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Books > Health, Home & Family > Family & health > Coping with personal problems
Sociopath: A Memoir is at once a jaw-dropping tale of a life lived on the edge of the law, and a moving account of one woman's battle to gain a deeper understanding of people who, like her, are sociopaths. Ever since she was a small child, Patric Gagne knew she was different. Although she felt intense love for her family and her best friend, David, these connections were never enough to make her be 'good', or to reduce her feelings of apathy and frustration. As she grew older, her behaviour escalated from petty theft through to breaking and entering, stalking, and worse . . . As an adult, Patric realized that she was a sociopath. Although she instantly connected with the official descriptions of sociopathy, she also knew they didn't tell the full story: she had a plan for her life, had nurtured close relationships and was doing her best (most of the time) to avoid harming others. While her darker impulses warred against her attempts to live a settled, loving life with her partner, Patric began to wonder - was there a way for sociopaths to integrate happily into society? And could she find it before her own behaviour went a step too far?
Ivor Swartz is ’n depressiekenner. Hy leef al jare daarmee saam, hy aanvaar dit, hy hanteer dit. Hy kies die lewe. In hierdie boek kyk Ivor na sy eie depressie, sy eie hulpkrete en pleit dat ons geen mens oordeel vir die keuses wat hulle in hulle donkerste oomblikke gemaak het nie. Hy gesels oor depressie onder tieners en hoe ons kan help, en reik 'n sagte hand uit na ouers wat 'n kind aan selfdood verloor het. Ivor gee ook spesiale aandag aan depressie onder mans en vra hoe kan gewone mense, geliefdes en die kerk depressielyers ondersteun. In hierdie intense persoonlike, maar toeganklike reis gee Ivor nie maklike antwoorde nie, hy vra dat ons ons oë sal oopmaak vir mense rondom ons, en dat ons met die regte gesindhede hulle sal ondersteun.
The perfect match. Or so she thinks. Her warmth and empathy. His charisma and ambition. Yet, Cathy feels safer teaching battle-scarred gangsters in a prison classroom than at home with her own partner. By day she walks on eggshells. At night she sleeps on the backseat of her car. Her safe place is an all-night roadhouse; her best friend, her journal. The slow boil intensifies until, one day, Cathy finds her grandmother’s armoire smashed to pieces in her bedroom, a hammer on the floor, her life in splinters beside it. Part memoir, part inspiration, Boiling A Frog Slowly is unflinching in its confrontation of abuse and utterly courageous in its portrayal of redemption.
Autoimmune conditions are on the rise, with more and more people, young and old, experiencing the frustrating and debilitating symptoms of conditions that seem to be difficult to diagnose and even more difficult to treat with conventional medicine alone. Trauma and prolonged stress disrupt healthy body-functioning and can trigger or exacerbate autoimmune and other similar conditions. Malvina approaches autoimmunity holistically to look for their roots in trauma and prolonged stress, and find ways to improve health and restore vitality. She draws on psychological, natural and ancient practices that have been shown to help those affected by autoimmune conditions to reduce their stress load, boost their body’s defences and re-establish internal balance. The book not only offers a range of helpful, practical solutions to those impacted by these conditions but more importantly it offers hope and understanding.
The definitive book on how to eat for mental health, from a go-to expert on the impact of food on the brain. Did you know that blueberries can help you cope with the after-effects of trauma? That salami can cause depression, or that boosting Vitamin D intake can help treat anxiety? When it comes to diet, most people's concerns involve weight loss, fitness, cardiac health, and longevity. But what we eat affects more than our bodies; it also affects our brains. And recent studies have shown that diet can have a profound impact on mental health conditions ranging from ADHD to depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, OCD, dementia and beyond. Dr. Uma Naidoo is a board-certified psychiatrist, nutrition specialist, and professionally trained chef. In The Food-Mood Connection, she draws on cutting-edge research to explain the many ways in which food contributes to our mental health, and shows how a sound diet can help treat and prevent a wide range of psychological and cognitive health issues. Packed with fascinating science, actionable nutritional recommendations, and delicious, brain-healthy recipes, The Food-Mood Connection is the go-to guide to optimizing your mental health with food.
From the Baillie Gifford Prize-winning and Sunday Times bestselling author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing comes a riveting story of wealth, violence and deceit at the heart of a glittering city. In 2019, a London teenager, Zac Brettler, fell to his death from a luxury apartment building on the banks of the Thames. On a desperate quest to understand how their son had died, his grieving parents made a terrible discovery: Zac had been leading a fantasy life, posing as the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch. Patrick Radden Keefe follows Zac’s parents on a dark journey to find out what brought him to the balcony that night – and how a teenager’s life of make-believe drew him into the city’s terrifying underworld.
At twenty-nine, Dominique Olivier’s life was torn apart in an instant. A car accident killed her husband and toddler daughter, leaving her widowed with a newborn baby. Lessons from Loss begins here, with the raw, unflinching story of grief at its most devastating – but it does not end there. Part memoir, part guide, the book traces what it means to keep living after unthinkable loss. Each chapter opens with a personal vignette drawn from Dominique’s own experience – the shock of those first weeks, the anxiety of raising a child alone, the complicated process of finding love again – and is followed by a reflective section that explores what the lessons learnt from those moments might mean for others.
Toxic thoughts, depression, anxiety--our mental mess is frequently aggravated by a chaotic world and sustained by an inability to manage our runaway thoughts. But we shouldn't settle into this mental mess as if it's just our new normal. There's hope and help available to us--and the road to healthier thoughts and peak happiness may actually be shorter than you think. Backed by clinical research and illustrated with compelling case studies, Dr. Caroline Leaf provides a scientifically proven five-step plan to find and eliminate the root of anxiety, depression, and intrusive thoughts in your life so you can experience dramatically improved mental and physical health. In just 21 days, you can start to clean up your mental mess and be on the road to wholeness, peace, and happiness.
For those people who: have a keen imagination; are labelled too shy or too sensitive; who perform poorly when being observed even though they are usually competent; have vivid dreams; for whom time alone each day is essential; and find they are quickly overwhelmed by noise and confusion, crowded parties, hectic office life... this is the book to help them understand themselves and how best to cope in various situations. Highly sensitive people are often very bright and creative but many suffer from low self esteem. They are not ‘neurotics’ as they have been labelled for so long. However, high sensitivity can lead them to cease to engage with the outside world. The book offers solutions for a happy and fulfilling life. Particularly in the way an HSP perceives his or herself: the book helps to ‘reframe’ past events, such as a difficult childhood, or how they see themselves – ie. shy. Particularly strong material for those raising a sensitive child.
It’s midsummer in Wyoming and Alexandra Fuller is barely hanging on.
Grieving her father and pining for her home country of Zimbabwe,
reeling from a midlife breakup, freshly sober and piecing her way
uncertainly through a volatile new relationship with a younger woman,
Alexandra vows to get herself back on even keel.
A pioneering researcher transforms our understanding of trauma and offers a bold new paradigm for healing in this New York Times Science bestseller. Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world's foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers' capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments-from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga-that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain's natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk's own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal-and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize For Memoirs. Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Non-Fiction 2026. Longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Awards 2025. Finalist for the National Book Award for Non-Fiction 2025. ‘There is no good way to say this,’ Yiyun Li writes at the beginning of this book. ‘There is no good way to state these facts, which must be acknowledged. My husband and I had two children and lost them both: Vincent in 2017, at sixteen, James in 2024, at nineteen. Both chose suicide, and both died not far from home.’ There is no good way to say this – because words fall short. In this remarkable, defiant work of radical acceptance, Li turns to thinking and searching for words that might hold a place for her son, James. Li does ‘the things that work’: including not just writing but gardening, reading Camus and Wittgenstein, learning the piano, and living thinkingly alongside death. Things in Nature Merely Grow is a testament to Li’s indomitable spirit.
’n Versameling van 100 gedigte oor verlies en vertroosting deur van Afrikaans se bekendste digters. Dis oor verse die dood, rou, afskeid, verganklikheid en menswees. Die lewe is ‘n asem lank is die ideale geskenk aan iemand wat ’n geliefde vir altyd moes groet ̶ veral wanneer ’n mens nie die woorde kan vind om te troos nie.
Hot Water is an intimate and daring look into the life of a young African woman from the Cape Flats with a chronic illness. The book investigates how endometriosis affects the way young woman function and navigate the world, and how this becomes especially complicated for those who are underprivileged and reliant on the public sector’s healthcare system. In Hot Water Nadine Dirks reveals the unique issues of racism, sexism, classism, fatphobia and slut-shaming that African women experience within the context of healthcare facilities, and how especially jarring it is when the stigma comes from medical staff who one expects to have the patient’s care as their primary concern. All of this has enraged Dirks and catapulted her into becoming a sexual reproductive health and rights advocate. Hot Water tells the story of how people with chronic illness are treated daily, at school, university and socially for being differently abled; how people are regarded as lazy, aggressive, disappointing, lacking, among multiple other things for being unwell in comparison to their healthy counterparts. One cannot look at seeking adequate healthcare as a young, black, underprivileged woman on the Cape Flats without experiencing racism in the most blatant of ways. Even with guidelines in place, the book shows that it is next to impossible to invoke those rights even if you are aware of them for fear of being victimised and excluded from the system.
Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain development and trauma expert, Dr. Bruce Perry, discuss the impact of trauma and adverse experiences and how healing must begin with a shift to asking, “what happened to you?” rather than “what’s wrong with you?” Through wide-ranging, and often deeply personal conversation, Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Perry explore how what happens to us in early childhood – both good and bad - influences the people we become. They challenge us to shift from focusing on, “What’s wrong with you?” or “Why are you behaving that way?,” to asking, “What happened to you?” This simple change in perspective can open up a new and hopeful understanding for millions about why we do the things we do, why we are the way we are, providing a road map for repairing relationships, overcoming what seems insurmountable, and ultimately living better and more fulfilling lives. Many of us experience adversity and trauma during childhood that has lasting impact on our physical and emotional health. And as we’re beginning to understand, we are more sensitive to developmental trauma as children than we are as adults. ‘What happened to us’ in childhood is a powerful predictor of our risk for physical and mental health problems down the road, and offers scientific insights in to the patterns of behaviors so many struggle to understand. A survivor of multiple childhood challenges herself, Oprah Winfrey shares portions of her own harrowing experiences because she understands the vulnerability that comes from facing trauma at a young age. Throughout her career, Oprah has teamed up with Dr. Bruce Perry, one of the world’s leading experts on childhood trauma. He has treated thousands of children, youth, and adults and has been called on for decades to support individuals and communities following high-profile traumatic events. Now, Oprah joins forces with Dr. Perry to marry the power of storytelling with the science and clinical experience to better understand and overcome the effects of trauma. In conversation throughout the book, the two focus on understanding people, behavior, and ourselves in the context of personal experiences. They remove blame and self-shaming, and open up a space for healing and understanding. It’s a subtle but profound shift in our approach to trauma, and it’s one that allows us to understand our pasts in order to clear a path to our future - opening the door to resilience and healing in a proven, powerful way. Grounded in the latest brain science and brought to life through compelling narratives, this book shines a light on a much-needed path to recovery – showing us our incredible capacity to transform after adversity.
Tracy Going‘s powerful memoir, Brutal Legacy (originally published in 2018), was first adapted for stage by the award-winning theatre maker, Lesedi Job, with a cast including Natasha Sutherland, Charlie Bougenon and Jessica Wolhuter, and it has now inspired a documentary, That’s What She Said – A social inquiry: in it, Tracy offers up her story to be scrutinised by a random group of men in the present. They watch her account as it is displayed in a theatre production adaptation of her book. The film documents this process and the frank discussions that follow the performance. Offering a unique social dialogue, to bring an important message across as a relatable film without diminishing the abused, or men / women in general. When South Africa’s golden girl of broadcasting, Tracy Going’s battered face was splashed across the media back in the late 1990s, the nation was shocked. South Africans had become accustomed to seeing Going, glamorous and groomed on television or hearing her resonant voice on Radio Metro and Kaya FM. Sensational headlines of a whirlwind love relationship turned horrendously violent threw the “perfect” life of the household star into disarray. What had started off as a fairy-tale romance with a man who appeared to be everything that Going was looking for – charming, handsome and successful – had quickly descended into a violent, abusive relationship. “As I stood before him all I could see were the lies, the disappearing for days without warning, the screaming, the threats, the terror, the hostage-holding, the keeping me up all night, the dragging me through the house by my hair, the choking, the doors locked around me, the phones disconnected, the isolation, the fear and the uncertainty.” The rosy love cloud burst just five months after meeting her “Prince Charming” when she staggered into the local police station, bruised and battered. A short relationship became a two-and-a-half-year legal ordeal played out in the public eye. In mesmerising detail, Going takes us through the harrowing court process – a system seeped in injustice – her decline into depression, the immediate collapse of her career due to the highly public nature of her assault and the decades-long journey to undo the psychological damages in the search for safety and the reclaiming of self. The roots of violence form the backdrop of the book, tracing Going’s childhood on a plot in Brits, laced with the unpredictable violence of an alcoholic father who regularly terrorised the family with his fists of rage. “I was ashamed of my father, the drunk. If he wasn’t throwing back the liquid in the lounge then he’d be finding comfort and consort in his cans at the golf club. With that came the uncertainty as I lay in my bed and waited for him to return. I would lie there holding my curtain tight in my small hand. I would pull the fabric down, almost straight, forming a strained sliver and I would peer into the blackness, unblinking. It seemed I was always watching and waiting. Sometimes I searched for satellites between the twinkles of light, but mostly the fear in my tummy distracted me.” Brilliantly penned, this highly skilled debut memoir, is ultimately uplifting in the realisation that healing is a lengthy and often arduous process and that self-forgiveness and acceptance is essential in order to fully embrace life.
After an exceptionally wild Mother’s Day where she danced like there was no tomorrow, picked a fight with a stranger and collided with the floor, Johannesburg scriptwriter and author Pamela Power is forced to take a hard look at her drinking habits. She realises that although she does not need to find an AA group immediately, she might be a serial binge drinker and needs to take back control. In this honest yet humorous account of her year of not getting sh*tfaced, Pamela examines her long, complicated relationship with alcohol. She is shocked to realise just how much of a crutch alcohol has been for her. There is always a bottle of wine or Prosecco around to her to help her manage the many demands of life as a freelancer and as a parent. Pamela starts her journey to sobriety at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic as her family faces financial troubles, and life in the suburban Parks of Johannesburg isn’t so blissful anymore. Through her, we experience all the frustration, irritation and surprising benefits of going dry. In dealing with her dependence on alcohol, Pamela also confronts her troubled relationship with her parents. While many other sober curious books portray sobriety as the only answer, Pamela has found a sweet spot between total sobriety and binge drinking: moderation.
From the author of the global bestseller How Not To Die comes The How Not To Die Cookbook – a lavish, beautifully illustrated collection of delicious recipes based on the groundbreaking nutritional science of the original book. Dr Michael Greger, founder of the wildly popular website NutritionFacts, takes his comprehensive, lifesaving science into the kitchen. Why suffer from disease and ill health when the right food is proven to keep you healthy, and without the side effects of drugs? We can avoid heart disease, cancer and our other biggest killers if we use food as medicine, and the How Not To Die Cookbook offers a sustainable and delicious guide to preparing and eating the foods that will prevent and reverse fatal diseases. Featuring over 100 easy-to-follow, beautifully photographed plant-based recipes, with plenty of recipes suitable for vegetarians and vegans, the How Not To Die Cookbook merges cutting-edge science with everyday ingredients from the supermarket to help you and your family eat your way to better health and a longer life.
Why... I know, why would anybody name their first book, Why? Let me quickly tell you. Exposure to pornography at a very young age and sexual abuse as a child, made my life hell. Quite frankly it ruined my whole life. I lived with daily battles that created a war within my soul. This torment lasted until I was 40 years old. I could no longer live with the trauma, the pain and suffering, emanating from my childhood events, I needed help. Just like many adults and children do too. Don’t we all have a story? Some stories are more attractive than others. This is my story. It is real, authentic, and raw. So many ask the question, Why? Not all our why’s have clear answers. And often, we never get an answer.
Why adults stay stuck in early childhood trauma? Many of your why’s will be answered through reading my life story mirrored with those of the Israelites. A story that is used multiple times in history to display Slavery and Freedom. It is a story that would help people to find true freedom, a story that will point you to the Truth. It is a story of wandering through the wilderness as a slave, with addictions, pain, and suffering. Addictions that are not easily spoken about, addictions that is not easily resolved. Addictions that many survivors don't want to have in the first place. Freedom that I so desperately longed for. Freedom I found. Freedom that can be yours too.
The uplifting true story. A Sunday Times bestseller, shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize. The story of the couple who lost everything and embarked on a journey, not of escape, but salvation. Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, the couple lose their home and their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset via Devon and Cornwall. They have almost no money for food or shelter and must carry only the essentials for survival on their backs as they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter, and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey. The Salt Path is an unflinchingly honest, inspiring and life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world. Ultimately, it is a portrayal of home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.
A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.
Growing up with a parent’s addiction leaves ripple effects that can be felt well into adulthood. The trauma of familial dysfunction can weave into the fabric of your life, affecting relationships, parenting and work, and even leading to you questioning your own worth, mistrusting intimacy and feeling disconnected from yourself. But it doesn’t have to stay this way. In this nurturing book, clinical psychologist Dr Tian Dayton draws on expertise from decades working with adult children of alcoholics, as well as her own personal experience, to empower you to embrace recovery and break the chain of intergenerational dysfunction. She will guide you as you examine how addiction shaped your family, understand the imprint it left on your childhood and discover tools to heal and thrive. You will learn to process attachment wounds, reconnect with your body, regulate emotions and move towards post-traumatic growth. Grounded in research, enriched by client narratives and filled with practical exercises based on Dr Dayton's own Relational Trauma Repair (RTR) model, this book will allow you to recover from buried hurt and give your inner child a voice, illuminating the path towards a better future for yourself and your loved ones.
Based on interviews in schools, workplaces and homes, this book tells the story of an epidemic of unkindness, uncovering the stories of bullies all around us. The online environment has given bullies a much wider range of tools to use to abuse their targets. Marion Scher tracks the links between bullying and mental health issues. As Marion says: ‘I had to brace myself to hear the often heartbreaking and vicious stories from those who encountered torturous relationships. The big question I kept asking myself was, “How could you get involved with such a person?” But just who is that kind of person, and is it even possible to spot them?’ She calls on the advice of a range of experts to help make sense of the bullies and their victims, with a range of advice to help manage the bully boss, the bully in school and the bully in a relationship. The book has stories, statistics, advice and lots of help to understand how bullies work. It is time for victims to call bullies to account and for schools, workplaces and society as a whole to put a stop to the tormentors.
For readers of The Body Keeps the Score and What Happened to You?, trauma-informed practitioner and Instagram phenomenon 'The Workout Witch', Liz Tenuto presents the ultimate guide to using somatic exercises to release tension, regulate the nervous system and facilitate healing, drawing on her fifteen years of experience teaching somatic healing. Liz Tenuto’s When the Body Speaks is a comprehensive guide to understanding how trauma and stress are stored within the body ― and how somatic exercises can provide a powerful tool for healing. Defined as the study of the body as perceived from within, somatic healing emphasizes internal sensory awareness and lived experiences as crucial for understanding and healing from tension, stress and trauma. Written as an easy-to-digest primer, Tenuto explains the science of somatics, while offering simple, fully illustrated exercises to release tension through somatic practice. Long-term stress and unresolved trauma can manifest in a host of ways – sleep issues, fatigue, muscle tension, digestive problems, cognitive difficulties, and numerous psychological conditions. By focusing on the body's innate capacity to heal, Tenuto teaches readers how to use movement to address these issues, allowing the nervous system to move from dysregulation to a state of homeostasis. A survivor of childhood and adolescent trauma, Liz Tenuto began struggling with ailments like chronic pain and insomnia. After visiting doctor after doctor, she decided to learn more about somatic exercises – and it changed her life. Twenty years later, Liz is a trauma-informed practitioner with degrees in psychology and somatics, with millions of followers around the world. In her first book, Liz offers not only practical exercises and a deeper understanding of how the mind and body interact, but a pathway for self-compassion, empowerment and a more fulfilling life.
Andrea McLean is SHAMELESS. ‘What if I fall? What if I fly?’ When Andrea McLean said this to millions of people when quitting her high-profile TV job she didn’t know she’d soon fall flat on her face in front of them too. Leaving her role as the longest-serving host on the award-winning Loose Women to follow her dreams, Andrea soon learnt that failure happens to the best of us - and when it arrives, shame won’t be far behind. But it doesn’t have to define us. In this unflinchingly honest and brilliantly enlightening book, Andrea lays everything bare, from financial ruin and broken marriages to cancel culture and toxic TV. Tracing the collapse of her business, she confesses the failures that once filled her with stomach-clenching shame and the lessons they have taught her about finding the resilience to get up again. Shameless is your guide to breaking free from shame and finding the courage to keep going through life’s toughest moments. |
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