Too often, the cliches and stigmas of mental illness breed ignorance. That ignorance can lead to a lack of empathy and compassion toward people living every day with mental illness. Part of our mission at Sanctuary Centers is to foster a better understanding of mental illness and the struggles it causes. Understanding begins the path to learning and growth. If you are in need, we hope that the information below with help you feel understood and supported. If you are simply here to learn, we hope you walk away with a little more empathy after reading these resources.

Understanding Mental Illness

• It’s All Absolutely Fine, Ruby Elliot – A candid, often hilarious graphic novel about the author’s own struggles with depression.
• Surviving Schizophrenia, E. Fuller Torrey, M.D. – First published in 1983, this book has helped thousands of families navigate and understand Schizophrenia and its struggles.
• Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, David D. Burns, M.D.
• Bipolar Disorder: A Guide for the Newly Diagnosed, Janelle M. Caponigro, MA ~ “Bipolar Disorder…helps readers process their diagnosis, decide who to tell, and discover the treatments and lifestyle changes that can help manage their symptoms. This book offers hope and support for the newly diagnosed without overwhelming them with extraneous information.”
• The Center Cannot Hold, Elyn R. Saks –  Saks “is an esteemed professor, lawyer, and psychiatrist and is the Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Law School, yet she has suffered from schizophrenia for most of her life, and still has ongoing major episodes of the illness.” The Center Cannot Hold “is destined to become a classic in its genre.”
• Manic: a memoir, Terri Cheney ~ “In explosive bursts of prose that mirror the devastating mania and extreme despair of [bipolar disorder] Cheney describes her roller-coaster existence with shocking honesty, giving brilliant voice to the previously unarticulated madness she endured.”
• How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain, Lisa Feldman Barrett ~ A new theory of how the brain constructs emotions that could revolutionize psychology, health care, the legal system, and our understanding of the human mind
• What is Bipolar Disorder?, TedED, Helen M. Farrell
• What is Depression?, TedED, Helen M. Farrell
• What Causes Addiction? TedED, Alexandra Panzer
• Everything You Think You Know About Addiction Is Wrong, TED, Johann Hari
• A Tale of Mental Illness – From the Inside, TED, Elyn Saks
• The Struggle of Mental Health ~ TED, Misc.

Learning About Specific Treatments Implemented at Sanctuary Centers

• What is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)? An easy to understand overview of DBT provided by Behavioral Tech, an organization created by DBT’s founder Dr. Marsha Linehan.
• The Evidence of EMDR Experts on the therapy Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), including EMDR founder Dr. Francine Shapiro, provides some useful insight into the practice of EMDR and how it helps with trauma, anxiety, addiction, and other conditions.
• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction An article that explores what MBSR is and how it helps disrupt our habitual reactions to stress that may result in poor choices or behaviors that may add to current issues such as depression, anxiety, or chronic pain.
• Psychological Flexibility: How Love Turns Pain into Purpose A Tedx talk (video) given by Dr. Steven Hayes, the founder of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), that addresses the initial step in ACT–accepting your experience in a loving way so that you can then choose a meaningful next step and take action.
• Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention Holds Promise For Treating Addiction A HuffPost article that provides an easy to understand overview of MBRP, a treatment approach that targets the root of addiction.

Useful Links

• The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is a great site and an invaluable resource for persons with mental illness and their families.
• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
• Mental Health America is full of good resources pertaining to mental health, including mental health screening tools.
• MentalHelp.Net is a very large and well laid out site that provides mental health and wellness education material.
• Department of Health Care Services – Mental Health Services Division is a resource for mental health programs and services in California.
• American Psychiatric Association The homepage for the American Psychiatric Association has good technical and professional material, also good material for the layperson.
• Mental Health First Aid Just as CPR helps you assist an individual having a heart attack, Mental Health First Aid helps you assist someone experiencing a mental health or substance use-related crisis.
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) is a resource to learn more about substance abuse and mental illness, related programs and initiatives.
• The Mental Health Association in California (MHAC) is an excellent resource for Californians and other seeking information on mental health and mental health issues.
• Freedom from Smoking is a program by the the American Lung Association designed to help people quit smoking and build strategies for managing stress and staying healthy.
• The Social Security and Disability Resource Center is an informational website that provides answers to questions about how to apply for disability, how to appeal a claim in the event of a denial, how to navigate the federal system, and how to avoid certain mistakes that are commonly made by applicants.
• MentalHealth.gov provides access to U.S. government mental health and mental health problems information.