Mental Health Crisis

Thomas Szasz's classic book revolutionized thinking about the nature of the psychiatric profession and the moral implications of its practices. By diagnosing unwanted behavior as mental illness, psychiatrists, Szasz argues, absolve individuals of responsibility for their actions and instead blame their alleged illness. He also critiques Freudian psychology as a pseudoscience and warns against the dangerous overreach of psychiatry into all aspects of modern life.

America has made mental illness a crime. Jails in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago each house more people with mental illnesses than any hospital. In this revelatory book, journalist Alisa Roth goes deep inside the criminal justice system to tell how and why it has become a warehouse where inmates are denied proper treatment, abused, and punished in ways that make them sicker. Through intimate stories of people in the system and those trying to fix it, Roth reveals the hidden forces behind this crisis and suggests how a fairer and more humane approach might look.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken a tremendous toll on the mental health of our troops. In 2005, then-Senator Barack Obama took to the Senate floor to tell his colleagues that "many of our injured soldiers are returning from Iraq with traumatic brain injury", which doctors were calling the "signature wound" of the Iraq War. Alarming stories of veterans taking their own lives raised a host of vital questions: For instance, why hadn't the military been better prepared to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI)?

Increasing numbers of people involved in personal transformation are experiencing spiritual emergencies - crises when the process of growth and change becomes chaotic and overwhelming. Unfortunately, much of modern psychiatry has failed to distinguish these episodes from mental illness. As a result, transformational crises are often suppressed by routine psychiatric care, medication, and even institutionalization. When understood and treated in a supportive manner, spiritual emergencies can become gateways to higher levels of functioning and new ways of being.

Anxiety among mothers is a growing but largely unrecognized crisis. In the transition to mother­hood and the years that follow, countless women suffer from overwhelming feelings of fear, grief, and obsession that do not fit neatly within the outmoded category of “postpartum depression.” These women soon discover that there is precious little support or time for their care, even as expectations about what mothers should do and be continue to rise.

Empathy is in short supply these days—and it’s hurting all of us. But all is not lost. Just as physical workouts strengthen your body, there are ways to build up your empathy as well. In Tell Me More About That, brand strategist and thought leader Rob Volpe draws on his years of conducting thousands of in-home interviews with everyday people to illustrate the 5 Steps to Empathy—the actions you can take to build a strong and reflexive empathy muscle. With empathy, we can all learn and understand more than we ever imagined possible. Let the training begin.

Join Dr. Andy Young on an “up close and personal” journey into the world of crisis negotiation. Experience a 360-degree panorama of hostage situations from the vantage points of SWAT teams, police, victims, the bad guys, and the specially trained mental health professionals who help save lives and bring relief to the extreme distress that comes with the trauma of crisis. Aside from the drama, danger, tension, and terror of crisis situations, the crux of this book is a profound and deeply human story of real people and real stories—perpetrators, victims, law enforcement, and families...

Over the past few years, Brianna Wiest has gained renown for her deeply moving, philosophical writing. This new compilation of her published work features pieces on why you should pursue purpose over passion, embrace negative thinking, see the wisdom in daily routine, and become aware of the cognitive biases that are creating the way you see your life. Some of these pieces have never been seen; others have been read by millions of people around the world. Regardless, each will leave you thinking: This idea changed my life.

“If you want to know what the life of a typical police hostage negotiator is all about, reading this book is well worth your time.” —Gary W. Noesner, Chief, FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit (ret.), Author: Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator In his first book, Fight or Flight, Dr. Andrew Young gave readers an up-close-and-personal look into the lives and work of police crisis/hostage negotiators through riveting accounts from his own experiences of tense and potentially tragic encounters with desperate, disturbed, and/or suicidal individuals. His new book, When Every ...

Filled with secrets from a therapist's toolkit, Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before teaches you how to fortify and maintain your mental health, even in the most trying of times. Dr Julie Smith’s expert advice and powerful coping techniques will help you stay resilient, whether you want to manage anxiety, deal with criticism, cope with depression, build self-confidence, find motivation, or learn to forgive yourself.

News stories abound on the youth mental health crisis. Our kids are in trouble, and it's one of the few things we can agree on as a society. But what is causing the crisis? And how do we fix it? Studies show anxiety, ADHD, depression, panic attacks, and other conditions are on the rise across the entire spectrum of young people. Are all these problems coincidentally rising in lockstep? In The Kids Are Not Alright, Philip Wire explores the evidence (it's ugly) and proposes an explanation. Beginning with an accessible summary of how panic, anxiety, and related conditions work in the brain and...

An investigative journalist exposes the many holes in today’s best-selling behavioral science and argues that the trendy, TED Talk-friendly psychological interventions that are so in vogue at the moment will never be enough to truly address social injustice and inequality.

As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers.

Miranda's disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the Moon closer to the Earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun?

Dr. Nicholas Kardaras answers the question of why young people’s mental health is deteriorating as we become a more technologically advanced society. While enthralled with shiny devices and immersed in social media, our young people are struggling with record rates of depression, loneliness, anxiety, overdoses and suicide. Our immersion in toxic social media has created polarizing extremes of emotion and addictive dependency, while also acting as a toxic "digital social contagion”, spreading a variety of psychiatric disorders.

Conquer the AANPCB PMHNP Exam is a concise, focused guide designed to support your journey toward certification as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. This book offers a streamlined review of essential concepts, practical examples, and advanced practice insights aligned with the exam’s key content areas. Each chapter is organized into short, easy-to-understand sections, making it ideal for busy professionals preparing for the exam. This guide does not attempt to cover every possible topic in exhaustive detail. Instead, it helps readers concentrate on core principles, ...

Erectile dysfunction and low sexual confidence are killing men quietly—and nobody’s really talking about it. Hayes, once a full-blown sex symbol, hit rock bottom when things stopped working. Pills didn’t help. Advice didn’t stick. So he went deeper—looking not just for how to fix it, but why it was happening in the first place. What he discovered changed everything: the problem wasn’t just physical—it was mental. And not just about sex, either. It was tied to his confidence, his income, his sense of self, even his worth as a man. Most guys never connect the dots.

¿Cuántas pastillas tomas al mes, a la semana, al día? Solo en Gran Bretaña, más del 20 % de los adultos ha consumido al menos una droga psiquiátrica al año. Lo que constata James Davies en su ensayo es que este imprudente aumento de la prescripción médica de fármacos psiquiátricos no ha disminuido el número y gravedad de las enfermedades mentales, sino todo lo contrario.

I’ll donate 50% of the proceeds from your ebook purchase to support UNICEF’s efforts to help those affected by the current global crisis. It’s hard out there. It’s hard staying inside too. I decided to write this “self-help book” to chip in during this stressful moment in my own way. Long lines and empty shelves at the supermarkets, people afraid of leaving their homes, a crippling financial downturn—I’ve lived through those terrifying situations before, and I want to share with you a few tips that might save your sanity during these trying times. While some chapters could ...

Crisis intervention is of the essence now more than ever. Empower yourself to take control of a situation with this 3-step crisis intervention plan. This guide to crisis intervention takes you through a blueprint of assessing and intervening during a crisis to make sure that individuals in need receive the immediate support and guidance they deserve, ultimately helping them find their way back to safety and stability.