Can You Help Me?: Living in the Turbulent World of Huntington Disease shares the surprising, insightful, challenging, and even encouraging stories of patients and their families who live with Huntington Disease. Having seen patients for more than 40 years, Dr Thomas Bird, a pioneer neurogeneticist, adds a human touch to this genetic brain disease that devastates persons during mid-life when they can least afford it. With a brief history of Huntington Disease and the occasional scientific detail, the true heart of the book is the human experience of the disorder: � The man who cannot stay out of prison because he is addicted to being a burglar. � Another man shoots and kills his roommate while watching television and cannot explain why he did it. � The woman with Huntington Disease copes with her depression by using Texas line dancing. � A twelve year old girl with juvenile Huntington Disease who can barely walk and talk, but her classmates rally around with touching and heartfelt support. � And the 72 year old man with late onset Huntington Disease and severe depression is made worse by ECT, but improved (for a while) with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. These are just some of the compelling stories of people of all ages and in all walks of life who feel trapped by a progressive degenerative brain disease from which there is no escape.
Why is it that so many efforts by liberals to lift the black underclass not only fail, but often harm the intended beneficiaries? In Please Stop Helping Us, Jason L. Riley examines how well-intentioned welfare programs are in fact holding black Americans back. Minimum-wage laws may lift earnings for people who are already employed, but they price a disproportionate number of blacks out of the labor force. Affirmative action in higher education is intended to address past discrimination, but the result is fewer black college graduates than would otherwise exist. And so it goes with everything from soft-on-crime laws, which make black neighborhoods more dangerous, to policies that limit school choice out of a mistaken belief that charter schools and voucher programs harm the traditional public schools that most low-income students attend. In theory these efforts are intended to help the poor—and poor minorities in particular. In practice they become massive barriers to moving forward. Please Stop Helping Us lays bare these counterproductive results. People of goodwill want to see more black socioeconomic advancement, but in too many instances the current methods and approaches aren’t working. Acknowledging this is an important first step.
NEW YORK TIMES AND NATIONAL BESTSELLER First loves, first songs, and the drugs and reckless high school exploits that fueled them—meet music icons Tegan and Sara as you’ve never known them before in this intimate and raw account of their formative years. High School is the revelatory and unique coming-of-age story of Sara and Tegan Quin, identical twins from Calgary, Alberta, growing up in the height of grunge and rave culture in the ’90s, well before they became the celebrated musicians and global LGBTQ icons we know today. While grappling with their identity and sexuality, often alone, they also faced academic meltdown, their parents’ divorce, and the looming pressure of what might come after high school. Written in alternating chapters from both Tegan’s point of view and Sara’s, the book is a raw account of the drugs, alcohol, love, music, and friendships they explored in their formative years. A transcendent story of first loves and first songs, it captures the tangle of discordant and parallel memories of two sisters who grew up in distinct ways even as they lived just down the hall from one another. This is the origin story of Tegan and Sara.
'I Had a Black Dog says with wit, insight, economy and complete understanding what other books take 300 pages to say. Brilliant and indispensable.' - Stephen Fry 'Finally, a book about depression that isn't a prescriptive self-help manual. Johnston's deftly expresses how lonely and isolating depression can be for sufferers. Poignant and humorous in equal measure.' Sunday Times There are many different breeds of Black Dog affecting millions of people from all walks of life. The Black Dog is an equal opportunity mongrel. It was Winston Churchill who popularized the phrase Black Dog to describe the bouts of depression he experienced for much of his life. Matthew Johnstone, a sufferer himself, has written and illustrated this moving and uplifting insight into what it is like to have a Black Dog as a companion and how he learned to tame it and bring it to heel.
Sometimes we are glad to have a friend to help us with things we are doing. A friend can help us to play a game or to make something. Friends can fix things, too, or help us when something is hard to do by ourselves. Reading Level 3/F&P Level C
Death comes for us all, and the desire to ease into that death is as ancient as humankind. The idea that sometimes it is better to die quickly and in control of that death—rather than linger in pain and misery once impending death is certain—has troubled yet comforted humankind. In Doctor, Please Help Me Die, author Tom Preston, MD, presents a thorough overview and discussion of end-of-life issues and physician-assisted death in America. Doctor, Please Help Me Die traces the history of patients seeking relief from suffering at the end of life and discusses how cultural and professional customs have inhibited many doctors from helping their patients at the end. Preston shows how most doctors fail their patients by not discussing dying with them and by refusing to consider legal physician aid in dying—ultimately deceiving the public in their refusal to help patients die. He discusses the religious, political, and legal battles in this part of the culture war and gives advice to patients on how to gain peaceful dying. Preston presents a strong argument for why every citizen who is dying ought to be extended an inalienable right to die peacefully, and why every physician has an ethical obligation to assist patients who want to exercise this right safely, securely, and painlessly.
One of the most asked questions growing up among friends and family, was the mystery of trying to know the meaning of life and how to fit into this world correctly. So many people want to know their purpose in life. The frustration of not understanding these valid questions can produce an overwhelming situation in our emotions. As I began to learn about Jesus and the Father God, through His Word, I was on my way to understanding myself. The first step was to be born-again. After salvation, I began to search the Word of God for answers. This allowed me to gain understanding of His plan for humanity as well as His plan my personal life. I was overwhelmed with His love for me and started to understand myself with such clarity that I decided to share some these truths with you. I believe you will be blessed with this study.Blessings!Dr. Kevin L. ZadaiFounder and President of Warrior Notes and Warrior Notes School of Ministry
Sophie Young tells her shocking true story in Please Will Someone Help Me? Sophie Young was born into a dysfunctional family, with a violent mother and father. Sophie was routinely neglected and harmed, starved and left to fend for herself. Social workers were often involved but, despite numerous visits and extensive reports, nothing was ever done. When Sophie was six, her life took another horrible turn: her adored grandfather began to sexually abuse her. Please Will Someone Help Me? is Sophie Young's heartbreaking story about a young girl at the mercy of the adult world. With full access to her social work files, she shows how those who are meant to help children can be blind to the reality of their lives; but how, ultimately, love conquers all. Sophie Young was the eldest of three, born into a dysfunctional family that she fought for years to escape. Now forty years old, she lives in England with her husband and children, and works as a volunteer for a national children's charity.
Please Help Me With This Family is based on the premise that it is generally useful to expand the therapeutic system when it is not working. By calling in additional resources when therapy reaches an impasse, the therapist is giving two strong messages to stuck families-(1)the admission of the failure of the present system to grow beyond the impasse, and (2) a model of creativity in recruiting resources to improve chances of success. Often, the resources in the large system hold the keys to uncovering and correcting troublesome relationships and behaviors in the smaller system. Please Help Me With This Family is divided into four major sections, each illustrating unique approaches and methods for unlocking resources in family and therapeutic systems. The first section opens with a comprehensive review of the theoretical roots of family therapy consultation, followed by a discussion of the different faces of consultation around the world; a detailed case study of an anorectic family in which Maurizio Andolfi successfully provokes a therapeutic impasse; and to which Carl Whitaker provides fascinating insights into his role as a consultant. Section II discusses the variety of consultative resources available in the client system and how best to harness them. Chapters cover using the child as consultant; using family of origin and friends as resources; and the use of consultation in treating addictions. Using colleagues as consultants is the focus of the third section. Consultation has the advantage over cotherapy and supervision of requiring only a brief, cost?effective relationship. Chapters discuss how therapists can avoid replicating errors by working closely with the client's previous therapist: an eco?systemic approach with chronic pain sufferers that involves medical, family, and community systems in Israel; using consultation to evaluate therapy; the creative?preventive possibilities inherent in collegial consultation; how a family therapist and school system personnel can be mutually helpful with a conjoint problem; and a consultation that focuses on the position of the therapist rather than on the client system. Finally, Section IV addresses consultation as a valuable form of professional development. It explores the importance of timing when using a consultant; the effects on five therapists of live case demonstrations with Maurizio Andolfi as consultant; and consultation to correct gender prejudice. Contributors to this volume include Vincenzo F. DiNicola, Elizabeth Ridgely, Joseph Simons, David Keith, Jim Guinan, William Jones, Lars Brok, Joel Elizur, Sara B. Jutoran, Noga Rubinstein?Nabarro, Bob Wendt, Audrey Ellenwood, Peter Liggett, Marsha Purvis, Mary Hotvedt, and Marcella de Nichilo. Students and clinicians who wish to practice consulting as well as family therapists who want to learn creative approaches to handling the dilemmas that arise in therapy will find Please Help Me With This Family to be an incomparable resource.
Readers of these books will learn to approach God in honesty through prayer, how to hear His voice through scripture, and be encouraged by examples from the Bible so that she can deal with her own "voices".
