For a Minute, I Lost Myself: The Past and Present of a Schizophrenic

For a Minute, I Lost Myself: The Past and Present of a Schizophrenic PDF Author: Scott Gann
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0578023008
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 565

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Book Description
This is a book about the causes, effects, and coping strategies pertaining to Schizoaffective Disorder. The story is an account of my struggle with this difficult mental illness. The book is a description of a descent into madness, the repercussions of that descent, and the things I did to get my life back on track after my frightening and bizarre experience with Schizoaffective Disorder. If you or someone you know is suffering from Schizoaffective Disorder, Schizophrenia, Bi-Polar Disorder, or severe depression, then you should think about reading this book. This book provides insight into the mind of a person affected by this most misunderstood illness and explains the steps necessary to make a full recovery from it. Readers of this book will come away with an understanding that there is much hope for people suffering from mental illness, and that if the illness is taken seriously, a meaningful and productive life can still be lived regardless.

For a Minute, I Lost Myself: The Past and Present of a Schizophrenic

For a Minute, I Lost Myself: The Past and Present of a Schizophrenic PDF Author: Scott Gann
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0578023008
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 565

Get Book

Book Description
This is a book about the causes, effects, and coping strategies pertaining to Schizoaffective Disorder. The story is an account of my struggle with this difficult mental illness. The book is a description of a descent into madness, the repercussions of that descent, and the things I did to get my life back on track after my frightening and bizarre experience with Schizoaffective Disorder. If you or someone you know is suffering from Schizoaffective Disorder, Schizophrenia, Bi-Polar Disorder, or severe depression, then you should think about reading this book. This book provides insight into the mind of a person affected by this most misunderstood illness and explains the steps necessary to make a full recovery from it. Readers of this book will come away with an understanding that there is much hope for people suffering from mental illness, and that if the illness is taken seriously, a meaningful and productive life can still be lived regardless.

The Edge of Every Day

The Edge of Every Day PDF Author: Marin Sardy
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0525434321
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
Against the starkly beautiful backdrop of Anchorage, Alaska, where she grew up, Marin Sardy weaves an extraordinarily affecting, fiercely intelligent account of the shapeless thief—the schizophrenia—that kept her mother immersed in a world of private delusion and later also manifested in her brother, ultimately claiming his life. Composed of exquisite, self-contained chapters that take us through three generations of this adventurous, artistic, and often haunted family, The Edge of Every Day draws in topics from neuroscience and evolution to the mythology and art rock to shape its brilliant inquiry into how the mind works. In the process, Sardy casts new light on the treatment of the mentally ill in our society. Through it all runs her blazing compassion and relentless curiosity, as her meditations takes us to the very edge of love and loss—and signal the arrival of an important new literary voice.

Schizophrenia's Gift

Schizophrenia's Gift PDF Author: Charles Steinbach
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1105513386
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
How I went through life and figured things out dealing with schizophrenia. Understanding my experience with schizophrenia could help your life as well as give you knowledge and understanding of what we can each accomplish. I'm just a person like anyone else, living in two worlds at once.

I Know This Much Is True

I Know This Much Is True PDF Author: Wally Lamb
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780060391621
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 884

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Book Description
With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.

Schizophrenia Bulletin

Schizophrenia Bulletin PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Schizophrenia
Languages : en
Pages : 692

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Book Description


Hidden Valley Road

Hidden Valley Road PDF Author: Robert Kolker
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385543778
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • ONE OF GQ's TOP 50 BOOKS OF LITERARY JOURNALISM IN THE 21st CENTURY • The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease. "Reads like a medical detective journey and sheds light on a topic so many of us face: mental illness." —Oprah Winfrey Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins--aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family? What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations. With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope.

The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia

The Complete Family Guide to Schizophrenia PDF Author: Kim T. Mueser
Publisher: Guilford Press
ISBN: 1606237802
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
Will the person you love ever get better? Chances are you've grappled with the question. With care and support from their families, people with schizophrenia can and do make vast improvements. Noted therapists Kim Mueser and Susan Gingerich deepen your understanding of the illness and cover a wide range of effective treatments. Based on decades of research and experience, they offer pragmatic suggestions for dealing with depression, psychosis, and other symptoms. They show you how to prioritize needs, resolve everyday problems, and encourage your loved one to set life goals. Plus, individual sections highlight special issues for parents, children, siblings, and partners. Whether you’re facing schizophrenia for the first time or you’ve dealt with its impact for years, you’ll discover innovative ways to handle challenges that arise over the course of treatment, from reducing the chances of relapse to making friends and finding work. Recovery isn't an endpoint--it's a lifelong journey. With love, hope, and realistic optimism, striving for it can lead to a richer, more rewarding life for your entire family. Winner, NAMI/Ken Book Award

The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind

The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind PDF Author: Barbara K. Lipska
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 1328787273
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
In the tradition of My Stroke of Insight and Brain on Fire, this powerful memoir recounts Barbara Lipska's deadly brain cancer and explains its unforgettable lessons about the brain and mind. Neuroscientist Lipska was diagnosed early in 2015 with metastatic melanoma in her brain's frontal lobe. As the cancer progressed and was treated, she experienced behavioral and cognitive symptoms connected to a range of mental disorders, including dementia and her professional specialty, schizophrenia. Lipska's family and associates were alarmed by the changes in her behavior, which she failed to acknowledge herself. Gradually, after a course of immunotherapy, Lipska returned to normal functioning, amazingly recalled her experience, and through her knowledge of neuroscience identified the ways in which her brain changed during treatment. Lipska admits her condition was unusual; after recovery she was able to return to her research and resume her athletic training and compete in a triathalon. Most patients with similar brain cancers rarely survive to describe their ordeal. Lipska's memoir, coauthored with journalist Elaine McArdle, shows that strength and courage but also an encouraging support network are vital to recovery.

Out of It

Out of It PDF Author: Anonymous
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595356192
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
Out of It: An Autobiography on the Experience of Schizophrenia guides us through one man's mental journey through seven months of schizophrenia. While being interviewed by the emergency room psychiatrist, the white-haired man in the cowboy hat that I had seen earlier looked inside. He was handsome, and even though the man looked older, I knew that it was my step-father (but it actually wasn't). After the brief interview with the doctor, I was allowed to leave with my family for several days. I stayed with my family, explaining and joking about how I knew that the joke was on them, and that I was onto everything they had been doing. Then I took on a more depressing state, as I realized more and more that I might not ever get out of this. Since I was in some sort of coma, it was clear that they didn't know how to get me out. Of course Amelia was waiting to be in my arms, but she couldn't do it while I was in this dream-state world, then I wouldn't want to leave it. She was only trying to show me that she was standing by my bedside, crying and holding my hand, and overjoyed that I finally knew at least that she had always loved me.

Now, looking back, going forward: a journey of wellbeing through schizophrenia

Now, looking back, going forward: a journey of wellbeing through schizophrenia PDF Author: Anne-Louise Lowrey
Publisher: Paragon Publishing
ISBN: 1782228225
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 108

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Book Description
Anne-Louise is creative, sensitive ... and schizophrenic. But having a mental illness doesn’t mean she is unhappy. On the contrary, Anne-Louise takes pleasure in nature and human nature. Expressed in this book of poetry and prose are the thoughts and emotions of an astonishingly strong woman who has perservered through emotional and physical trauma. Interesting, touching and informative, Now, looking back, going forward might help others in understanding what it is like to live with a mental illness.