Tag: Behaviour

Book: The ACT Workbook for OCD

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Book Title:

The ACT Workbook for OCD: Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Exposure Skills to Live Well with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Author(s): Marisa T. Mazza.

Year: 2020.

Edition: First (1st), Workbook Edition.

Publisher: New Harbinger.

Type(s): Paperback and Kindle.

Synopsis:

Stand up to your OCD! The ACT Workbook for OCD combines evidence-based acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) with exposure and response prevention (ERP) for the most up-to-date, effective treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

If you are one of the millions of people who suffer from OCD, you may experience obsessive, intrusive, or even disturbing thoughts. You may engage in compulsive or ritualistic behaviours, such as checking to make sure you have locked the front door, or endlessly washing your hands for fear of germs or contamination. And you may be tempted to give up if treatment just does not work for you.

Whether you have just received a diagnosis, or have suffered for years, this workbook can help. Using the powerful and proven-effective treatments in this guide, you will learn what type of OCD you suffer from (such as harm OCD), how to identify the underlying mechanisms of your OCD, move through triggering incidents while staying present and connected to your values, be more aware and flexible, tolerate uncertainty, and commit to behaviours that ultimately allow you to lead a full, rewarding life.

Once you realise what really matters to you, you will find the motivation needed to start on the path to psychological well-being.

If you are ready to be courageous, take a risk, and stand up to your OCD symptoms, this workbook can help guide you, every step of the way.

Book: How Emotions Are Made

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Book Title:

How Emotions Are Made – The Secret Life Of The Brain.

Author(s): Lisa Feldman Barrett.

Year: 2017.

Edition: First (1st); Main Market Edition.

Publisher: Macmillan.

Type(s): Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook, and Kindle.

Synopsis:

When you feel anxious, angry, happy, or surprised, what is really going on inside you? Most scientists would agree that emotions come from specific parts of the brain, and that we feel them whenever they are triggered by the world around us. The thrill of seeing an old friend, the sadness of a tear-jerker movie, the fear of losing someone you love – each of these sensations arises automatically and uncontrollably within us, finding expression on our faces and in our behaviour, and carrying us away with the experience.

This understanding of emotion has been around since Aristotle. But what if it is wrong? In How Your Emotions Are Made, pioneering psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett draws on the latest scientific evidence to reveal that our ideas about emotion are dramatically, even dangerously, out of date – and that we have been paying the price. Emotions do not exist objectively in nature, Barrett explains, and they are not pre-programmed in our brains and bodies; rather, they are psychological experiences that each of us constructs based on our unique personal history, physiology and environment.

This new view of emotions has serious implications: when judges issue lesser sentences for crimes of passion, when police officers fire at threatening suspects, or when doctors choose between one diagnosis and another, they are all, in some way, relying on the ancient assumption that emotions are hardwired into our brains and bodies. Revising that conception of emotion is not just good science, Barrett shows; it is vital to our wellbeing and the health of society itself.

Book: The Economics Of Addictive Behaviours – Volume IV

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Book Title:

The Economics Of Addictive Behaviours – Volume IV: The Private and Social Costs of Overeating and Their Remedies.

Author(s): John Joshua.

Year: 2017.

Edition: First (1ed).

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan.

Type(s): Hardcover, Paperback, and Kindle.

Synopsis:

This title offers an in-depth analysis of the psychological causes and consequences of, and proposed interventions for over-eating. The author examines the history of obesity and its distribution by social class and geography, the environmental effects of overconsumption and economic remedies such as the introduction of a sugar tax to reduce obesity. Joshua also considers the politics of corporate social responsibility of food and beverage corporations and how this could prevent poor health decisions.

This is the final title in a four volume series ‘The Economics of Addictive Behaviours’, consisting of three additional volumes on smoking, alcohol abuse and illicit drug abuse.

Book: The Economics Of Addictive Behaviours – Volume III

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Book Title:

The Economics Of Addictive Behaviours – Volume III: The Private and Social Costs of the Abuse of Illicit Drugs and Their Remedies.

Author(s): John Joshua.

Year: 2017.

Edition: First (1ed).

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan.

Type(s): Hardcover, Paperback, and Kindle.

Synopsis:

This title offers an in-depth analysis of the causes, consequences and treatments of illicit drug abuse. The author examines the effects of existing drug policies and proposes drug use legalisation within a regulated market as a viable alternative. Joshua assesses the factors that make individuals vulnerable to drug abuse and the pathways they may follow. As well as exploring the physical and psychological effects on the individual, Joshua examines the social and economic consequences for society. He highlights the pitfalls of a purely legal approach to drug abuse, which is primarily a health matter, and questions whether special drugs courts could be used as an alternative to the present criminal justice system. This book adds to the debate on whether most drugs could be sold in a regulated market in the same way as other drugs are, such as alcohol or nicotine.

This is the third title in a four volume series ‘The Economics of Addictive Behaviours’, consisting of three additional volumes on smoking, alcohol abuse and overeating.

Book: The Economics Of Addictive Behaviours – Volume II

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Book Title:

The Economics Of Addictive Behaviours – Volume II: The Private and Social Costs of Alcohol and Their Remedies.

Author(s): John Joshua.

Year: 2017.

Edition: First (1ed).

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan.

Type(s): Hardcover, Paperback, and Kindle.

Synopsis:

This title discusses the phenomenon of alcohol abuse as a behavioural disease and the associated costs. The author details alcohol’s status as a psychoactive drug; he notes, however, that in contrast to other psychoactive drugs, alcohol has been widely culturally accepted in Western countries and legally available, except in isolated incidents for a short period of time. Joshua considers which policies are being correctly utilised so as to reduce the abuse of alcohol, and how these policies may operate on a supply and demand model. Whereas programs of prevention and treatment operate on the demand side of alcohol abuse, legislation is directed at the supply side of alcohol; that is, dealing with marketing – product, promotion, point of sales and price.

This is the second title in a four volume series ‘The Economics of Addictive Behaviours’, consisting of three additional volumes on smoking, illicit drug abuse and overeating.

Book: The Economics Of Addictive Behaviours – Volume I

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Book Title:

The Economics Of Addictive Behaviours – Volume I: The Private and Social Costs of Smoking and Their Remedies.

Author(s): John Joshua.

Year: 2017.

Edition: First (1ed).

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan.

Type(s): Hardcover, Paperback, and Kindle.

Synopsis:

This title discusses the phenomenon of smoking as a behavioural disease and the associated costs. The author details the consequences of smoking, in addition to the detrimental effects caused by second-hand tobacco smoke exposure as a health risk to children as well as to the general public. The central contribution of Joshua’s work is to address these concerns in terms of the issues of free choice and the market. Considering the various restrictive policies designed to reduce smoking’s prevalence, including the banning of smoking in public places, and the inclusion of warning labels on cigarette packets, Joshua carefully analyses potential economic remedies to the problem of smoking, notably the Pigovian tax. Finally, the book concludes with a highly relevant discussion of corporate social responsibility, and the role that this might play in anti-smoking projects.

This is the first title in a four volume series ‘The Economics of Addictive Behaviours’, which consists of three further volumes on alcohol abuse, illicit drug abuse and overeating.

Book: Doing Psychotherapy – A Trauma And Attachment-Informed Approach

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Book Title:

Doing Psychotherapy – A Trauma And Attachment-Informed Approach.

Author(s): Robin Shapiro.

Year: 2020.

Edition: First (1st).

Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company.

Type(s): Paperback, Kindle, and Audiobook.

Synopsis:

Most books about doing psychotherapy are tied to particular psychotherapeutic practices. Here, seasoned clinical author Robin Shapiro teaches readers the ins and outs of a trauma-and attachment-informed approach that is not tied to any one model or method.

This book teaches assessment, treatment plans, enhancing the therapeutic relationship and ethics and boundary issues, all within a general framework of attachment theory and trauma. Practical chapters talk about working with attachment problems, grief, depression, cultural differences, affect tolerance, anxiety, addiction, trauma, skill- building, suicidal ideation, psychosis, and the beginning and end of therapy.

Filled with examples, suggestions for dialogue and questions for a variety of therapeutic situation, Shapiro’s conversational tone makes the book very relatable. Early-career therapists will refer to it for years to come and veteran practitioners looking for a refresher (or introduction) to the latest in trauma and attachment work will find it especially useful.

Book: Conquer Worry and Anxiety – The Secret to Mastering Your Mind

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Book Title:

Conquer Worry and Anxiety – The Secret to Mastering Your Mind.

Author(s): Daniel G. Amen, MD.

Year: 2020.

Edition: First (1st).

Publisher: Tyndale Momentum.

Type(s): Paperback and Kindle.

Synopsis:

You can overcome worry and anxiety today. It is possible to feel better fast – and to make it last.

Many people, mental health professionals included, think therapy needs to be long, hard, and painful – a lifelong commitment. And while some people will need help longer than others, it is often possible for people to start feeling better right now. If you engage in the right behaviours and strategies, you’ll optimize your brain health – and see the benefits in your everyday life.

In Conquer Worry and Anxiety, renowned psychiatrist Dr. Daniel G. Amen will guide you to lasting change, teaching you how to make decisions that serve your brain’s health and set you on a path to a happier, healthier life. Each of us can make small changes that, over time, create amazing results.

Addictions: Broken Brain Model vs Systems-Level Perspective

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Research Paper Title

Curing the broken brain model of addiction: Neurorehabilitation from a systems perspective.

Background

The dominant biomedical perspective on addictions has been that they are chronic brain diseases.

While the authors acknowledge that the brains of people with addictions differ from those without, they argue that the “broken brain” model of addiction has important limitations. They propose that a systems-level perspective more effectively captures the integrated architecture of the embodied and situated human mind and brain in relation to the development of addictions. This more dynamic conceptualisation places addiction in the broader context of the addicted brain that drives behaviour, where the addicted brain is the substrate of the addicted mind, that in turn is situated in a physical and socio-cultural environment.

From this perspective, neurorehabilitation should shift from a “broken-brain” to a systems theoretical framework, which includes high-level concepts related to the physical and social environment, motivation, self-image, and the meaning of alternative activities, which in turn will dynamically influence subsequent brain adaptations. The authors call this integrated approach system-oriented neurorehabilitation.

They illustrate their proposal by showing the link between addiction and the architecture of the embodied brain, including a systems-level perspective on classical conditioning, which has been successfully translated into neurorehabilitation. Central to this example is the notion that the human brain makes predictions on future states as well as expected (or counterfactual) errors, in the context of its goals.

The authors advocate system-oriented neurorehabilitation of addiction where the patients’ goals are central in targeted, personalised assessment and intervention.

Reference

Wiers, R.W. & Verschure, P. (2020) Curing the broken brain model of addiction: Neurorehabilitation from a systems perspective. Addictive Behaviors. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106602. Online ahead of print.

On This Day … 13 September

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Events

  • 1848 – Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage survives an iron rod 1 1⁄4 inches (3.2 cm) in diameter being driven through his brain; the reported effects on his behaviour and personality stimulate discussion of the nature of the brain and its functions.

People (Deaths)

  • 1999 – Benjamin Bloom, American psychologist and academic (b. 1913).