mental health

A mother's account of the courage and perseverance of her son, who, at times, was hindered by the very people who were supposed to be helping him with his OCD disorder.

Twenty-two-year old Su Meck was married and the mother of two children in 1988 when a ceiling fan in the kitchen of her home fell from its mounting and struck her in the head. She survived the life-threatening swelling in her brain that resulted from the accident, but when she regained consciousness in the hospital the next day, she didn't know her own name. She didn't recognize a single family member or friend, she couldn't read or write or brush her teeth or use a fork--and she didn't have even a scrap of memory from her life up to that point. The fiercely independent and outspoken young woman she had been vanished completely. Most patients who suffer amnesia as a result of a head injury eventually regain their memories, but Su never did. After three weeks in the hospital she was sent back out into a world about which she knew nothing: What did it mean to be someone's wife? To be a mother? How did everyone around her seem to know what they were supposed to do or say at any given moment? Adrift in the chaos of mental data that most of us think of as everyday life, Su became an adept mimic, fashioning a self and a life out of careful observation and ironclad routine. She had no dreams for herself, no plans outside the ever-burgeoning daily to-do list of a stay-at-home mom. The Meck family left Texas to start over in Maryland, and told almost no one in their new life about Su's accident. Nearly twenty years would pass before Su understood the full extent of the losses she and her family suffered as a result of her injury. As a series of personally devastating events shattered the "normal" life she had worked so hard to build, Su realized that she would have to grow up all over again, and finally take control of the strange second life she had awoken into.

Dr. Perry Baird was a rising medical star in the late 1920's and 1930's. Early in his career, ahead of its time, he grew fascinated with identifying the biochemical root of manic depression, just as he began to suffer from it himself. His illness caused him to loose his career and his family. His daughter, Mimi, always wondered what had happened to her father after her mother's divorce. Through painstaking research she has able to re-construct a brilliant life that ended disastrously.

Examines the history of medical study of anxiety, offering Scott Stossel's own words on his life in dealing with mental anxiety. Discusses the history of thought on the causes of anxiety, from the writings of Hippocrates up through Sigmund Freud and modern medical research.

"In 2010, human rights reporter Mac McClelland left Haiti after covering the devastation of the earthquake. Back home, she finds herself imagining vivid scenes of violence and can't sleep or stop crying. It becomes clear that she is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, triggered by her trip and seemingly exacerbated by her experiences in the other charged places she'd reported from. The bewilderment about this sudden loss of self-control is magnified by her feelings for Nico, a French soldier she met in Haiti who despite their brief connection seems to have found a place in her confused heart. With inspiring fearlessness, McClelland sets out to repair her broken psyche. Investigating her own illness and the history of PTSD, she discovers she is not alone: traumatic events have sweeping influence. While we most often connect it to veterans, PTSD is more often caused by other manner of trauma, and can even be contagious--close proximity to those afflicted can trigger it in those around them. As McClelland confronts the realities of her disorder, she learns to open her heart to the love that seems to have found her at an inopportune moment. Vivid, suspenseful, and intimate, Irritable Hearts is an unforgettable exploration of vulnerability and resilience, control and acceptance, and a compelling story of survival that expands the definition of what trauma is and offers powerful hope for those who need to work through it"--.

In 1892, America was obsessed with a teenage murderess. But it wasn't her crime which shocked the nation, it was her motivation. Nineteen-year-old Alice Mitchell had planned to pass for a man in order to marry her seventeen-year-old fianc?e, Freda Ward. When their love letters were discovered, they were forbidden to ever speak again. Freda adjusted to this with an ease that stunned the heartbroken Alice. Alice's subsequent letters went unanswered and on January 25, 1892, Alice publicly slashed Freda's throat. Alice spent months in jail and a jury eventually declared her insane and she was placed in an asylum where she died under mysterious circumstances just a few years later.

Identical twins Pamela Spiro Wagner and Carolyn Spiro share the story of Pamela's struggles with schizophrenia, and describe how her illness, breakdowns, and recovery changed the dynamics of their relationship.

The author shares her experiences having to take care of her mother after the latter had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and describes how her feelings for her mother grew as the effects of the disease took its toll.

John Falk chronicles his battle with mental illness, the experiences he has had as a war reporter, and his own quest for happiness and fulfillment.

Presents a first-hand, narrative, account of the author's experiences as a mental health professional at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, recounting his own struggles with childhood phobias and obsessive compulsive disorder, and describing feelings of loss associated with the suicide of his best friend, Henry.