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Recommended Reading
Lived to Tell: Thriving After Suicide Attempt
by Kay Whiting Harrison with Wendy O'Leary
Kay Whiting Harrison shares her personal journey through the twists and turns, triumphs, and tragedies of her life as she secretly struggles with a mental illness. She copes with a severe and terminal disability of one child, a life-threatening illness with another, financial pressures, and other life challenges while trying to keep the demons of depression and anxiety at bay and hidden from the rest of the world.
Despite being a competent wife, mother, businesswoman, and community leader, mounting tensions and mental illness eventually led her to try to take her own life. She shares her initial disappointment at surviving. As a perfectionist, surviving was not in her plan. Yet, not only did she survive, much to her own surprise, she transformed from being ashamed and hiding her struggles to becoming an outspoken advocate, sharing her personal experiences with others to let them know that not only is it okay to talk about your mental health but it’s essential - and in some cases, life-saving!
The Bipolar Booklet: A Healthy, Balanced Life Beyond the Diagnosis of Mental Illness
by Rick Killpack
Over 30 years of practical lived experience has gone into this easy to read booklet that serves as a tool, in your journey to wellness. This booklet will provide you with proven techniques to help you find balance with Bipolar illness. This resource will uncomplicate the mystery of mental illness and will be a simple tool to assist in creating daily rituals and habits that develop a lifestyle for success.
Med-Free Bipolar: Thrive Naturally with the Med-Free Method
by Aspen Morrow
Aspen's young career as an international investigative journalist ended abruptly in a hospitalization to a padded cell with a drain in the floor. Told she should apply for disability and not have children due to her mental illness, at age 22, Aspen had given up hope life would ever be normal again. Speaking out now for the first time, she shares how she beat the odds and recovered fully. From food stamps to business woman of the year, Aspen has spent the past ten years putting her investigative skills to use to bring to light the latest and greatest natural remedies in mental health care. Learn how thousands have recovered, step by step, in her first book in the Med Free Method™ Book Series: Med Free Bipolar. In Med Free Bipolar you will Learn: Natural alternatives that are as effective as prescriptions What you need to know before quitting meds and how to get your doctor and family on board What types of doctors can actually heal you (some who even take insurance/medicaid!) What tests to ask for to rule out physical causes that look psychiatric Natural supplements that can effectively END: rage, anger issues, anxiety, insomnia, racing thoughts, night terrors and "surround sound" noise sensitivity How to shut your brain off when you want What kind of diet is the best for bipolar What to feed to your brain when it's manic, depressed, racing, and having mixed episodes Natural cures for lost libido and medication weight gain Easy, lazy lifestyle changes that can make a huge difference in your mental health The primary goal of Med Free Bipolar is to show that treating bipolar effectively through natural means is not only possible, but highly likely. The Med Free Method™ is designed as a fourth treatment option over being medicated, "unmedicated", or "self-medicated", written by a peer who has been through it and backed by scientifically-proven, field-tested methods.
HEALING: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health
by Thomas Insel, M.D.
As director of the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Thomas Insel was giving a presentation when the father of a boy with schizophrenia yelled from the back of the room, “Our house is on fire and you’re telling me about the chemistry of the paint! What are you doing to put out the fire?” Dr. Insel knew in his heart that the answer was not nearly enough. The gargantuan American mental health industry was not healing millions who were desperately in need. He left his position atop the mental health research world to investigate all that was broken—and what a better path to mental health might look like.
In the United States, we have treatments that work, but our system fails at every stage to deliver care well. Even before COVID, mental illness was claiming a life every eleven minutes by suicide. Quality of care varies widely, and much of the field lacks accountability. We focus on drug therapies for symptom reduction rather than on plans for long-term recovery. Care is often unaffordable and unavailable, particularly for those who need it most and are homeless or incarcerated. Where was the justice for the millions of Americans suffering from mental illness? Who was helping their families?
But Dr. Insel also found that we do have approaches that work, both in the U.S. and globally. Mental illnesses are medical problems, but he discovers that the cures for the crisis are not just medical, but social. This path to healing, built upon what he calls the three Ps (people, place, and purpose), is more straightforward than we might imagine. Dr. Insel offers a comprehensive plan for our failing system and for families trying to discern the way forward.
The fruit of a lifetime of expertise and a global quest for answers, Healing is a hopeful, actionable account and achievable vision for us all in this time of mental health crisis.