotedly and patiently doing a hundred little things each day. Few care providers are trained to meet the challenges of dementia, however-and that is where this book can help. The book offers practical, compassionate advice on overcoming caregiving obstacles and maintaining meaningful relationships with loved ones who have dementia and memory loss.

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