Hope for Mental Health

 Physicians rarely look at the organ they're treating.  They choose psychiatric medicines for patients based primarily on symptom clusters.  It's a recipe for side-effects and failed treatment. For well over 20 years, Dr. Daniel Amen has been using SPECT scans as part of an integrative, whole-person work-up.  Spect scans can tell you what part of your brain is working too hard or not hard enough, or is functioning normally.  This information, combined with your history, and extensive labs that include tests not commonly given, can result in a truly personalized treatment plan. For those who can't come to a clinic, he wrote this book, and also has some free brain health assessments available on line.  If you would like to go to a clinic, he provides very reasonable payment plans. So, if you are scientifically inclined, put on your detective hat, and dive in.  You'll get a better understanding of what's happening in your brain, plus suggestions for treat...

What I loved about this book is the raw honesty and willingness to trust God in healing from suicidal thoughts and major depression.  Like many of us, it took a crisis for her to confess her need for help.   Her crisis came in the form of a break down on national TV, and resultant hospitalization in a psychiatric program. Bottom line, no more secrets!  and blessed clarity about God's kindness and faithfulness, and His presence in every moment of the process.  Say goodbye to those parts of you that may think that salvation and sanctification require you to already be who God created you to be.  It's a joyous realization that being broken and needy and relying on God IS being who He wants you to be!   This book was published in 2017, so there are used copies available on Amazon, and also copies available at the library.   Sheila Walsh is a prolific writer of both non-fiction and fiction.  I'm looking forward to exploring more of her work!

I consider myself to be pretty emotionally literate - a career in mental health and years of therapy, right? Well, this book made me eager to learn more, and gave me language for feelings that my heart knew but about which my brain was clueless.  What a relief! According to the research shared in this book, most folks can identify 3 emotions - mad, sad, and scared.  Well, get ready to learn about the 87 (!!) shared within the covers. It is encouraging to learn about the huge range of emotions that God gave us, and to have the opportunity to explore them in all our relationships.   My favorite to learn about was "forboding joy"; that reaction to happiness that sends you running for cover.  It's that quick flutter that says 'watch out, the other shoe is about to drop', which can send you (me) imagining the worst.  As a parent, she gives the example of experiencing the joy of watching her sleeping children, and then freaking out about all the bad thi...