From a subject close to my heart, a work of love and understanding in a titled book formed. Watching and listening to my daughter led me to become a voice and advocate for children who struggle daily with sensory issues and their journeys with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Emelie was the inspiration for me to pen this book. She had shown me insight into her world that I felt compelled to write and keep safe. Around her twelfth birthday, I was rereading these jewels and realized a pattern was established. Had I been more aware of these things when she was a younger age, I could have assisted my daughter through the challenges and daily struggles with sensory issues. Piecing together the written memories, a message was there, ready and waiting to be heard. As Emelie shared her voice with us, we wanted to share her voice with you. From a child's perspective, this book shows insight into the daily challenges and issues that are abounding around children living with sensory issues and/or Autism. It's her voice crying for understanding from those who can't understand and shouting support for those who may feel they are alone. From the adult perspective, it's a guide into one child's world. Emelie's voice to adults is that seeking patience, compassion and understanding. She's asking adults to look deeper into the experiences of the children in their lives and see it through the eyes of that child. While each child with Autism and sensory issues is in a unique and diversified situation, to even have the notion or inkling of what may be happening, I believe would have helped anyone in their interactions with Emelie.

"When I was diagnosed Paranoid Schizophrenic it I felt as though a lightning bolt had struck me. It shattered my world. I was put into a mental asylum. I was labeled. I was shunned. My friends fell away. I was walled by a screen of prejudice and fear from the general public. Was this to be a life sentence? Was there a way to escape from the straitjacket of serious mental illness? This is my story, the story of how I learned to survive. Is it success? You be the judge."

Series of essays about issues surrounding treatment of the mentally ill with violent tendencies.

"The Twinkie Bin" is the story of a teenage girl struggling to survive an unhappy and destructive home life as well as the pressures inherent in growing up. The main character desperately wants to be a successful, good kid. But there are so many issues, and there is too much pain. Without supportive adults in her life, she is unsure of what to do. She turns to alcohol.
Her drinking sends her out of control, spiraling down a path of self-destruction. She winds up in an adolescent drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. She is unable to open up to the counselors there. Her life becomes increasingly unhappy rather than better. Depressed and suicidal, she is transferred to a mental hospital. She hits hard when she lands in The Twinkie Bin - a pivotal event in her young life. "The Twinkie Bin" is a powerful and heart-wrenching adolescent survival story. It courageously addresses teen issues such as drinking, depression and parental conflict. The novel takes the reader on an emotional journey through an honest account of teen angst. "The Twinkie Bin" is a poetic memoir with a message of hope.

While there has been considerable research on lesbian and/or gay parenting, very little research has focused on how the children of lesbian and gay parents negotiate between their family identity and the definitions of family imposed by society. Families headed by gay and lesbian parents do not fit into a "traditional," ideologically-driven definition of family - rendering them virtually invisible due to their lack of representation in the media, school curriculum, and "normal" society. This book is an exploration of the concept of family as it was defined by six early adolescents and their lesbian parents. In an era with increased political and social tension surrounding issues of gay and lesbian marriage rights and validity for same sex parents, this qualitative study explored how these youth experience the disjunctures between their family identity and the definitions of family imposed by the larger society. The authors of this study, informed by queer theory and inquiry, conclude that identity is not realized through definitive and rigid boundaries but within and between these locations. This book is addressed to counselors, educators, and researchers interested in understanding, and even promoting, social justice for those living in diverse family structures.

There is a wide range of sanctions used by the criminal justice system to punish criminal offenders including death, imprisonment and community supervision. All of these sanctions involve a social institution exerting direct social control over an individual either through loss of life or liberty or via constant supervision. And even after a prison sentence or community supervision term has ended there are continuing penalties, for while a prison term may be completed the label of "convicted felon" last a lifetime. A unique Florida law affords judges the discretion to withhold adjudication for felony offenders sentenced to probation. This sentencing option allows offenders to avoid the label of "convicted felon" and retain all rights normally lost upon felony conviction within the state of Florida, including the right to vote and carry fire arms. This book investigates the individual and social contingencies which impact the withholding of adjudication from a social threat and social control perspective.

Asperger’s—If You Only Knew is an uplifting and enlightening glimpse into the lives of a mother and son who have both learned to cope and thrive with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS), arguably one of the most fascinating conditions in the history of mental health.

As a child, Sophia Summers always knew she was different and misunderstood. Hers was a lonely life of obsession and passion, fraught with anxieties, vulnerabilities, confusion, and heartbreak. It wasn’t until her son Josh was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) that Sophia sought her own eventual diagnosis with the same—and began her mission to fully research and understand AS and to discover and embrace the special way the brains of those with Asperger’s are wired.

In Sophia’s remarkably candid and deeply personal memoir, she offers firsthand insight into the unique challenges and experiences of both living with Asperger’s Syndrome and raising a child with AS. With the kind of clarity that only comes from true acceptance, Sophia shares the many practical and emotional coping skills she and her son have developed over the years for people in the spectrum of autism and their families, mental health professionals, and teachers.

Asperger’s—If You Only Knew is a triumphant true tale about coming to terms with one’s essential self, trusting in others, welcoming laughter, and realizing one’s true potential. It serves as an invaluable source of comfort, hope, and guidance to anyone touched by AS.

"Adolescent Depression: Outside/In" is an innovative book for adolescents, parents, and clinical professionals. Keena, a licensed addictions and mental health counselor, takes her readers inside the depressed adolescent's imagination, and insecurities.

Using a combination of narrative, poetry, and prose, Ms. Keena has taken her personal experiences with depression and has woven a masterful work. Through her own experiences, Ms. Keena has shown a way to understand the sense of lost helplessness of depressed adolescents. She then shows us the path towards hope and recovery.

This book will help adolescents, parents, and clinicians understand the difficulties and challenges that can arise as the treatable illness of depression begins to emerge in adolescence.

Samuel M. Silverman, MD
Fellow of the American
Psychiatric Association

A paperback original.

From the author of the bestselling Don't Sweat the Small Stuff series comes a beautifully designed journal for teens to record the stresses of everyday life.

In Don't Sweat the Small Stuff for Teens, Richard Carlson, Ph.D., offered teens simple techniques for coping with life's everyday challenges. Now he offers them a tool in which to write about and reflect upon every facet of their lives: academics, sports, social situations, family life, money matters, even work.

Filled with guiding questions for teens to answer, blank lined spaces for recording stressful moments, and inspirational quotes, the Don't Sweat the Small Stuff for Teens Journal is private space for teenagers to record and come to terms with their most intimate thoughts and fears.

Wisdom for Bad Days and Hard Times.
It used to be you could count on someone else to make important decisions for you. But now that you're getting older, more and more choices-even the hard ones-are up to you. It isn't always easy to know how to act or what to say-whether you're faced with minor hassles, like getting a zit before your first date, or major crises, like a friend's alcohol abuse. In this 31-day devotional, you'll find stories about teens who are going through the same things you are, solid advice to help you make good decisions in tough times, space to scribble your thoughts and prayers, and things to think and pray about-all to help you get to know the God who's right by your side, no matter what life brings!

'A brilliant new book' Daily Telegraph 'Well written . . . and often entertaining' The Times 'A sparkling analysis' Prospect When uncertainty is all around us, and the facts are not clear, how can we make good decisions? We do not know what the future will hold, particularly in the midst of a crisis, but we must make decisions anyway. We regularly crave certainties which cannot exist and invent knowledge we cannot have, forgetting that humans are successful because we have adapted to an environment that we understand only imperfectly. Throughout history we have developed a variety of ways of coping with the radical uncertainty that defines our lives. This incisive and eye-opening book draws on biography, history, mathematics, economics and philosophy to highlight the most successful - and most short-sighted - methods of dealing with an unknowable future. Ultimately, the authors argue, the prevalent method of our age falls short, giving us a false understanding of our power to make predictions, leading to many of the problems we experience today. Tightly argued, provocative and written with wit and flair, Radical Uncertainty is at once an exploration of the limits of numbers and a celebration of human instinct and wisdom.