Book List for Depression and Bipolar Disorder
Patient Handbooks
Bipolar Disorder: A Guide for Patients and Families
Francis Mark Mondimore
"An excellent guide to a painful and difficult yet treatable
illness. Dr. Mondimore's outstanding abilities as clinician
and teacher are put to good use in this indispensable
book." – Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine and author of An Unquiet Mind
The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide
David J. Miklowitz
Dr. Miklowitz's book is both impressive and very
humane. His lucid, multidimensional exploration of the
patient's experience and his practical and empowering
self-management techniques go far toward promoting
stability. This book should be required reading for people
with the disorder, their family members, and the
physicians and therapists who treat them." – Demitri F.
Papolos, MD, and Janice Papolos, authors of
Overcoming Depression and The Bipolar Child
Surviving Manic Depression: A Manual on Bipolar
Disorder for Patients, Families and Providers
Fuller Torrey and Michael B. Knable
The Cognitive Behavioral Workbook for Depression: A
Step-By-Step Program (Workbook)
William J. Knaus, Albert Elis
A prominent psychologist specializing in depression
offers readers step-by-step, clinically proven cognitive
behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques to recognize and
change depressive thinking.
The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for
Depression: Using Acceptance and Commitment
Therapy to Move Through Depression and Create a Life
Worth Living
Kirk D. Stroshal, Patricia Robinson
Will show you, step-by-step, how to stop this cycle, feel
more energized, and involve yourself in pleasurable and
fulfilling activities that will help you work through, rather
than avoid, aspects of your life that are depressing you.
Use the techniques in this book to evaluate your own
depression and create a personalized treatment plan.
You'll enrich your total life experience by focusing your
energy not on fighting depression, but on living the life
you want.
New Hope for People With Bipolar Disorder
“A lucid, thorough guide to every aspect of living with
bipolar disorder, Covers symptoms, treatment and
advocacy. Explains what mania and depression feel like
from the inside, the causes and risk factors, the range of
possible medications and treatments, and 10 special
problems for manic depressives like alcohol abuse and
medical noncompliance. There's also a section on
bipolar disorder in children and a list of frequently asked
questions. A valuable resource for anyone touched by
the illness.” – Publishers Weekly
Jan Fawcett, Bernard Golden, Nancy Rosenfeld
Overcoming Depression
Mary Ellen Copeland
Demitri F. Papolos, Janice Papolos
"Concise, clearly written, and up-to-date. An excellent
resource for patients and families afflicted by depression
and manic-depressive illness." - E. Fuller Torrey, M.D.,
author of Surviving Schizophrenia
Depression: The Mood Disease
Francis Mark Mondimore
“If it seems a gloomy thought to explore the workings of
mental doldrums, psychiatrist Mondimore makes this a
safe trip, explaining in simple language how depression
and manic-depression take effect and what victims can
do about it." - Publishers Weekly
Bipolar Disorder Demystified: Mastering the Tightrope of
Manic Depression
Lana R. Castle
"You will be both amazed and amused by Lana Castle’s
insight and understanding…you will discover threads of
practical advice drawn intelligently from a lifetime of
experience and presented succinctly in easily accessible
prose." - from the foreword by Peter C. Whybrow, M.D.,
author of A Mood Apart
“This creative, authoritative, state-of-the-art book is an
enormously valuable tool in dealing with depression.
Written from three unique perspectives, it is certain to
profoundly impact the lives of patients and their families.”
—Martin Keller, M.D., professor and chairman,
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown
University
The Depression Workbook: A Guide for Living with
Depression and Manic Depression
Provides interactive exercises that help readers take
responsibility for their own wellness and teach essential
coping skills, such as tracking and controlling moods,
building a support system, increasing self-confidence
and self-esteem, avoiding conditions that can exacerbate
mood swings, and using relaxation, diet, and exercise to
stabilize moods.
Bipolar Disorder: The Ultimate Guide
Sarah Owen, Amanda Sanders
With a helpful question and answer format, this
invaluable guide reveals everything about the condition,
and shows how to keep it firmly under control. From how
to deal with a manic episode to coping with the stigma
often associated with mental illness, this guide contains
the very latest research surrounding the illness that
affects one in fifty of us.
Bipolar Disorder for Dummies
Candida Fink, Joe Kraynak
Reveals some of the causes and consequences of
bipolar disorder, lets you in on some crisis survival
strategies, and describe ways that friends and family
members can support loved ones who have the disease.
The Bipolar Workbook: Tools for Controlling Your Mood
Swings
Monica Ramirez Basco, Ph.D
Mood swings may be a part of your life, but the struggle
to control them doesn’t have to dominate it. Versatile
toolkit of proven self-help strategies designed to help you
recognize the early warning signs of relapse, resist the
seductive pull of manic episodes, and escape the
paralysis of depression. Whether you’re new to the
diagnosis (and not quite sure it fits) or want to enhance
your current treatment, this simple program puts you in
charge.
Electroshock: Restoring the Mind
M.D. Max Fink
“Probably a few doctors overprescribed ECT, but the
vast majority shy away from it too much. This book,
clearly written, concise, and assertive, should help
balance the picture, educating mental health
professionals and the general public alike.” - Fore Word,
August 1999
Understanding Depression: What We Know and What
You Can Do About It
J. Raymond DePaulo, Leslie Alan Horvitz
"Understanding Depression gives coherent form to
modern science’s confused wisdom about the illness,
and does so in an accessible, intelligent way."
– Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon: An
Atlas of Depression
Undoing Depression: What Therapy Doesn’t Teach You
and Medication Can’t Give You
Richard O’Connor
"Undoing Depression is distinguished by its common
sense, its humanity, and its absence of dogmatism. It is
a balanced and persuasive work that explores the dark
predicament of depression, and the pathways toward
help. I read it with great admiration." - William Styron,
author of Darkness Visible
The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True
Self
Alice Miller
Miller’s wide and profound book about childhood trauma
has provided thousands of readers with guidance and
hope, and is essential reading for those interested in
psychology, psychotherapy, and more.
The Depression Book: Depression As an Opportunity for
Spiritual Growth
Cheri Huber
This Zen guide to utilizing depression as an opportunity
for spiritual growth and personal acceptance includes
personal accounts, written exercises, and meditation
instructions.
Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide
Kay Redfield Jamison
"Jamison brings us face to face with the suicidal mind in
a manner so intense and penetrating that, paradoxically,
the immersion in despair she offers is a source of great
pleasure." - The Washington Post Book World
Choosing to Live: How to Defeat Suicide Through
Cognitive Therapy
Thomas E. Ellis, Cory F. Newman
"Anyone who has contemplated suicide and anyone with
a suicidal loved one will profit from the straightforward
and helpful suggestions in this book". - Danny Wedding,
Ph.D.
When Words Are Not Enough
Valerie Davis Raskin
Emphasizing women's family roles as well as their
unique biological/hormonal sensitivities, Dr. Raskin
explains contemporary integrated treatment options.
Special attention to how birth control, menstrual cycles,
childbearing, and menopause impact treatment choices.
Empowers women to take an active approach in dealing
with common side effects, including weight gain and
diminished sexual responsiveness.
Personal Memoirs: Bipolar
An Unquiet Mind
Kay Redfield Jamison
"An invaluable memoir of manic depression, at once
medically knowledgeable, deeply human, and beautifully
written ... at times poetic, at times straightforward,
always unashamedly honest." - The New York Times
Book Review
A Brilliant Madness: Living with Mani-Depressive Illness
Patty Duke
"A groundbreaking guide for those who are manic
depressive or who live with or love someone who is." -
Publishers Weekly
Detour: My Bipolar Road Trip in 4-D
Lizzie Simon
Part road trip, part love story, Detour is a fast-paced,
enduring memoir that demystifies mental illness while it
embraces the universally human struggle to become
whole.
Manic: A Memoir
Terri Cheney
"Cheney...writes with passionate clarity about
depression and the lure of suicide but with especially
keen intensity about mania..." - Boston Globe
Welcome to the Jungle: Everything you Ever Wanted to
Know About Bipolar but Were Too Freaked Out to Ask
Hilary Smith
"This book is flat-out fantastic. Funny, smart, and
unflinchingly astute, Welcome to the Jungle is exactly
the guide you want on your journey from chaos to
stability as you learn to manage bipolar disorder. Smith's
sure voice is a welcome companion over some hard
road, and her wry wisdom lights the way. Indispensable."
- Marya Hornbacher, author of Madness: A Bipolar Life
Madness: A Bipolar Life
Marya Hornbacher
Millions of people in America today are struggling with a
variety of disorders that may disguise their bipolar
disease. Marya Hornbacher's fiercely self-aware portrait
revolutionizes our understanding of this all-too-common,
all-too-misunderstood disorder.
Nothing Was the Same
Kay Redfield Jamison
"The great gift Jamison offers here, beyond her honesty
and the beauty of her writing, is perspective: a clearedeyed view of illness and death, sanity and insanity, love
and grief . . . To write the truth with such passion and
grace is remarkable enough. To do this in loving memory
of a partner is tribute indeed." —The Washington Post
Personal Memoirs: Depression
Darkness Visible
William Styron
In 1985 William Styron fell victim to a crippling and
almost suicidal depression, the same illness that took the
lives of Randall Jarrell, Primo Levi and Virginia Woolf.
That Styron survived his descent into madness is
something of a miracle. That he manages to convey its
tortuous progression and his eventual recovery with such
candor and precision makes Darkness Visible a rare feat
of literature, a book that will arouse a shock of
recognition even in those readers who have been spared
the suffering it describes.
The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
Andrew Solomon
Solomon interweaves a personal narrative with scientific,
philosophical, historical, political, and cultural
insights...The result is an elegantly written, meticulously
researched book that is empathetic and enlightening,
scholarly and useful.
how she finally got the support she needed to help
combat it. – Library Journal
Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression
Neil Casey
A unique collection of essays about depression that, in
the spirit of William Styron's Darkness Visible, finds vivid
expression for an elusive illness suffered by more than
one in five Americans today. Unlike any other memoir of
depression, however, Unholy Ghost includes many
voices and depicts the most complete portrait of the
illness.
Family Members and Support Givers
When Someone You Love Is Bipolar: Help and Support
for You and Your Partner
Cynthia G. Last
"Relationships struggle and frequently fail when a
partner suffers with bipolar disorder. A self-reported
sufferer of the disorder, clinical psychologist Dr. Cynthia
Last brings twenty years of experience and hope to
readers who love those who are bipolar or struggle with
it themselves." - ForeWord Reviews
When Someone You Love Has a Mental Illness: A
Handbook for Family, Friends, and Caregivers
Rebecca Woolis
A quick reference book full of practical advice on dealing
with situations that arise in caring for a loved one with a
severe mental illness.
Helping Someone with Mental Illness: A Compassionate
Guide for Family, Friends and Caregivers
Rosalynn Carter, Susan K. Golant
"An important resource for families, friends, and those
facing the challenges of mental illness. It delivers its
message with warmth, clarity, and candor." - Laurie
Flynn, executive director, NAMI
Daughter of the Queen of Sheba: A Memoir
Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America: A
Memoir
Elizabeth Wurtzel
Painful, poignant...and ultimately triumphant, Prozac
Nation is Wurtzel’s catharsis – a cry of rage at the chronic
depression which has dominated most of her young life.
A powerful portrait of one girl’s journey through the
purgatory of depression.
Undercurrents: A Life Beneath the Surface
Martha Manning
Powerfully gripping account of a therapist’s reckoning
with her own severe depression. A breathtaking gem of
a book, heartrending, hilarious, extraordinarily human.
Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman’s Journey
Through Depression
Meri Nana-Ama Danquah
In this brutally painful memoir, Danquah, a young single
mother, reveals how her illness began, how it
progressed to the point where she couldn't function, and
Jacki Lyden
Black humor alternates with almost unbearable pathos in
Jacki Lyden's memoir of her mother's manic-depressive
episodes. Dreadful though those periodic bouts of
madness were, they also gave an unhappy housewife a
sense of power and freedom that Lyden couldn't help but
admire.
The Burden of Sympathy: How Families Cope with
Mental Illness
David Allen Karp
"An enriching companion book for anyone seeking
advice and solace for handling the issues that arise from
loving someone with a mental illness as well as a
commentary on the moral values of contemporary
society." - Booklist
The Ups and Downs of Raising a Bipolar Child: A
Survival Guide for Parents
J. Lederman, C. Fink
Written by the parent of a child with bipolar disorder with
the assistance of a psychiatrist this book gives parents
sound advice and expert information they need to cope
with this challenging diagnosis. It shows how to provide
essential care and support for a bipolar child as well as
the rest of the family.
How You Can Survive when They’re Depressed
Anne Sheffield
Explores depression from the perspective of those who
are closest to the sufferers of this prevalent disorder-spouses, parents, children, and lovers--and gives the
successful coping strategies of many people who live
with a clinical depressive or manic-depressive and often
suffer in silence, believing their own problems have no
claim to attention.
His Bright Light: The Story of Nick Traina
Danielle Steel
“I want to share the story, and the pain, the courage, the
love, and what I learned in living through it. I want Nick's
life to be not only a tender memory for us, but a gift to
others. . . . I would like to offer people hope and the
realities we lived with. I want to make a difference. My
hope is that someone will be able to use what we
learned, and save a life with it." - Danielle Steel
The Science Behind the Treatment
The Broken Brain: The Biological Revolution in
Psychiatry
Nancy Andreasen
Provides a complete and remarkably readable guide to
the new scientific understanding of schizophrenia,
severe depression, and other major mental disorders
and to the new medications that have already returned
hundreds of thousands to more normal lives. Also a
social manifesto that seeks to remove the shame, guilt,
and punishment that are still attached to the mentally ill
and, instead, to regard them "as human beings who
deserve as much sensitivity and love as people who
suffer from cancer, muscular dystrophy, or heart
disease.”
Touched with Fire: Manic Depressive Illness and the
Artistic Temperament
Kay Redfield Jamison
The march of science in explaining human nature
continues. Jamison marshals a tremendous amount of
evidence for the proposition that most artistic geniuses
were (and are) manic depressives. This is a book of
interest to scientists, psychologists, and artists struggling
with the age-old question of whether psychological
suffering is an essential component of artistic creativity.