Dear Readers,
It has come to my attention that the Recommended Reading link is not always working. My apologies. I am working to fix it. In the meantime, here is a copy of the list:
My most recommended books are the ones by Bruce Perry, a child psychiatrist. He has two books: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog and Born for Love. His ideas have formed the basis of my own treatment. To grossly simplify his theories, if a child has a trauma at a young age it does not necessarily matter what they consciously remember or how they feel about it years later. If a child has a trauma before the age of five, when the brain is still forming, and essentially does not have the opportunity to run around and explore the world and act like a child, it can affect the way the brain forms. That can affect things later, even if the child receives good care afterward.
I had a severe physical illness just before I turned three. Dr. Perry blasts many professionals for not recognizing the effects early trauma can have on people. In my case, most people did sort of suspect that my illness was at the root of my problems, but no one could really figure it out.
According to Dr. Perry, people in that situation need stimulation and skill-building aimed at the age they missed it, not their current chronological age. In my case, I needed to figure out what skills I had missed and come up with ways to obtain them. That has been the most helpful approach I have encountered in my life. I needed to build skills one at a time, and it took a while. I am still working on some of the more advanced skills. I will write more about some of the details of what I did later. For now — read the books.
Some of the other books about mental illness I really like are:
The Center Cannot Hold by Elyn Saks. A powerful story about a woman with schizophrenia and her (successful) struggles to build her life and career.
The Quiet Room by Lori Schiller and Amanda Bennett. This book is somewhat dated (although a new edition with an updated epilogue was published in the last few months), but provides a very informative view of exactly what is going on in a schizophranic person's mind.
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. Ms. Kaysen discusses her own hospitalization in the 1960's with some of the questions we frequently face today: How much of this is me and how much is my meds? What is the real problem and the solution?
Danger to Self by Paul Linde. A very interesting book by an emergency psychiatrist. People with psych problems often complain legitimately about ER services, and it can be helpful to see the opposite perspective.
