self help referrals

[Suedehead]

ok! Need to know.

what self help or references are you recommending for your patients? what books or other materials are your favorite for this or that particular diagnosis/complaint? Good recs are hard to come by....

this almost merits an 'official' thread. We spend so much time discussing pharmacotherapy. almost criminal not to emphasize that there are many ways to heal.

I'll start.

I like recommending David Burns Feeling Good Handbook for higher functioning motivated patients particularly with general anxiety.

Also like Cloud's Boundaries for my very Christian patients having trouble with adult attachment stuff.

Then there's Yalom's Staring at the Sun for my elderly atheistic/agnostic patients struggling with their mortality.

Reiland's Get Me Out of Here for my higher functioning and curious Borderlines.

Still looking for something good for my lower functioning and not curious Borderlines.

Stop Walking on Eggshells for the families of Borderlines.

I have more, some I'm proud of, some I'm not.... please share. I want to build this referral library.... i'd like having more 'meds' in my armamentarium.

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[kugel]

2 Workbooks:
Mind Over Mood
Mastery of Your Anxiety and Panic

NAMI

Online Support Groups

For OCD:
Tormenting Thoughts and Secret Rituals
by a psychiatrist who has a bad case of OCD, even has a chapter on how families can help without taking responsibility for the patient's illness.

 

[tryp]

The Borderline Personality Disorder Survival Guide is a VERY simple book about BPD that lays out symptoms and possible treatments in a non-judgemental way. A more in depth book which is similar in scope but better for the more curious is Lost in the Mirror, IMO. Reiland's memoir is good, and there is also The Buddha and the Borderline, which is more contemporary.

The Dialectical Behavioural Therapy Skills Training Workbook (green book) is very good also. Those are the best BPD referrals I have seen.

What is your opinion on Stop Walking on Eggshells in terms of the stigma aspect? I find that those with BPD who read it walk away feeling extremely stigmatized and discouraged.

 

[Suedehead]

The Borderline Personality Disorder Survival Guide is a VERY simple book about BPD that lays out symptoms and possible treatments in a non-judgemental way. A more in depth book which is similar in scope but better for the more curious is Lost in the Mirror, IMO. Reiland's memoir is good, and there is also The Buddha and the Borderline, which is more contemporary.

The Dialectical Behavioural Therapy Skills Training Workbook (green book) is very good also. Those are the best BPD referrals I have seen.

What is your opinion on Stop Walking on Eggshells in terms of the stigma aspect? I find that those with BPD who read it walk away feeling extremely stigmatized and discouraged.

these look great. any of them particularly good at being broad enough to include the "borderline spectrum?" I tried I Hate You Don't Leave Me but it seems to only apply to the very severe cases.

Yeah, Eggshells seems to be good for the families of borderines and not the patients themselves. I know families that have LOVED it but want to hide it from their borderline family members. then I wonder if that means they are still walking on eggshells...

 

[ljpm8224]

I'll throw one in that really helped me when I was going through a period of depression:

The Depression Cure by Steve Ilardi
http://www.amazon.com/The-Depression-Cure-Program-without/dp/0738213136

It's 6 steps that are kinda "no brainers" but once you put them all in practice, they really helped!
1. hour of exercise a day
2. omega 3s
3. sunlight every day
4. socialization
5. quality sleep schedule
6. no rumination/dwelling on negative thoughts.

 

[tryp]

these look great. any of them particularly good at being broad enough to include the "borderline spectrum?" I tried I Hate You Don't Leave Me but it seems to only apply to the very severe cases.

Yeah, Eggshells seems to be good for the families of borderines and not the patients themselves. I know families that have LOVED it but want to hide it from their borderline family members. then I wonder if that means they are still walking on eggshells...

In terms of people with attachment problems based on childhood trauma, I quite like Getting Through the Day by Nancy Napier. It is good because it doesn't use clinical language in terms of diagnosis, but it addresses a lot of issues around dissociation and disordered attachment.

I feel like most of those books could be of use if the patient understood that not all of it would apply and they should take what is useful and leave the rest. I will have a flip through my library when I get home and see if any of them are particularly big on the "spectrum" concept.

 

[whopper]

DBTselfhelp.com

The Consumers' Reports Guide to Antidepressants. It's a downloadable PDF file if you're a member of CR's website. Ironically I've found it to be the best guide I've ever seen to antidepressants and far better than what I've read in actual medical journals and texts in terms of teaching people the differences of antidepressants and what to expect from them. I've literally found that if one reads this guide, they would actually know more than plenty of psychiatrists in terms of the practical clinical aspects of these meds.

But disappointingly their guide to mood stabilizers (with no mention of Lithium) and antipsychotics, I've found problems to the degree where I wouldn't recommend using them. The antipsychotic guide wisely uses the CATIE trial as a foundation to their medication recommendations but then falters being able to offer no ideas on meds such as Invega (which is basically just 2nd generation Risperdal) among several other meds.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

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