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Mental Health Awareness Month

We've put together a list of non-fiction, movies, and novels that illustrate what it's like to live with a mental illness.

The unapologetic guide to Black mental health : navigate an unequal system, learn tools for emotional wellness, and get the help you deserve by Rheeda Walker

An unapologetic exploration of the Black mental health crisis-and a comprehensive road map to getting the care you deserve in an unequal system. We can't deny it any longer: there is a Black mental health crisis in our world today. Black people die at disproportionately high rates due to chronic illness, suffer from poverty, under-education, and the effects of racism. This book is an exploration of Black mental health in today's world, the forces that have undermined mental health progress for African Americans, and what needs to happen for African Americans to heal psychological distress, find community, and undo years of stigma and marginalization in order to access effective mental health care. In The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health, psychologist and African American mental health expert Rheeda Walker offers important information on the mental health crisis in the Black community, how to combat stigma, spot potential mental illness, how to practice emotional wellness, and how to get the best care possible in system steeped in racial bias

On edge : a journey through anxiety by Andrea Petersen

A wry, sympathetic, bracingly honest account of living with anxiety, coupled with deep reportage on the science of anxiety disorders. --

That's mental : painfully funny things that drive me crazy about being mentally ill by Amanda Rosenberg

"Award-winning Asian British comedy writer Amanda Rosenberg presents an intimate memoir of confessional essays about the hilarious, inappropriate, and often difficult side to being mental"--

First, we make the beast beautiful : a new journey through anxiety by Sarah (Nutritionist) Wilson

No one cares about crazy people : the chaos and heartbreak of mental health in America by Ron Powers

Ron Powers offers a searching, richly researched narrative of the social history of mental illness in America paired with the deeply personal story of his two sons' battles with schizophrenia.

Hidden Valley Road : inside the mind of an American family by Robert Kolker

"Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins--aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after the other, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family? What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institutes of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother, to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amidst profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations. With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love and hope"--

(Don't) call me crazy : 33 voices start the conversation about mental health

"An anthology of essays and illustrations that illuminate mental health topics in a straightforward way"--

Notes on a nervous planet by Matt Haig

"A follow-up to Matt Haig's internationally bestselling memoir, Reasons to Stay Alive, a broader look at how modern life feeds our anxiety, and how to live a better life. The societies we live in are increasingly making our minds ill, making it feel as though the way we live is engineered to make us unhappy. When Matt Haig developed panic disorder, anxiety, and depression as an adult, it took him a long time to work out the ways the external world could impact his mental health in both positive and negative ways. Notes on a Nervous Planet collects his observations, taking a look at how the various social, commercial and technological "advancements" that have created the world we now live in can actually hinder our happiness. Haig examines everything frombroader phenomena like inequality, social media, and the news; to things closer to our daily lives, like how we sleep, how we exercise, and even the distinction we draw between our minds and our bodies"--

Insane : America's criminal treatment of mental illness by Alisa Roth

Mental : lithium, love, and losing my mind by Jaime Lowe

A riveting memoir and a fascinating investigation of the history, uses, and controversies behind lithium, an essential medication for millions of people struggling with bipolar disorder. It began in Los Angeles in 1993, when Jaime Lowe was just sixteen.She stopped sleeping and eating, and began to hallucinate--demonically cackling Muppets, faces lurking in windows, Michael Jackson delivering messages from the Neverland Underground. Lowe wrote manifestos and math equations in her diary, and drew infographics on her bedroom wall. Eventually, hospitalized and diagnosed as bipolar, she was prescribed a medication that came in the form of three pink pills--lithium. In Mental, Lowe shares and investigates her story of episodic madness, as well as the stability she found while on lithium. She interviews scientists, psychiatrists, and patients to examine how effective lithium really is and how its side effects can be dangerous for long-term users--including Lowe, who after twenty years on the medication suffers from severe kidney damage.Mentalis eye-opening and powerful, tackling an illness and drug that has touched millions of lives and yet remains shrouded in social stigma. Now adjusting to a new drug, her pursuit of a stable life continues as does her curiosity about the history and science of the mysterious element that shaped the way she sees the world and allowed her decades of sanity.

The collected schizophrenias : essays by Esmé Weijun Wang

Schizophrenia is not a single unifying diagnosis, and Esmé Weijun Wang writes not just to her fellow members of the 'collected schizophrenias' but to those who wish to understand it as well. Opening with the journey toward her diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, Wang discusses the medical community's own disagreement about labels and procedures for diagnosing those with mental illness, and then follows an arc that examines the manifestations of schizophrenia in her life. In essays that range from using fashion to present as high-functioning to the depths of a rare form of psychosis, and from the failures of the higher education system and the dangers of institutionalization to the complexity of compounding factors such as PTSD and Lyme disease, Wang's analytical eye, honed as a former lab researcher at Stanford, allows her to balance research with personal narrative

Empty : a memoir by Susan Burton

"Susan Burton is ready to come clean. Happily married with two children, working at her dream job, she has lived a secret life of compulsive eating and starving for twenty-five years. This is the story not only of loosening the grip of her compulsion butof moving past her shame and learning to tell her secret."--

Brain on fire : my month of madness by Susannah Cahalan

After birth by Elisa Albert

A widely acclaimed young writer's fierce new novel, in which childbirth and new motherhood are as high stakes a proving ground as any combat zone. A year has passed since Ari gave birth to Walker, though it went so badly awry she has trouble calling it "birth" to begin with and she still can't locate herself in her own altered universe. Amid the strange, disjointed rhythms of her days and nights and another impending winter in upstate New York, Ari is a tree without roots, struggling to keep her branches aloft. When Mina, a one-time cult musician-older, self-contained, alone, and nine months pregnant-moves to town, Ari sees the possibility of a new friend, despite her unfortunate habit of generally mistrusting women. Soon they become comrades in arms, and the previously hostile terrain seems almost navigable. With piercing insight, purifying anger, and outrageous humor, Elisa Albert issues a wake-up call to a culture that turns its new mothers into exiles and expects them to act like natives. Like Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk about Kevin and Anne Enright's The Gathering, this is a daring and resonant novel from one of our most visceral writers

Hello I want to die please fix me : depression in the first person by Anna Mehler Paperny

"A personal story of depression, as well as a journalistic account of its role and ramifications in society today"--

Lithium : a doctor, a drug, and a breakthrough by Walter Armin Brown

The great pretender : the undercover mission that changed our understanding of madness by Susannah Cahalan

In 2009, 24-year-old Susannah Cahalan hovered on the precipice between life and death. Even as her doctors informed her family that she had incurable schizophrenia and would spend the rest of her short life in an institution, another doctor down the hall performed one final, informal test that, miraculously, delivered a lifesaving diagnosis: her disease was brought on by a physical problem and therefore treatable, more 'real,' in other words, than the intangible problem of a purely mental illness. Susannah is the rare patient who has experienced both sides of this divide: the compassionate response to a treatable, physical diagnosis and the frightening realities of the label of insanity

Maybe you should talk to someone : a therapist, HER therapist, and our lives revealed by Lori Gottlieb

"From a New York Times best-selling author, psychotherapist, and national advice columnist, a hilarious, thought-provoking, and surprising new book that takes us behind the scenes of a therapist's world--where her patients are looking for answers (and sois she)"--

Nobody's normal : how culture created the stigma of mental illness by Roy Richard Grinker

"A compassionate and eye-opening examination of evolving attitudes toward mental illness throughout history and the fight to end the stigma. For centuries, scientists and society cast moral judgments on anyone deemed mentally ill, confining many to asylums. In Nobody's Normal, anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker chronicles the progress and setbacks in the struggle against mental-illness stigma-from the eighteenth century, through America's major wars, and into today's high-tech economy. Grinker infuses thebook with the personal history of his family's four generations of involvement in psychiatry, including his grandfather's analysis with Sigmund Freud, his own daughter's experience with autism, and culminating in his research on neurodiversity. Drawing on cutting-edge science, historical archives, and cross-cultural research in Africa and Asia, Nobody's Normal explains how we are transforming mental illness and offers a path to end the shadow of stigma. The preeminent historian of medicine, Sander Gilman, calls Nobody's Normal "the most important work on stigma in more than half a century.""--

The price of silence : a mom's perspective on mental illness by Liza Long

Liza Long is the single mother of a child with an undiagnosed mental disorder. When she heard about the Newtown shooting her first thought was, "What if my son does that someday?" She wrote an emotional response to the tragedy, which the Boise State University online journal posted as "I Am Adam Lanza's Mother." The post went viral, receiving 1.2 million Facebook likes, nearly 17,000 tweets, and 30,000 emails. Now, in The Price of Silence she takes a devastating look at how we address mental illness, especially in children, who are funneled through a system of education, mental healthcare, and juvenile detention that leads far too often to prison.

About us : essays from the disability series of the New York times

"Based on the pioneering New York Times series, About Us collects the personal essays and reflections that have transformed the national conversation around disability. Boldly claiming a space in which people with disabilities can be seen and heard as they are-not as others perceive them-About Us captures the voices of a community that has for too long been stereotyped and misrepresented. Speaking not only to those with disabilities, but also to their families, coworkers and support networks, the authors in About Us offer intimate stories of how they navigate a world not built for them. Since its 2016 debut, the popular New York Times' "Disability" column has transformed the national dialogue around disability. Now, echoing the refrain of the disability rights movement, "Nothing about us without us," this landmark collection gathers the most powerful essays from the series that speak to the fullness of human experience-stories about first romance, childhood shame and isolation, segregation, professional ambition, child-bearing and parenting, aging and beyond. Reflecting on the fraught conversations around disability-from the friend who says "I don't think of you as disabled," to the father who scolds his child with attention differences, "Stop it stop it stop it what is wrong with you?"-the stories here reveal the range of responses, and the variety of consequences, to being labeled as "disabled" by the broader public. Here, a writer recounts her path through medical school as a wheelchair user-forging a unique bridge between patients with disabilities and their physicians. An acclaimed artist with spina bifida discusses her art practice as one that invites us to "stretch ourselves toward a world where all bodies are exquisite." With these notes of triumph, these stories also offer honest portrayals of frustration over access to medical care, the burden of social stigma and the nearly constant need to self-advocate in the public realm. In its final sections, About Us turns to the questions of love, family and joy to show how it is possible to revel in life as a person with disabilities. Subverting the pervasive belief that disability results in relentless suffering and isolation, a quadriplegic writer reveals how she rediscovered intimacy without touch, and a mother with a chronic illness shares what her condition has taught her young children. With a foreword by Andrew Solomon and introductory comments by co-editors Peter Catapano and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, About Us is a landmark publication of the disability movement for readers of all backgrounds, forms and abilities"--

Heads up : changing minds on mental health by Melanie Siebert

Discusses the factors that affect mental health, historical and modern types of treatment, and mental illnesses, describes how different teens have dealt with mental health issues, and suggests ways to handle mental problems.

A series of unfortunate stereotypes : naming and shaming mental health stigmas by Lucy (Mental health campaigner) Nichol

My age of anxiety : fear, hope, dread, and the search for peace of mind by Scott Stossel

The author recounts his lifelong battle with anxiety, showing the many manifestations of the disorder as well as the countless treatments that have been developed to counteract it, and provides a history of the efforts to understand this common form of mental illness.

Little panic : dispatches from an anxious life by Amanda Stern

The ordinary world never made sense to Amanda, who grew up certain her friends and family would die or disappear if she quit watching them, compulsively treating every parting as a final good-bye. Shuttled between divorced parents, from a barefoot bohemian existence in Greenwich Village to a sanitized, stricter world uptown, this smart, sensitive little girl experienced life through the distorting lens of an undiagnosed panic disorder. Her darkly funny memoir is at once a love letter to 1970-80s New York City, a coming-of-age story of an anxious, unusually perceptive child, and a window into adult life and relationships lived on the razor's edge of panic

Are u ok? : a guide to caring for your mental health : how to know if you need help & where to find it by Kati Morton

Modern madness : an owner's manual by Terri Cheney

"With suicide rates exploding and the rates of mental health diagnoses increasing, there has never been a greater need to grapple with the complexities of the troubled mind. Terri Cheney knows this first hand. In her bestselling memoir, Manic, Cheney offered a gripping, no-holds-barred account of her bipolar disorder that nearly killed her. Now, in Modern Madness, she brings her narrative gifts to a book that is rich with practical insight. Structured like an owner's manual (e.g., Instructions for Use, Troubleshooting, Maintenance, Warranties), Cheney portrays the experience of mental illness from the inside out, drawing on her own struggle and recovery to illuminate a world that often seems forbidding or frightening. Using narrative as a springboard, Cheney explores broader issues common to all diagnoses, like stigma, coping skills, relationship dilemmas, and the vicissitudes of treatment. With a clear focus on the need for acceptance, both personal and public, Modern Madness is riveting, heartbreaking,and ultimately, hopeful. Not just for readers with a diagnosis, it will be invaluable for anyone looking to understand mental illness"--

Autism in heels : the untold story of a female life on the spectrum by Jennifer Cook O'Toole

Jennifer exposes the constant struggle between carefully crafted persona and authentic existence, editing the autism script with wit, candor, passion, and power. Her journey is one of reverse-self-discovery not only as an Aspie but--more importantly--as a thoroughly modern woman. Beyond being a memoir, Autism in Heels is a love letter to all women. It’s a conversation starter. A game changer. And a firsthand account of what it is to walk in Jennifer's shoes (especially those iconic red stilettos). Whether it's bad perms or body image, sexuality or self-esteem, Jennifer's is as much a human journey as one on the spectrum. Because autism "looks a bit different in pink," most girls and women who fit the profile are not identified, facing years of avoidable anxiety, eating disorders, volatile relationships, self-harm, and stunted independence. Jennifer has been there, too. Autism in Heels takes that message to the mainstream. From her own struggles and self-discovery, she has built an empire of empowerment, inspiring women the world over to realize they aren't mistakes. They are misunderstood miracles.

Your brain needs a hug : life, love, mental health, and sandwiches by Rae Earl

Rae Earl offers her personalized advice on the A to Zs of mental health, social media, family and friendship.

Look me in the eye : my life with Asperger's by John Elder Robison

Ever since he was small, John Robison had longed to connect with other people, but by the time he was a teenager, his odd habits--an inclination to blurt out non sequiturs, avoid eye contact, dismantle radios, and dig five-foot holes (and stick his younger brother in them)--had earned him the label "social deviant." No guidance came from his mother, who conversed with light fixtures, or his father, who spent evenings pickling himself in sherry. It was no wonder he gravitated to machines, which could, at least, be counted on. After fleeing his parents and dropping out of high school, his savant-like ability to visualize electronic circuits landed him a gig with KISS, for whom he created their legendary fire-breathing guitars. Later, he drifted into a "real" job, as an engineer for a major toy company. But the higher Robison rose in the company, the more he had to pretend to be "normal" and do what he simply couldn't: communicate. It wasn't worth the paycheck. It was not until he was forty that an insightful therapist told him he had the form of autism called Asperger's syndrome

ADHD and me : what I learned from lighting fires at the dinner table by Blake E Taylor

The man who couldn't stop : OCD and the true story of a life lost in thought by David Adam

How to be human : an autistic man's guide to life by Jory Fleming

"A remarkable and unforgettable memoir from the first man with autism to attend Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship, revealing what life is really like inside a world constructed for neurotypical minds while celebrating the many gifts of being different"--

Wasted : a memoir of anorexia and bulimia by Marya Hornbacher

"A classic of psychology and eating disorders, now reissued with an important and perhaps controversial new afterword by the author, Wasted is New York Times bestselling author Marya Hornbacher's highly acclaimed memoir that chronicles her battle with anorexia and bulimia. Vivid, honest, and emotionally wrenching, Wasted is the story of how Marya Hornbacher willingly embraced hunger, drugs, sex, and death--until a particularly horrifying bout with anorexia and bulimia in college forever ended the romanceof wasting away. In this updated edition, Hornbacher, an authority in the field of eating disorders, argues that recovery is not only possible, it is necessary. But the journey is not easy or guaranteed. With a new ending to her story that adds a contemporary edge, Wasted continues to be timely and relevant"--

Bedlam : an intimate journey into America's mental health crisis by Kenneth Paul Rosenberg

"A psychiatrist and award-winning documentarian sheds light on the mental-health-care crisis in the United States"--

Notes on a silencing : a memoir by Lacy Crawford

Traces the author's healing journey after a traumatizing sexual assault at infamous St. Paul's boarding school, describing how she helped police uncover proof of the school's institutionalized mandate of silence.

Lit : a memoir by Mary Karr

In her initial memoir, The Liars' Club, author Mary Karr detailed her rough childhood in rural Texas. Her next memoir, Cherry, chronicled her adolescence in coming-of-age fashion. Here, in her third memoir, Karr relates her descent into alcoholism and the recovery that followed after an enlightening and comical experience

Rosemary : the hidden Kennedy daughter by Kate Clifford Larson

Joe and Rose Kennedy's strikingly beautiful daughter Rosemary attended exclusive schools, was presented as a debutante to the queen of England, and traveled the world with her high-spirited sisters. And yet, Rosemary was intellectually disabled, a secret fiercely guarded by her powerful and glamorous family

Group : how one therapist and a circle of strangers saved my life by Christie Tate

A top law school graduate struggling with suicidal thoughts and an eating disorder describes her reluctant participation in a therapeutic support group that taught her the meaning of human connection and intimacy

Thank you for your service by David Finkel

"From a MacArthur Fellow and the author of The Good Soldiers, a profound look at life after war No journalist has reckoned with the psychology of war as intimately as David Finkel. In The Good Soldiers, his bestselling account from the front lines of Baghdad, Finkel shadowed the men of the 2-16 Infantry Battalion as they carried out the infamous surge, a grueling fifteen-month tour that changed all of them forever. Now Finkel has followed many of those same men as they've returned home and struggled to reintegrate--both into their family lives and into American society at large. In the ironically named Thank You for Your Service, Finkel writes with tremendous compassion not just about the soldiers but about their wives and children. Where do soldiers belong after their homecoming? Is it possible, or even reasonable, to expect them to rejoin their communities as if nothing has happened? And in moments of hardship, who are soldiers expected to turn to if they feel alienated by the world they once lived in? These are the questions Finkel faces as he revisits the brave but shaken men of the 2-16. More than a work of journalism, Thank You for Your Service is an act of understanding--shocking but always riveting, unflinching but deeply humane, it takes us inside the heads of those who must live the rest of their lives with the chilling realities of war"--

Reasons to stay alive by Matt Haig

Like nearly one in five people, Matt Haig suffers from depression. Reasons to Stay Alive is his inspiring account of how, minute by minute and day by day, he overcame the disease with the help of reading, writing, and the love of his parents and his girlfriend (now wife), Andrea. And eventually, he learned to appreciate life all the more for it. Everyone's lives are touched by mental illness; if we do not suffer from it ourselves, then we have a friend or loved one who does. Haig's frankness about his experiences is both inspiring to those who feel daunted by depression and illuminating to those who are mystified by it. Above all, his humor and encouragement never let us lose sight of hope. Speaking as his present self to his former self in the depths of depression, Haig is adamant that the oldest clicȟ is the truest-there is light at the end of the tunnel. He teaches us to celebrate the small joys and moments of peace that life brings, and reminds us that there are always reasons to stay alive

Unbroken brain : a revolutionary new way of understanding addiction by Maia Szalavitz

More people than ever before see themselves as addicted to, or recovering from, addiction, whether it be alcohol or drugs, prescription meds, sex, gambling, porn, or the internet. But despite the unprecedented attention, our understanding of addiction is trapped in unfounded 20th century ideas, addiction as a crime or as brain disease, and in equally outdated treatment. Challenging both the idea of the addict's "broken brain" and the notion of a simple "addictive personality," Unbroken Brain offers a radical and groundbreaking new perspective, arguing that addictions are learning disorders and shows how seeing the condition this way can untangle our current debates over treatment, prevention and policy.

The silver linings playbook by Matthew Quick

After Pat Peoples and his wife Nikki separate, he goes to live with his parents but everything seems changed. No one wants to talk to him about Nikki, his old friends are busy with their families, and his new therapist seems to be recommending adultery as therapy. He meets Tiffany, a clinically depressed widow, who offers to act as a liaison between the couple if Pat will give up watching football, agrees to perform in the Dance Away Depression competition and not tell anyone about their contract

I know this much is true by Wally Lamb

Dominick Birdsey, a forty-year-old housepainter living in Three Rivers, Connecticut, finds his life greatly disturbed when his identical twin brother Thomas, a paranoid schizophrenic, commits a shocking act of self-mutilation

Everything here is beautiful by Mira T Lee

"A tender but unflinching portrayal of the bond between two sisters."--Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere and Everything I Never Told You. A dazzling novel of two sisters and their emotional journey through love, loyalty, and heartbreak Two sisters--Miranda, the older, responsible one, always her younger sister's protector; Lucia, the headstrong, unpredictable one, whose impulses are huge and, often, life changing. When their mother dies and Lucia starts hearing voices, it is Miranda who must find a way to reach her sister. But Lucia impetuously plows ahead, marrying a bighearted, older man only to leave him, suddenly, to have a baby with a young Latino immigrant. She moves her new family from the States to Ecuadorand back again, but the bitter constant is that she is, in fact, mentally ill. Lucia lives life on a grand scale, until, inevitably, she crashes to earth. Miranda leaves her own self-contained life in Switzerland to rescue her sister again--but only Lucia can decide whether she wants to be saved. The bonds of sisterly devotion stretch across oceans--but what does it take to break them? Told in alternating points of view, Everything Here Is Beautiful is, at its heart, the story of a young woman's quest to find fulfillment and a life unconstrained by her illness. But it's also an unforgettable, gut-wrenching story of the sacrifices we make to truly love someone--and when loyalty to one's self must prevail over all"--

Turtles all the way down by John Green

Aza Holmes, a high school student with obsessive-compulsive disorder, becomes focused on searching for a fugitive billionaire.

Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert

"Suzette returns home to Los Angeles from boarding school and grapples with her bisexual identity when she and her brother Lionel fall in love with the same girl, pushing Lionel's bipolar disorder to spin out of control and forcing Suzette to confront herown demons"--

When we collided by Emery Lord

Can seventeen-year-old Jonah save his family restaurant from ruin, his mother from her sadness, and his danger-seeking girlfriend Vivi from herself?

The new David Espinoza by Fred Aceves

Obsessed with the idea that he is not muscular enough and tired of being bullied, David, age seventeen, begins using steroids, endangering his relationships with family and friends.

The weight of our sky by author Hanna Alkaf

"Amidst the Chinese-Malay conflict in Kuala Lumpur in 1969, sixteen-year-old Melati must overcome prejudice, violence, and her own OCD to find her way back to her mother"--

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

After calling the cops to an end-of-summer party, Melinda is outcast at Merryweather High. Through her work on an art project she is finally able to face what happened at that terrible party and gain courage to fight back

Girl in pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

As she struggles to recover and survive, seventeen-year-old homeless Charlotte "Charlie" Davis cuts herself to dull the pain of abandonment and abuse.

All the bright places by Jennifer Niven

"Told in alternating voices, when Theodore Finch and Violet Markey meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school--both teetering on the edge--it's the beginning of an unlikely relationship, a journey to discover the "natural wonders" of the state of Indiana, and two teens' desperate desire to heal and save one another"

What I leave behind by Alison McGhee

Since his father's suicide, Will, sixteen, has mainly walked, worked at Dollar Only, and tried to replicate his father's cornbread recipe, but the rape of his childhood friend shakes things up

Girl, interrupted

The fascinating true story of a young woman's life-altering stay at a famous psychiatric hospital in the late 1960's

Still Alice

Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a diagnosis of Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease, Alice and her family find their bonds thoroughly tested. Her struggle to stay connected to who she once was is frightening, heartbreaking, and inspiring

Short term 12

Grace is a twenty-something supervisor at a foster-care facility for at-risk teenagers. Passionate and tough, Grace is a formidable caretaker-and in love with her long-term boyfriend and co-worker, Mason. But Grace's own difficult past-and the surprising future that suddenly presents itself-throw her into unforeseen confusion, made sharper with the arrival of a new intake at the facility, a gifted but troubled teenage girl with whom Grace has a charged connection

All these flowers : the truth about bipolar disorder

A personal and emotional documentary that follows the lives of four people with bipolar disorder, a mental illness often stigmatized, ill-defined, and maltreated by medical professionals and the mainstream media

It's kind of a funny story

Sometimes what's in your head isn't as crazy as you think. That's certainly true for Craig, a stressed-out teenager who checks himself into a mental health clinic for some time out. What he finds instead is an unlikely mentor, a potential new romance, and an opportunity to begin anew. Charming, witty, and smart, it's a coming-of-age story that's kind of a funny story

That way madness lies

What happens when a brother descends into a black hole of mental instability, starting with falling for a Nigerian email scam but eventually winding up involuntarily committed into the hospital made famous by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? Sandra Luckow unflinchingly turns her camera on her own family as they attempt to navigate the broken mental health system to save their brother

Melancholia

In this beautifully filmed movie about the end of the world, Justine and Michael are celebrating their marriage at a sumptuous party in the home of her sister Claire and brother-in-law John. A planet called Melancholia is heading directly toward Earth and threatening to collide. Meanwhile, tensions are mounting and relationships are fraying as the family deals with their fears

Recipient of the National Medal, the nation's highest honor for libraries.