Books for Suicide Prevention Month
September is National Suicide Prevention Month.
September 13, 2023
September marks National Suicide Prevention Month, a month to remember the lives lost to suicide, the millions of people who have struggled with suicidal ideation, and acknowledge the individuals, families, and communities that have been impacted. It is also a time to raise awareness about suicide prevention and share messages of hope.
For more information, visit Suicide Prevention Month from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
You, Happier
The 7 Neuroscience Secrets Of Feeling Good Based On Your Brain Type
Daniel G. Amen
Happiness is a brain function: with a healthier brain always comes a happier life. After studying brain scans of people from 155 countries, Amen has discovered five primary brain types and seven neuroscience secrets that influence happiness. Here he explains them– and offers practical, science-based strategies for optimizing your happiness. He walks readers through neuroscience-based habits, rituals, and choices that will boost your mood and help you live each day with clearly defined values, purpose, and goals.
Radical Compassion
Learning To Love Yourself And Your World With The Practice Of Rain
Tara Brach
Recognize. Allow. Investigate. Nurture. RAIN meditation is a easy-to-learn program that can help practitioners loosen the grip of difficult emotions and limiting beliefs. Brach shares reflections and practices that, over time, can help you feel feeling of unworthiness and teach you to trust your own innate strength and goodness.
From Survive To Thrive
Living Your Best Life With Mental Illness
Margaret S. Chisolm
A plan for helping individuals who have a mental health issue flourish in their lives.
You Are Not Alone
The Nami Guide To Navigating Mental Health With Advice From Experts And Wisdom From Real People And Families
Ken Duckworth
Written with authority and compassion, this is the essential resource for individuals and families seeking expert guidance on diagnosis, treatment, and recovery, featuring inspiring, true stories from real people in their own words. Millions of people in the United States are affected by mental illness every year, and the Covid-19 pandemic only further exposed the shortcomings of the American mental health system. Written by Dr. Ken Duckworth with the wisdom of a psychiatrist and the vulnerability of a peer, this comprehensive guide centers the poignant lived experiences of over 125 individuals from across the country whose first-person stories illustrate the diversity of mental health journeys.
How Not To Fall Apart
Lessons Learned On The Road From Self-Harm To Self-Care
Maggy Van Eijk
Maggy van Eijk knows the best place to cry in public. She also knows that eating super salty licorice or swimming in icy cold water are things that make you feel alive but, unlike self-harm, aren’t bad for you. These are the things to remember when you’re sad. Turning 27, Maggy had the worst mental health experience of her life so far. She ended a three-year relationship. She lost friends and made bad decisions. She drank too much and went to ER over twelve times. She saw three different therapists and had three different diagnoses. She went to two burn units for self-inflicted wounds and was escorted in an ambulance to a mental health crisis center. But that’s not the end of her story. Punctuated with illustrated lists reminiscent of Maggy’s popular BuzzFeed posts, How Not to Fall Apart shares the author’s hard-won lessons about what helps and what hurts on the road to self-awareness and better mental health. This is a book about what it’s like to live with anxiety and depression, panic attacks, self-harm and self-loathing–and it’s also a hopeful roadmap written by someone who’s been there and is still finding her way.
Breaking Sad
What To Say After Loss, What Not To Say, And When To Just Show Up
Shelly Fisher, Jennifer Jones
Real stories and real feedback on what should be said, what should be kept to yourself, and what can be done when trying to support someone you care about as they navigate loss. Breaking Sad helps us start conversations through its pages of personal stories and suggestions from everyday survivors–bringing us all to a place where we can more comfortably offer support and caring to people when they need it most. Featuring stories from Montel Williams, Olivia Newton-John, Scott Hamilton, Giuliana Rancic, Valerie Harper, and more.
Loving Someone With Suicidal Thoughts
What Family, Friends, And Partners Can Say And Do
Stacey Freedenthal
If you have a loved one who is experiencing suicidal thoughts, you may feel deeply afraid–both of loss and of saying the wrong thing and making matters worse. Based on decades of clinical experience in suicidology, this compassionate guide gives readers the essential communication techniques and coping skills they need to support a loved one in crisis, while also taking care of themselves.
Sensitive
The Hidden Power Of The Highly Sensitive Person In A Loud, Fast, Too-Much World
Jenn Granneman, Andre Solo
Through fascinating research and expert storytelling, Jenn Granneman and Andre Salo show readers that the way to thrive as a sensitive person is not to hide their sensitivity, but to embrace it–and they demonstrate how to do that in each area of life. Weaving together actionable advice, relatable anecdotes, and the latest scientific research, Sensitive shows readers how leaning in to their sensitivity unlocks a powerful boost effect to launch them ahead in life. It hands them the tools and insights they need to thrive as a sensitive person in a loud, fast, too-much world. A powerfully validating, destigmatizing, and practical book, Sensitive plants a gently fluttering flag in the ground for sensitive people everywhere. This inspiring book has the power to change–once and for all–how we see sensitive people, and how they see themselves.
You Will Get Through This Night
Dan Howell
The author shares his own struggles with depression and anxiety with self-deprecation and dark humor in this no-nonsense guide. In consultation with a psychologist, he explores how our minds work, why we think and feel the way we do, and what we can do about it. Learn how to manage your thoughts and feelings in tough times change your everyday habits to be healthier and happier understand your behavior and how to treat yourself with compassion.
Wait
A Love Letter To Those In Despair
Cuong Lu
Cuong Lu, a long-time disciple of Thich Nhat Hanh, personally witnessed a shooting while fleeing Vietnam in 1975. The memory of this trauma prompted him to dedicate his life to sharing the wisdom of deep listening, finding understanding, and in his words, defusing the bombs in our hearts. Lu encourages readers to help turn the tide, interrupt the cycle of violence, and create a world where love and understanding thrive.
How Not To Kill Yourself
A Portrait Of The Suicidal Mind
Clancy Martin
A deeply intimate, insightful, and at times even funny portrait of the suicidal mind, combining the author’s personal experience with a philosophical, literary, and journalistic inquiry into the subject. Author Clancy Martin chronicles his multiple suicide attempts in an intimate depiction of the mindset of someone obsessed with self-destruction. He argues that, for the vast majority of suicides, an attempt does not just come out of the blue, nor is it merely a violent reaction to a particular crisis or failure, but is the culmination of a host of long-standing issues. He also looks at the thinking of a number of great writers who have attempted suicide and detailed their experiences, at what the history of philosophy has to say both for and against suicide, and at the experiences of people who have reached out to him across the years. The result is a work that powerfully gives voice to what to many has long been incomprehensible, while showing those presently struggling with suicidal thoughts that they are not alone, and that the desire to kill oneself–like other self-destructive desires–is almost always temporary and avoidable.
The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide
What You And Your Family Need To Know
David Jay Miklowitz
Bipolar disorder is a lifelong challenge — but it doesn’t have to rule your life. Find the science-based information you need in the revised third edition of this indispensable guide. Trusted authority Dr. David J. Miklowitz shares proven strategies for managing your illness or supporting a loved one with the disorder. Learn specific steps to cope with mood episodes, reduce recurrences, avoid misdiagnosis, get the most out of treatment, resolve family conflicts, and make lifestyle changes to stay well. Updated throughout, the third edition has a new chapter on kids and teens the latest facts on medications and therapy, including important advances in personalized care and expanded coverage of the bipolar II subtype. It features boxes on complementary and alternative treatments and provides downloadable practical tools.
The Hilarious World Of Depression
John Moe
For years John Moe, critically-acclaimed public radio personality and host of The Hilarious World of Depression podcast, struggled with depression it plagued his family and claimed the life of his brother in 2007. As Moe came to terms with his own illness, he began to see similar patterns of behavior and coping mechanisms surfacing in conversations with others, including high-profile comedians who’d struggled with the disease. Moe saw that there was tremendous comfort and community in open dialogue about these shared experiences and that humor had a unique power. Thus was born the podcast The Hilarious World of Depression. Inspired by the immediate success of the podcast, Moe has written a remarkable investigation of the disease, part memoir of his own journey, part treasure trove of laugh-out-loud stories and insights drawn from years of interviews with some of the most brilliant minds facing similar challenges.
Are U Ok?
A Guide To Caring For Your Mental Health: How To Know If You Need Help & Where To Find It
Kati Morton
A licensed family therapist and YouTube personality clarifies the difference between mental health and mental illness, answering common questions to reduce stigmas while offering advice on how to pursue beneficial therapy.
Flowers In The Dark
Reclaiming Your Power To Heal Trauma With Mindfulness
Sister Dang Nghiem
Learn the accessible and deeply compassionate practices for healing trauma, known as the Five Strengths of applied Zen Buddhism. More than a philosophy, these body-based practices are backed by modern neuroscience research, and they can be applied by anyone suffering from trauma to begin experiencing relief.
Reconnecting After Isolation
Coping With Anxiety, Depression, Grief, Ptsd, And More
Susan J. Noonan
An accessible, concise, and comprehensive guide to understanding and dealing with the impact and consequences of social isolation.
Helping Others With Depression
Words To Say, Things To Do
Susan J. Noonan
The book is meant for those who want to help a loved one with depression. The book details what depression is and what its main symptoms and manifestations are, followed by proven strategies for encouraging someone to get treatment and suggestions for how to tell when depressive symptoms are getting worse and may indicate a risk for suicide.
Hello I Want To Die Please Fix Me
Depression In The First Person
Anna Mehler Paperny
Depression is a havoc-wreaking illness that masquerades as personal failing and hijacks your life. After a major suicide attempt in her early twenties, Paperny set off on a journey to understand her condition, the dizzying array of medical treatments on offer, and a medical profession in search of answers. She maps competing schools of therapy, pharmacology, cutting-edge medicine the pill-popping pitfalls of long-term treatment the glaring unknowns and the institutional shortcomings that both patients and practitioners are up against.
Shadows In The Sun
Healing From Depression And Finding The Light Within
Gayathri. Ramprasad
The author discusses the mental illness she suffered from a young age and the treatment she received only after she left India and became a mother for the first time in the United Stateas, describing her emotional recovery and spiritual awakening and her role as an advocate for the mentally ill.
Grief Day By Day
Simple Practices And Daily Guidance For Living With Loss
Jan Warner
In Grief Day by Day, Jan Warner draws on her own extensive experience and the experiences of the 2 million followers on her Grief Speaks Out Facebook page to offer hope in its most practical form. This book does not look to offer a solution to grief. Rather, it provides supportive, useful guidance to help you create a life in which peace, and even gratitude, can coexist with your grief.
The Mindfulness Workbook For Addiction
A Guide To Coping With The Grief, Stress, & Anger That Trigger Addictive Behaviors
Rebecca E. Williams, Julie S. Kraft
Addictive behaviors are often the result of loss-the loss of a job, the death of a loved one, or even the end of a romantic relationship. This fully revised and updated second edition of The Mindfulness Workbook for Addiction offers readers an effective program for working through their addiction and grief with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Written by two VA psychologists, this workbook is effective for treating the emotion dysregulation, stress, depression, and grief that lie at the heart of addiction.