Forum Network

Bebe Moore Campbell reads from her latest book, *72 Hour Hold*. In this novel of family and redemption, Keri struggles to save her 18 year old daughter from the devastating consequences of mental illness and the bureaucracy that refuses to help her. When, out of desperation, she decides to put her daughter's fate into the hands of an unorthodox alternative to the state system, Keri begins a journey that has her calling on the spirit of Harriet Tubman for courage. In the upheaval that follows, she is forced to confront a past that refuses to stay buried, even as she battles to secure a future for her child. Co-presented with Elizabeth Stone House and the Cambridge Family YMCA. Bebe Moore Campbell is the author of three *New York Times* best-sellers: *Brothers and Sisters*, *Singing in the Comeback Choir*, and *What You Owe Me*, which was also a *Los Angeles Times* Best Book of 2001. Her other works include the novel *Your Blues Ain't Like Mine*, which was a *New York Times* Notable Book of the Year and the winner of the NAACP Image Award for literature.

Lauren Slater and Jessica Henderson Daniel discuss an expansive book, The Complete Guide to Mental Health for Women. From anxiety to eating disorders to postpartum depression, over 50 experts navigate the milestones and issues affecting women's mental health and the medical assistance that is available. The vast majority of books on mental illness focus on men. This book is the first comprehensive volume that seeks to depict women's lives through their illnesses and their life stages, taking into account both race and class. Over 50 medical experts contribute to chapters on anxiety, depressive and bipolar disorders, body image and eating disorders, as well as disorders associated with specific stages in women's lives: marriage, motherhood, postpartum depression and menopause and the effects of aging on mood, memory and hormones.

Judy Norsigian, an expert in women's health issues and founder of the landmark book, *Our Bodies, Ourselves*, examines the media's increasing impact on women's medical decisions and public perception of illnesses such as breast cancer, depression, and addiction. Recorded for the 2005 National Women's Health Week. (Photo: "[Messalina by Eugène Cyrille Brunet](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Messalina_by_Eug%C3%A8ne_Cyrille_Brunet.JPG#/media/File:Messalina_by_Eug%C3%A8ne_Cyrille_Brunet.JPG "")" by Caroline Léna Becker - Self-photographed. Licensed under CC)

Robert Whitaker, award-winning science and medicine journalist, discusses his new book, *Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America*. Why has the number of disabled mentally ill in the United States tripled over the past two decades? Every day, 1,100 adults and children are added to the government disability rolls because they have become newly disabled by mental illness, with this epidemic spreading most rapidly among our nation’s children. *Anatomy of an Epidemic* first investigates what is known today about the biological causes of mental disorders. Do psychiatric medications fix “chemical imbalances” in the brain, or do they, in fact, *create* them? Then comes the scientific query at the heart of this book: During the past 50 years, when investigators looked at how psychiatric drugs affected long-term outcomes, what did they find? Did they discover that the drugs help people stay well? Function better? Enjoy good physical health? Or did they find that these medications, for some paradoxical reason, *increase* the likelihood that people will become chronically ill, less able to function well, more prone to physical illness?

Pioneer of mind body medicine Herbert Benson explores his new book, *The Relaxation Revolution: Enhancing Your Personal Health Through the Science and Genetics of Mind Body Healing*. In the 1970s, Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School ushered in a new era of understanding in the field of mind body medicine. Coining the term "relaxation response," Dr. Benson identified the body's physiologic reaction that is the exact opposite of the stress (fight-or-flight) response. In the four decades since that initial discovery, Benson and his colleagues have established the first effective therapy to counteract the harmful effects of stress. They have explored how the relaxation response, the power of expectation and belief, and other mind body phenomena can produce healing in your own body. *Relaxation Revolution* details Dr. Benson's recent work with colleagues in the field of genetics, which links mind body treatments to the healing of a steadily expanding number of medical conditions. Mind and body have become part of a scientific and medical whole; together they represent a complete approach to healing and maximal well-being. In clear, straightforward language, Benson and Proctor cite the experiences of real people to show how mind body techniques have the potential not only to enhance healing but also to reduce health costs to individuals and to society as a whole.

The foundation for a healthy adulthood is a healthy childhood. Despite our prosperity, growing numbers of American children are plagued with two chronic and intractable health challenges: obesity and compromised mental health. Nearly one third of children in the U.S. are overweight and more than half of this group is obese. In addition to the increased medical problems associated with being overweight, these children and adolescents suffer from a higher prevalence of psychological problems resulting in poor academic performance, low self-esteem, depressive disorders, and a greater number of suicide attempts. Moreover, approximately 15 million children and adolescents in the U.S. have a mental health problem that impairs their functioning at home or at school, but less than 25% receive treatment. Innovative strategies including coordinated efforts among healthcare providers, schools, academic and research institutions, federal agencies, funders and policy makers are urgently needed to reverse these alarming trends in child and adolescent health. Through this forum, a panel of experts in the field, policy-makers, and national leaders tackle these epidemics and offer cutting edge solutions to ameliorate them.

Barbara Almond, Stanford professor and psychoanalyst, discusses the darker side of childbearing and her new book, *The Monster Within: The Hidden Side of Motherhood*. Whether it is uncertainty over having a child, fears of pregnancy and childbirth, or negative thoughts about one's own children, mixed feelings about motherhood are not just hard to discuss, they are a powerful social taboo. In her new book, Barbara Almond draws on her extensive clinical experience to bring this highly troubling issue to light. In a portrait of the hidden side of contemporary motherhood, she finds that ambivalence of varying degrees is a ubiquitous phenomenon, yet one that too often causes anxiety, guilt, and depression. Weaving together case histories with examples from literature and popular culture, Almond uncovers the roots of ambivalence, tells how it manifests in lives of women and their children, and describes a spectrum of maternal behavior--from normal feelings to highly disturbed mothering characterized by blame, misuse, abuse, even child murder.

Robert Whitaker, author of *Anatomy of an Epidemic*, discusses the disturbing effects of psychotropic drugs prescribed for children. Such medications, used for ADHD, depression, and anxiety, for example, have become commonplace over the past 30 years. This practice profoundly alters the lives of the children, and so now we, as a society, urgently need to address this question: do the medications help the children thrive and grow up into healthy adults? Or does this practice do more harm than good over the long term. Robert Whitaker emphasizes two things: first, the need for an objective, evidence-based approach to evaluating these drugs; and second, the need for better public understanding of how these medications work.

Mark Vonnegut talks about his memoir *Just Like Someone without Mental Illness Only More So*, a follow-up to the acclaimed *The Eden Express*. Here is Mark’s childhood spent as the son of a struggling writer in a house that eventually held seven children after his aunt and uncle died and left four orphans. And here is the world after Mark was released from a mental hospital to find his family forever altered. At the age of twenty-eight—and after nineteen rejections—Mark was accepted to Harvard Medical School, where he gained purpose, a life, and some control over his mental illness.