Saturday, December 27, 2008

Awakenings or Overcoming Compulsive Hoarding

Awakenings

Author: Oliver Sacks

"One of the most beautifully composed and moving works of our time."  --The Washington Post

"Compulsively readable. . . . Dr. Sacks writes beautifully and with exceptional subtlety and penetration into both the state of mind of his patients and the nature of illness generally. . . . A brilliant and humane book."  --A. Alvarez, The Observer

Awakenings--which inspired the major motion picture--is the remarkable story of a group of patients who contracted sleeping-sickness during the great epidemic just after World War I. Frozen for decades in a trance-like state, these men and women were given up as hopeless until 1969, when Dr. Oliver Sacks gave them the then-new drug L-DOPA, which had an astonishing, explosive, "awakening" effect. Dr. Sacks recounts the moving case histories of his patients, their lives, and the extraordinary transformations which went with their reintroduction to a changed world.

"[Sacks] opens to the reader doors of perception generally passed through only by those at the far borders of human experience."        --The Boston Globe

"A masterpiece."  --W. H. Auden

What People Are Saying

Harold Pinter
A remarkable book.


Harold Pinter
"A remarkable book."




Book review: When a Family Member Has Dementia or Hot Flashes from Heaven

Overcoming Compulsive Hoarding

Author: Fugen A Neziroglu

Although the much-satirized image of a house overflowing with National Geographics and infested with cats may make us chuckle, the reality of compulsive hoarding is no laughing matter. The most common reason for evictions in the US and a significant risk factor for fatal house fires, compulsive hoarding is treatable condition related to obsessive-compulsive disorder. It is characterized by the acquisition of possessions that have little or no value, which the sufferer-often refers to as the "saver"- has great difficulty discarding.

This book, the first ever written for savers and their families, provides an overview of compulsive hoarding and how it relates to obsessive-compulsive disorder. It discusses hoarding broadly, offering readers perspectives on the physical, behavioral, and value-oriented aspects of the condition. Readers can use its assessment tools to help decide why they or their loved one hoards. Skill-building exercises help readers determine how to beat the hoarding problem by addressing issues that often underlie compulsive saving. Even though this is fundamentally a self-help book, it contains a frank discussion about the need for professional help in some hoarding cases, how to find it, and what medications have been proven effective for savers.

Three compulsive hoarding experts team up to provide the first research-based cognitive behavioral treatment plan to help compulsive hoarders learn to recognize the problem, understand the treatment options, and learn gentle techniques to free themselves of this life-threatening disorder.

  • Differentiate between hoarding and collecting
  • Recognize what type of hoarder you are
  • Overcome the fear that makes you hoard
  • Stop the clutter from taking over your life
About the Authors:
Fugen Neziroglu, Ph.D., ABBP is a board certified cognitive and behavior psychologist, involved in the research and treatment of anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders, trichotillomania, hoarding, body dysmorphic disorder and hypochondriasis at the Bio-Behavioral Institute in Great Neck, NY.

Jerome Bubrick. Ph.D., is a behavior and cognitive psychologist who specializes in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders and hoarding in children and adults at Bio-Behavioral Institute, Great Neck, NY.

Jose A. Yaryura-Tobias, Ph.D., is a biological psychiatrist and an internist with over 40 years experience. He has pioneered research in the dopamine theory of schizophrenia and the serotonin theory of obsessive-compulsive disorder. He is the author of eight books, seven of which he co-authored with Dr. Fugen Neziroglu



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