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“When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times"--Pema Chodron
Wayne Dyer, some things he writes cause you to think about end results..I use this technique of visualization a lot, like writing a story from end to beginning. Placing myself in a mindset of having accomplised my goal.
Anyone who has a child with early onset Bipolar Disorder, very helpful book is "The Bipolar Child" by Popolous(sp)..though I need more information. once I get into reading, what I do most is read the Journals and research more in depth regarding medications, how their mechanism of action works within the brain, etc. I find knowledge is the best weapon for anything, so I read a lot of the "how to's"..but find my thoughts are often past what Im needing to read, so I write my own thoughts in a journal, and run a (non public, sorry)website for parents with kids of all ages as well as the adults themselves who have mental health issues. Besides reading, music can help, me at least, anything from Opera to Led Zep., Green Day...depends on what I need to get done. Opera can remove your mind from the present events, to a place where you can just "be". I suppose some people could call that meditation, being in the moment, being mindful, basically, if you are walking through a park, are you walking through the park or are you in the park.
I like Ghandi; and if all else fails I re-read the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells.Im also inspired by a good quote. "Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do and damned if you don't."--Eleanor Roosevelt..
"The habit of persistence is the habit of victory."
- Herbert Kaufman..Be the change that you want to see in the world.
- Gandhi
A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.
- English proverb...Happy is he who dares courageously to defend what he loves.
- Ovid

Websites:
http://www.mcmanweb.com/
http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/
http://www.benzo.org.uk/
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/drugsatfda/index.cfm?CFID=18425&CFTOKEN=fd3595431293aa67-F59CA13A-D927-21B5-0D3908F7E386D5B1
http://www.psychiatrymatters.md/International/News/2006/Week_06/Day_1/Stressful_events_provide_clues_to_psychosis_delusion_content.asp?C=34339387899551388889
http://www.schizophrenia.com/

i have read shes come undone by wally lamb its a great book(for women) it has helped me see that just because you have a problem that it doesnt have to consume you and that yu should get what ever help is nessary

I've read many, many books relating to mental illness, and I've hated almost all of them. However, it's not becuase the books were bad, but becuase they were WAY to close to home -- reminded me WAY too much of my own expiriences. The last (and final) book I read on mental illness was Rachel Reiland's Help Get Me Out of Here. After I read it, I was so distrubed that I ripped the book up to shreds. Reading that kind of stuff for me really is like torture.

Right now, I'm really into parenting books that deal with special kids. The Definat Child, How to Raise an Emotionally Intelligent Child, Genius Denied, Your Definat Child, The Explosive Child, are a few books which I've read in the past month or so. I feel that reading these kinds of works is fun and soothing -- but still gives me a taste of psychological disorders, espeically ODD and ADHD.

I've also been really into reading literary reviews. Somtimes I don't have enough patience to read a 400 page novel, but still crave some quality fiction, and so have been reading Witness, Bellevue Literary Reivew, The Iowa Review, The New Yorker and Cicada. They're a pleasure.

And of course, I love newspapers.

I'm looking foward to going to college next year where I'll read even more great books!

Anyway, about books on mental illness, while they could be eye-opening and comforting for some, I try to stay far, far away.

Hi Philip,

Hey, I've been enjoying your stuff in the Weekly for a while, and then Dan just linked to your blog, so I came on by. I read two books recently by Susanne Antonetta, Body Toxic and A Mind Apart, and was really impressed with both of them. And then of course there's Kay Redfield Jamison.