Helpful Media
Below is a selection of books, articles, podcast episodes, and videos helpful for learning more about the given subjects.
Addiction
“For many women, newfound sobriety–with its hard-won joys and accomplishments–is often a lonely and unsatisfying experience… [H]elps readers understand that leaving behind the numbing comfort of alcohol or other drugs means you must face yourself, perhaps for the first time.”
“Brings together all of the most effective self-care treatments for the seven most toxic compulsions affecting every culture on the planet today… More than 100 of the world’s top experts interviewed by Lawford share their research and wisdom on how to determine if your bad habit is becoming a dependency, what treatments will work best for you, how best to help yourself or a loved one.”
“Dr. Mate presents addiction not as a discrete phenomenon confined to an unfortunate or weak-willed few, but as a continuum that runs throughout (and perhaps underpins) our society; not a medical “condition” distinct from the lives it affects, rather the result of a complex interplay among personal history, emotional and neurological development, brain chemistry, and the drugs (and behaviors) of addiction.”
Alzheimer’s/Dementia
“For those in the early stages of dementia, some simple tasks become very complex. Chana sits down with one guy determined to figure out why something that used to be so easy has become so hard.” (Podcast)
“Producer Chana Joffe-Walt talks to a woman named Karen Stobbe and her husband Mondy about a plan they’ve recently enacted in their family. Karen’s mother lives with them and she has dementia. Karen and Mondy are actors and they stumbled upon a skill they have that is incredibly useful in communicating with Karen’s mother – improv.” (Podcast)
Anxiety/Fear
“Brené Brown studies human connection — our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand humanity.” (Video)
“What would happen if you could disappear fear? We’ll hear about the striking (and rare) case of a woman with no fear. The second half of the show explores how the rest of us might ‘turn off’ fear.” (Podcast)
Autism
“A one-of-a-kind memoir that demonstrates how an autistic mind thinks, feels, perceives, and responds in ways few of us can imagine. Parents and family members who never thought they could get inside the head of their autistic loved one at last have a way to break through to the curious, subtle, and complex life within.”
Borderline Personality Disorder
“The go-to source for those diagnosed with BPD, their family, friends, and colleagues, as well as professionals and students in the field.”
“Stop Walking on Eggshells has already helped nearly half a million people with friends and family members suffering from BPD understand this destructive disorder, set boundaries, and help their loved ones stop relying on dangerous BPD behaviors.”
Depression/Bipolar Disorder
“A 24-hour helpline in the UK known as Samaritans helped Sophie Andrews become a survivor of abuse rather than a victim… In a powerful, personal talk, she shares why the simple act of listening (instead of giving advice) is often the best way to help someone in need.” (Video)
“Jamison examines bipolar illness from the dual perspectives of the healer and the healed, revealing both its terrors and the cruel allure that at times prompted her to resist taking medication. An Unquiet Mind is a memoir of enormous candor, vividness, and wisdom—a deeply powerful book that has both transformed and saved lives.”
“Writer Andrew Solomon takes you to the darkest corners of his mind during the years he battled depression. That led him to an eye-opening journey across the world to interview others with depression—only to discover that, to his surprise, the more he talked, the more people wanted to tell their own stories.” (Video)
“Styron’s true account of his descent into a crippling and almost suicidal depression. Styron is perhaps the first writer to convey the full terror of depression’s psychic landscape, as well as the illuminating path to recovery.”
Emotions
“When 11-year-old Riley moves to a new city, her Emotions team up to help her through the transition. Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness work together, but when Joy and Sadness get lost, they must journey through unfamiliar places to get back home.” (Movie)
“It feels like emotions just come at us, and there is nothing we can do. But we might have it backwards.” (Podcast)
Family & Relationships
“Your past and current circumstances don’t have to define you, and they don’t have to determine the direction of your life. Take Your Life Back is the key to moving from reactive attitudes and behaviors to healthy, God-honoring responses that will help you live the life you were meant to live.”
“Whether your relationship is flourishing or failing, Dr. Gary Chapman’s proven approach to showing and receiving love will help you experience deeper and richer levels of intimacy with your partner—starting today.”
“Gottman encourages couples to cultivate attunement through awareness, tolerance, understanding, non-defensive listening, and empathy. These qualities, he argues, inspire confidence in couples, and the sense that despite the inevitable struggles, the relationship is enduring and resilient.”
“‘You complete me’ may be a romantic line in a popular movie, but it’s not a healthy basis for a real relationship. Unfortunately, many people are drawn into relationships that are unfulfilling precisely because they are looking to other people to fill in the places where they are lacking… At the heart of relationship dependency is a person’s belief that he or she alone is not enough.”
“Relationship experts Milan and Kay Yerkovich explain why the ways you and your spouse relate to each other go back to before you even met. Drawing on the powerful tool of attachment theory, Milan and Kay explore how your childhood created an “intimacy imprint” that affects your marriage today. ”
Gender Roles
“Our protagonists confront messages encouraging them to disconnect from their emotions, devalue authentic friendships, objectify and degrade women, and resolve conflicts through violence. These gender stereotypes interconnect with race, class, and circumstance, creating a maze of identity issues boys and young men must navigate to become ‘real’ men.” (Documentary)
“The film draws back a curtain to reveal a glaring reality we live with every day but fail to see – how the media’s limited and often disparaging portrayals of women and girls makes it difficult for women to feel powerful and achieve leadership positions.” (Documentary)
Grief
“We talk to a 74-year-old woman who decides the only way to get over her husband’s death is to jump out of an airplane… After losing so much can they tell themselves new stories about themselves that allow them to function?” (Podcast)
“Covers such difficult topics as the first few weeks, suicide, death of a child, children and grief, funerals and rituals, physical effects, homicide and depression. New material covers the unique circumstances of loss, men and women’s grieving styles, religion and faith, myths and misunderstandings…”
“What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.”
LGBT
“For nearly a decade, Brett Trapp kept a secret journal of thoughts on being gay and Christian, knowing one day he’d shout the story he feared most. On a Wednesday morning in late 2016, he logged on to Facebook and began shouting…” (Podcast)
“Psychologist Alan Downs draws on his own struggle with shame and anger, contemporary research, and stories from his patients to passionately describe the stages of a gay man’s journey out of shame and offers practical and inspired strategies to stop the cycle of avoidance and self-defeating behavior.”
“This well-rounded resource combines an accessible portrait of transgenderism with a rich history of transgender life and its unique experiences of discrimination. Chapters introduce transgenderism and its psychological, physical, and social processes. They describe the coming out process and its effect on family and friends, the relationship between sexual orientation, and gender and the differences between transsexualism and lesser-known types of transgenderism."
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
“Joanne Limburg is a woman who thinks things she doesn’t want to think, and who does things she doesn’t want to do… This memoir follows Limburg’s quest to understand her OCD and to manage her symptoms, taking the reader on a journey through consulting rooms, libraries, and websites as she learns about rumination, scrupulosity, avoidance, thought-action fusion, fixed-action patterns, anal fixations, schemas, basal ganglia, tics, and synapses.
Handout from the International OCD Foundation
Personality/Identity
“Co-hosts Alix Spiegel and Lulu Miller ask the question, ‘Are my thoughts related to my inner wishes, do they reveal who I really am?’ The answer can have profound consequences for your life.” (Podcast)
“We like to think of our own personalities, and those of our family and friends as predictable, constant over time. But what if they aren’t? What if nothing stays constant over a lifetime?” (Podcast)
“What happens when you discover a part of yourself that is so different from who you think you are? Do you hold on to your original self tightly? Do you explore this other self? Or do you just panic?” (Podcast)
Schizophrenia
“In this powerful and dramatic biography Sylvia Nasar vividly recreates the life of a mathematical genius whose career was cut short by schizophrenia and who, after three decades of devastating mental illness, miraculously recovered and was honored with a Nobel Prize.”
“‘Is it okay if I totally trash your office?’ It’s a question Elyn Saks once asked her doctor, and it wasn’t a joke. A legal scholar, in 2007 Saks came forward with her own story of schizophrenia, controlled by drugs and therapy but ever-present. In this powerful talk, she asks us to see people with mental illness clearly, honestly and compassionately.” (Video)
“In clear language, this much-praised and important book describes the nature, causes, symptoms, treatment, and course of schizophrenia and also explores living with it from both the patient’s and the family’s point of view.”
Self-Harm
“Written for sufferers, parents, friends, and therapists, Cutting explains why the disorder manifests in self-harming behaviors and describes how patients can be helped.”
“Teens who self-harm often lack healthy coping skills, so their inner turmoil becomes an external branding. In essence, they seek to bleed away their pain.”
Sexuality
“Filmmakers Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus shed light on Florida’s amateur porn industry through the experiences of five young women in the business.” (Documentary)
“More than a how-to book on better sex, When Two Become One offers a vision of lovemaking that encourages a deeper experience of intimacy in the physical, spiritual, and emotional realms.”
“Countless women have learned through Nagoski’s accessible and informative guide that things like stress, mood, trust, and body image are not peripheral factors in a woman’s sexual wellbeing; they are central to it—and that even if you don’t always feel like it, you are already sexually whole by just being yourself."
“A Celebration of Sex answers specific, often unasked questions about sexual topics, presents married couples with detailed techniques and behavioral skills for deepening sexual pleasure and intimate companionship, and is an excellent tool for premarital education.”
“In this book neuroscientist and researcher William Struthers explains how pornography affects the male brain and what we can do about it.”
Trauma
“In a nation deeply divided and plagued by poverty and violence, Barking to the Choir offers a snapshot into the challenges and joys of life on the margins.”
“A powerful, moving memoir—and a practical guide to healing—written by Dr. Edith Eva Eger, an eminent psychologist whose own experiences as a Holocaust survivor help her treat patients and allow them to escape the prisons of their own minds.”
“Viktor Frankl’s memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival… Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose.”
“In a moving, heartfelt and at times downright funny talk, Solomon gives a powerful call to action to forge meaning from our biggest struggles.” (Video)
“A different kind of #MeToo story, about several women who worked for the same man. They tell us not only about their troubling encounters with him, but also about their lives beforehand. Who were they when they entered the workplace, and how did their personal histories shape the way they dealt with his harassment?” (Podcast)