As a psychologist specialising in court assessments, David Roland often saw the toughest, most heartbreaking cases. The emotional trauma had begun to take its toll — and then the global financial crisis hit, leaving his family facing financial ruin. So when he found himself in a local emergency ward with little idea of where he was or how he got there, doctors wondered if he had had a nervous breakdown — if the strain of treating individuals with mental-health problems had become too much. Eventually they discovered the truth: David had suffered a stroke, which had resulted in brain injury. He faced two choices: give up or get his brain working again. Drawing on the principles of neuroplasticity, David set about re-wiring his brain. Embarking on a search that brought him into contact with doctors, neuroscientists, yoga teachers, musicians, and a Buddhist nun, he found the tools to restore his sense of self: psychotherapy, exercise, music, mindfulness, and meditation. How I Rescued My Brain is the story of David’s neurological difficulties and his remarkable cognitive recovery. It is also an account of a journey to emotional health and wellbeing. In the tradition of Marc Lewis’s Memoirs of an Addicted Brain and Jill Bolte Taylor’s My Stroke of Insight, this is an amazing tale of one man’s resilience, and his determination to overcome one of the most frightening situations imaginable — the fear that he had lost his mind, and might not get it back.

The Power of Suffering is psychologist David Roland’s personal investigation into the nature of human suffering. When our world is turned upside down, what does it do to us, how do we survive it, and, most importantly, how can we grow as a result? David takes the lived experience of eleven incredible people and follows them along each step of their journey from crisis through to acceptance and triumph. Within each story, David draws on his own experience of life-altering trauma and clinical research to offer insights we all can gain from. Each life story examined is a moving testimony of the human spirit’s ability to rise and rise again – an executive tragically loses his family in a car crash and finds healing in the rehabilitation of wildlife, a teenage victim of domestic violence becomes a fierce advocate for abused women and brain-injured youth, a football superstar overcomes bigotry and dyslexia to forge a career in acting, a mother experiences the aching depth of love lost after her teenage child’s life is tragically cut short. These are but a few of the intimately told stories, all pointing to a path through the storm and beyond. The Power of Suffering is a revelatory account of how the darkest night can lead to the most profound dawn. 'Poignant and powerful.' The Library Within 'A beautiful book... exquisite storytelling, and a book that could only be written by someone with the unique causes and conditions of David Roland – a personal journey through suffering, a psychologist’s eye and the capacity to weave his own story and observations with the stories of others.' Aussie Reviews

A proven program from #1 New York Times bestselling author and brain researcher Dr. Daniel Amen to help you change your brain and improve your memory today! Brain imaging research demonstrates that memory loss actually starts in the brain decades before you have any symptoms. Learn the actions you can take to help not just prevent memory loss later in life . . . but to begin restoring the memory you may have already lost. Expert physician Dr. Amen reveals how a multipronged strategy—including dietary changes, physical and mental exercises, and spiritual practices—can improve your brain health, enhance your memory, and reduce the likelihood that you’ll develop Alzheimer’s and other memory loss–related conditions. Keeping your brain healthy isn’t just a medical issue; it’s a God-given capacity and an essential building block for physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Take action against the fast-increasing memory crisis that threatens this crucial part of who you are—and help your brain, body, and soul stay strong for the rest of your life.

“Fascinating. Doidge’s book is a remarkable and hopeful portrait of the endless adaptability of the human brain.”—Oliver Sacks, MD, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat What is neuroplasticity? Is it possible to change your brain? Norman Doidge’s inspiring guide to the new brain science explains all of this and more An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable, and proving that it is, in fact, possible to change your brain. Psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity, its healing powers, and the people whose lives they’ve transformed—people whose mental limitations, brain damage or brain trauma were seen as unalterable. We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, blind people who learn to see, learning disorders cured, IQs raised, aging brains rejuvenated, stroke patients learning to speak, children with cerebral palsy learning to move with more grace, depression and anxiety disorders successfully treated, and lifelong character traits changed. Using these marvelous stories to probe mysteries of the body, emotion, love, sex, culture, and education, Dr. Doidge has written an immensely moving, inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential.

This revised and updated edition aims to show parents that brain injury need not be a life sentence. Instead, hurt children can make remarkable progress towards independence, despite a tradition which still regards such cases as hopeless. The book aims to offer simple, practical help.

When Admiral Skink, an alien-lizard warlord from the planet Swerdlix, is attacked by The Hideous and Unimaginably Vast Comet Creature of Poppledock he faces a certain death… but luckily his underlings have installed the BrainTwizzler 360 Mind Migration SystemTM. This nifty invention safely transfers Skink's mind on to a memory wafer and jettisons it through space to find a suitable temporary "home" until he can be rescued by his fellow Swerdlixians. Unluckily for eleven-year-old Lance Spratley it just so happens that the temporary home for Admiral Skink's mind is his body! And while Skink deals with being trapped in Lance's useless body - it can't even breathe fire! - Lance is transferred to a virtual waiting room surrounded by the lizard race who seem intent on destroying Earth when they have successfully retrieved Skink.Will Lance ever get his body back? And even if he does will he be able to thwart Admiral Skink and the Swerdlixians plans to invade Earth…

What is happiness? Is happiness even realistic for you to achieve in today's world of rising anger, anxiety, and addiction? It's the fundamental question Dr. Jay Kumar (your Happiness professor) yearned to discover in the wake of a life-transforming family tragedy as a young adult that led him to the halls of academia and holy ashrams to explore the science and spirituality of happiness. Science of a Happy Brain is adapted upon actual lessons from Dr. Jay's popular university Happiness course that he has been coteaching for the past seven years. From millennials suffering from anxiety to folks in Middle America struggling with addiction, from veterans battling PTSD to parents coping to raise children hooked on technology, from the spike in suicides to the tribalism and hate in today's world, Dr. Jay guides you on a personalized and proven strategy for building a Happy Brain—for you and society. More research in brain science points to one undeniable truth—to socialize is to survive, to tribe is to thrive. Science of a Happy Brain uncovers a long-forgotten aspect of humanity by exposing a shared element of human biology—your social brain. Only recently has science affirmed what religions knew all along—you are a social being with a social brain that is nourished and strengthened by community and connection. But the marvels of society's Age of Digitalization can unwittingly bring you into the malaise of today's Age of Disconnection, which presently sabotages your health, weakens our society, and hijacks your Happy Brain. Your happiness demands tribe. Creating tribe in your life creates balance, longevity, and resilience—the foundation required for generating your Happy Brain. Science of a Happy Brain is equally a self-help course and a social commentary whose time has come that brings hope to a world in crisis, a nation in a happiness deficit, and a generation discovering where enduring happiness resides. It is a powerful work that is vital for the crossroads at which society finds itself by presenting a platform for public discourse to explore today's crucial social, cultural, and health issues. Dr. Jay reveals how you can achieve a Happy Brain by learning to experience happiness the way your brain evolved—biologically, psychologically, socially, and spiritually. A Happy Brain creates happy people. Happy people make a happy world. Now more than ever, the future needs you. Happy. For more information about Dr. Jay Kumar, visit: https://www.drjaykumar.com Follow @docjaykumar on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

A spirited, wry, and utterly original memoir about one woman's struggle to make her way and set up a life after doctors discover a hole the size of a lemon in her brain. The summer before she was set to head out-of-state to pursue her MFA, twenty-six-year-old Cole Cohen submitted herself to a battery of tests. For as long as she could remember, she'd struggled with a series of learning disabilities that made it nearly impossible to judge time and space—standing at a cross walk, she couldn't tell you if an oncoming car would arrive in ten seconds or thirty; if you asked her to let you know when ten minutes had passed, she might notify you in a minute or an hour. These symptoms had always kept her from getting a driver's license, which she wanted to have for grad school. Instead of leaving the doctor's office with permission to drive, she left with a shocking diagnosis—doctors had found a large hole in her brain responsible for her life-long struggles. Because there aren't established tools to rely on in the wake of this unprecedented and mysterious diagnosis, Cole and her doctors and family create them, and discover firsthand how best to navigate the unique world that Cole lives in. Told without an ounce of self-pity and plenty of charm and wit, Head Case is ultimately a story of triumph, as we watch this passionate, loveable, and unsinkable young woman chart a path for herself.

How does the brain think? An alternative way of looking at how matter produces mind. Calling on new research in neuroscience and a new interpretation of old ideas, this book tackles the age-old questions of how thinking, consciousness and emotion happen. We can be irrational and unpredictable but we are completely understandable, the author explains in this fascinating introduction to our complex inner world. At a fundamental level, he suggests, thinking happens when areas within the frontal cortex use the components of attention, emotion and memory to produce higher order functions such as consciousness and perception. These thought processes are similar in most of us. We are uniquely unpredictable simply because we all have a mix of different genes and experience. The value of story, why you should drive with your lights on, confusion around definitions of consciousness and our voice within, and new ways of thinking about feelings and emotion, are some of the topics on which this book offers fresh insights. Chapters include explanations and key insights into: Attention, Consciousness and Our Internal Narrative Emotion - At the Core of Thinking Memory - Stored Experience Perception Biology of the Brain

A gripping, ultimately triumphant memoir that's also the most comprehensive and comprehensible study of the neuroscience of addiction written for the general public. FROM THE INTRODUCTION: "We are prone to a cycle of craving what we don't have, finding it, using it up or losing it, and then craving it all the more. This cycle is at the root of all addictions, addictions to drugs, sex, love, cigarettes, soap operas, wealth, and wisdom itself. But why should this be so? Why are we desperate for what we don't have, or can't have, often at great cost to what we do have, thereby risking our peace and contentment, our safety, and even our lives?" The answer, says Dr. Marc Lewis, lies in the structure and function of the human brain. Marc Lewis is a distinguished neuroscientist. And, for many years, he was a drug addict himself, dependent on a series of dangerous substances, from LSD to heroin. His narrative moves back and forth between the often dark, compellingly recounted story of his relationship with drugs and a revelatory analysis of what was going on in his brain. He shows how drugs speak to the brain - which is designed to seek rewards and soothe pain - in its own language. He shows in detail the neural mechanics of a variety of powerful drugs and of the onset of addiction, itself a distortion of normal perception. Dr. Lewis freed himself from addiction and ended up studying it. At the age of 30 he traded in his pharmaceutical supplies for the life of a graduate student, eventually becoming a professor of developmental psychology, and then of neuroscience - his field for the last 12 years. This is the story of his journey, seen from the inside out.