"An Unquiet Mind" by Kay Redfield Jamison, Alfred Knopf, New York, 1995

"The major clinical problem in treating manic-depressive illness is not that there are not effective medications- there are- but that patients so often refuse to take them. Worse yet, because of a lack of information, poor medical advice, stigma, or fear of personal and professional reprisals, they do not seek treatment at all." (p.6)

This is an interesting and easy-to-read account by Dr. Jamison about her own experience with manic-depressive illness, informed by her medical training

"The Explosive Child" by Ross W. Greene, Ph.D.

"How do we help a child who- because of a difficult temperment, deficits in executive skills, hyperactivity and impulsivity, a depressed or unstable mood, anxiety, language or nonverbal impairments, or deficits in social skills- lacks the capacity to respond adaptively to life's demands for flexxibility and frustration tolerance?" (p.103)

If you have an inflexible-explosive child, you will want to peruse Dr. Greene's advice about creating a "user-friendlier environment." If you have a teenager who likes to read, you might want to leave the book around the house and see if he will pick it up. Then the two of you can discuss "vapor lock."

Half Empty Half Full, Understanding the Psychological Roots of Optimism, Susan C. Vaughan, M.D., Harcourt, Inc., 2000

Dr. Vaughan, a pyschiatrist, writes that optimism is "a process, rather than a stable state, and that "...believing that we are in control clearlly contributes to our ability to sustain a robustly positive mood and outlook, even though that sense of control is only an illusion." (p.44). Dr. Vaughan also explains that "downward comparison with those less fortunate is a trick that really works to make ourselves feel lucky, while upward comparison with those who have more than we do can easily stir difficult-to-manage feellings of anger, envy, and injustice that can make our moods black instead."

Power Parenting for Children with ADD/ADHD, A Practical Parent's Guide for Managing Difficult Behaviors, Grad L. Flick, Ph.D. The Center for Applied Research in Education, West Nyack, N.Y. 10994, (www.phdirect.com) 1996

This is a "problem-oriented" book for parents who are trying to manage the difficult behaviors of the "strong-willed" child who has behaviors typical of ADHD.

Teaching Your Child the Language of Social Success, Marshall Duke, Ph.D., Stephen Nowicki, Jr., Ph.D., Elisabeth A. Martin, M. Ed.,Peachtree Publishers, Atlanta, Georgia 30324 (1996)

This book will help you teach a child who is not good at nonverbal communication how to understand facial expressions, gestures, tone, distance, and other aspects of how we speak to each other.

The Out-of-Sync Child, Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Integration Dysfunction, Carol Stock Kranowitz, M.A. Berkley Publishing Group, New York, New York 10014 (1998)

Sensory integration is "the neurological process of organizing the information we get from our bodies and from the world around us for use in daily life." (p.42) Miscues from the brain in this area can lead to difficult behavior and problems in school, some of which can be alleviated with occupational therapy.