Coping with / advice about illness and specific health conditions Books

Book Synopsis"A fiercely honest and beautifully written book." --Paul Austin, author, Beautiful Eyes and Something for the Pain A cautionary tale of careless psychiatric diagnosis, treatment, and resilience Sawyer's memoir is a harrowing, heroic, and redeeming story of her battle with mental illness, and her triumph in overcoming it. In 1960, as a suicidal teenager, Sawyer was institutionalized, misdiagnosed, and suffered through 89 electroshock treatments before being transferred, labeled as "unimproved." The damage done has haunted her life. Discharged in 1966, after finally receiving proper psychiatric care, Sawyer kept her past secret and moved on to graduate from Yale University, raise two children, and become a respected psychotherapist. That is, until 2001, when she reviewed her hospital records and began to remember a broken childhood and the even more broken mental health system of the 1950s and 1960s.Trade Review"This utterly gripping, sharply written memoir pulls no punches. With cauterizing honesty and a blessed sense of perspective, Annita Perez Sawyer takes you into and through her dark experience to the shores of wisdom." Philip Lopate, author, Being With Children"How to mend a psyche shattered by personal trauma? Annita Sawyer seeks answers to that question, first for her patients and then for herself. In prose without a hint of self-pity, yet rich in sensory details and professional insight, she draws a dark history into the light." Scott Russell Sanders, author, Divine Animal: A Novel"Annita Sawyer writes candidly and gracefully of her vulnerabilities and her persistence as she details her harrowing experience with a misdiagnosis, the hard-won life she forges in its wake, and her ultimate reconciliation with her buried past. Smoking Cigarettes, Eating Glass is a brave, compassionate, memorable book." Jane Brox, author, Five Thousand Days Like This One: The Evolution of Artifical Light"This account of psychiatric misdiagnosis and mistreatment is remarkable for its narrative force, its palpable (and entirely justified) rage, and its fierce honesty." Anne Fadiman, author, At Large and At Small and The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down"Annita Sawyer' Smoking Cigarettes, Eating Glass is an extraordinary achievement, a memoir of a Yale-trained psychologist' harrowing struggle with serious mental illness and recovery. Beautifully written and full of heartbreak, hope and wisdom, for anyone with a personal or family history of mental illness, this is a must read." Thomas H. Styron, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine"A fiercely honest and beautifully written book." Paul Austin, author, B eautiful Eyes and Something for the Pain"The author's look back on her youth is especially absorbing from her perspective as a practicing psychologist who has treated people with mental illnesses similar to those she experienced." Library Journal

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Book SynopsisThis book describes the current understanding of symptoms, diagnosis, mode of transmission, and treatments of four important intestinal diseases, taking into consideration the molecular interactions between host cells and infectious agents. Intestinal diseases are a significant health issue worldwide, with varying causative infections resulting in symptoms that range from mild or asymptomatic to death within hours. Understanding the cause of the different forms of intestinal disease is a critical aspect of proper management of these diseases that can save lives. This book describes the current understanding of symptoms, diagnosis, mode of transmission, and treatments of four important intestinal diseases, taking into consideration the molecular interactions between host cells and infectious agents. Specifically, dysentery caused by infection with Entamoeba histolytica, giardiasis caused by infection with Giardia, shigellosis caused by infection with Shigella, and cholera caused by infection with Vibrio cholera, are discussed in each chapter. The author also discusses future work related to prevention and treatment of these critical infectious diseases, given that the eradication of these diseases is unlikely. Awareness of how these diseases are spread and how they can be contained is a growing public health concern, particularly after natural and human-made disasters where public hygiene may be compromised.

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Book SynopsisIllness is a part of life. For many years we have known about disease. But we were not always so smart. The Black Plague ravaged Europe between 1347-1352 and killed 30-80 MILLION people. No one knew how people caught the condition and lots of ideas failed–people just died. But not everyone died; possibly their immune systems help them fight off these "invaders".Today we know about bacteria, viruses, cancers and other invaders and we usually let them run their course. That is because our bodies detect and fight them. That is immunity.

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