RECOMMENDED BOOKS

These references are not construed as providing medical/legal advice nor endorsements. These represent the positive practical knowledge collected and updated as data becomes available.

NAMI no longer sells books. Most of these can be found (or ordered) at any large bookstore or borrowed from the Pleasanton Medical Library (North of the Courthouse). Click here for Book Reviews by NAMI

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Video/DVD

• "A Beautiful Mind" (***) - 2001 PG-13, VHS at Rite Aid $10 (7/2004), DVD at CostCo (A brilliant mathematician, John Nash, succumbs to paranoia and schizophrenia)
  
• "Dark Glasses and Kaleidoscope" (not reviewed) - Video (Bipolar)
• "Frontline: The New Asylums" (not reviewed) - 2005 PBS Video (Mental Illness and prisons)
• "The Secret Life of the Brain" (**) - PBS Video (Mini-series about brain development, normal and abnormal)
  
• "My Sister's Keeper" (***) - 2002, Hallmark Hall of Fame Video 109min 1498HFV1398, $19 (Powerful docu-drama showing Schizo-Affective and Bipolar impact on a family and patient.)
  
• "Straight Talk About Mental Illness" (*) - NAMI Video, 18min, Arlington VA, 800-950-NAMI (Brief clips as if camera is the eyes and ears of schizophrenic teenagers)

Books - Bipolar/Manic-Depressive

• Magazine: bp Magazine, $20/year, 1-888-834-5537
• "The BiPolar Child" - (11/12/01 Do not treat solely with antidepressant since genetic factors often involved. Need to also have mood stabilizer.)
  
• "BiPolar Disorder: A Family-Focused Treatment Appraoch" - 1997, David Miklowitz, Michael Goldstein, New York, Guilford Press, $38
• "The BiPolar Disorder Survival Guide" - 2002, David Miklowitz, New York, Guilford Press, paperback, $19
  
• "A Brilliant Madness" - 1992, Patty Duke and Gloria Hockman, Bantam Books, $6 (Living with Manic-Depressive Illness)
  
• "Call Me Anna" - 1987, Patty Duke, Bantam Books (Autobiography - Bi-Polar diagnosis)
  
• "Lithium and Manic Depression" - 1992, Lithium Information Center, $4
• "Living without Depression and Manic Depression: A Workbook for maintaining Mood Stability" - 1994, Mary Ellen Copeland, $15 (Workbook for people whose depressive illness is currently stabilized)
• "Manic Depressive Illness" - 1990, Frederick K Goodwin, MD and Kay Redfield Jamison, PhD, $62 (A definitive bipolar overview)
  
• "New Hope for People with BiPolar Disorder" - 2000, Fawcett M.D./Golden/Rosenfield, Prima Publishing, $13
  
• "An Unquiet Mind: Memoir of Moods and Madness" - 1995, Kay Redfield Jamison, PhD, New York, Vintage Books, Random House , Paperback, $12 (Memoir of Manic-Depressive Illness)
  
• "Why am I Up? Why am I Down?" - 1999, Roger Granet,MD and Elizabeth Ferber, New York, Dell Mental Health Guide`, Random House , Paperback, $6 (Understanding Bipolar Disorder) - (4/7/02 Treating with antidepressant alone will trigger a manic episode)
  

Books - Schizophrenia

• "Cannabis Use and Age at Onset of Schizophrenia" - 3/2004, American Journal of Psychiatry
• "The Day the Voices Stopped: Memoir of Madness and Hope" - 2001, Ken Steele (Schizophrenia), Basic Books (11/12/01 Local experiment confirmed effect of stopping voices via Risperdal with SOME patients.)
• "Surviving Schizophrenia" - 2001, Fourth Edition, E.Fuller Torrey,MD, 480 pages, HarperCollins
  
• "The Music of Madness" - 2002, Tracy L Harris (Schizoaffective Disorder), New York, IUniverse, paperback, $15 (Survivor, concert flutist, tells story of hope)

Books - Medicines

• "Essential Guide to Psychiatric Drugs" - 1995 Update, Jack Gorman, $7
• "Pyschoactive Drugs and their Effects on Mentally Ill Persons" - 1996, Jean K Bouricius
• "Worst Pills, Best Pills" - 1988, Sidney Wolfe,MD/Fugate/Hulstrand/Kamimoto, Public Citizen Health Research Group, Washington DC, large paperback, $12 (Intended as an elder guide, encyclopedic, largely devoted to mental health drugs)

Books - Family Dynamics/Mental Illness

• "Back in Control - How to get your children to behave" - Gregory Bodenhamer (Out-of-control behaviors, follow-through, and consistency - Useful for fathers)
• "Beyond Codependency" - 1989, Melody Beattie, Harper/Hazelden, San Francisco, paperback, $10
• "Codependent No More" - 1987, Melody Beattie, Harper/Hazelden, San Francisco, paperback, $10
• "Coping with Mental Illness in the Family" - 1991, Agnes Hatfield, PhD, $3
• "How You can Survive when They're Depressed" - Anne Sheffield
• "I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can" -
• "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" -Fourth Edition
  
• "Helping Someone with Mental Illness" - 1999, Rosalynn Carter, Random House
• "I am Not sick! I Don't Need help!" - 2000, Xavier Amador, New York, Vida Press, Paperback, $18
  
• "I Hate you! Don't leave me" -
• "Parenting Teens with Love and Logic" - Jim Fay
• "Rickie" - 1990, Frederic Flach,MD, Ballantine Books, Random House (Out of Print - Recollections by psychiatrist father and daughter with mental illness)
• "The Skipping Stone: Ripple Effects of Mental Illness on the Family" - 1995, Mona Wasnow
• "Stop Walking on Egg Shells" - 1998, Paul Mason,MS and Randi Kreger, , New Harbinger Pub
• "Surviving Mental Illness" - 1993, Agnes Hatfiled, PhD and Harriet Lefley, PhD
• "When Someone You Love Has a Mental Illness: A handbook for Family, Friends, and Caregivers" - 1992, Rebecca Woolis, MFCC, New York, Putnam, paperback, $14
  

Books - Public Policy and Perceptions

• "Criminalizing the Seriously Mentally Ill: Jails as Mental Hospitals" - 1992, E.Fuller Torrey,MD (Advocate resources for persons with mental illness who are jailed)
• "Out of the Shadows: Confronting America's Mental Illness Crisis" - 1997, E.Fuller Torrey,MD, New York, John Wiley and Sons, paperback, $17

Books - Legal/Financial

• "Conservatorship Book for California" - Lisa Goldoftas & Attorney Carolyn Farren - Nolo Press
  
• "Financial Power of Attorney Workbook: Make Your Own Durable & Conventional Powers of Attorney" - Attorney Shae Irving - Nolo Press
• "Social Security, Medicare, and Pensions" - Attorney Joseph Matthews & Dorothy Matthews Berman - Nolo Press (Includes Section: Dealing with Medicare HMOs)