Synopses & Reviews
Growing up with a hoarder can be a confusing, painful, and sometimes dangerous experience. And when it comes to finding help for a hoarder parent, many adult children find themselves taking on the exhausting role of caretaker. As the child of a hoarder, you may be wondering what resources are available to you.
Written by nationally recognized obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) expert Fugen Neziroglu, a regular on the popular TLC television series, Hoarders, Children of Hoarders explores strategies for communicating with hoarder parents and outlines practical intervention skills. In addition, the book shows readers how to let go of the personal shame and guilt associated with being the child of a hoarder.
Using mindfulness, acceptance, assertiveness and validation skills, this is the first book written specifically for adult children of hoarders that focuses on the interpersonal effects of hoarding. Inside, you will learn to communicate with your loved ones in a way that minimizes conflict, while still dealing with the logistical and organizational issues that arise when living with or witnessing hoarding behavior. The book also includes tips for reclaiming living space, strategies for ensuring that the health and safety of residents is not compromised by the hoarders living conditions, and organizational tactics for sorting through the clutter after the death of a parent who hoards.
As the child of a hoarder, sometimes it can be helpful to know that you are not alone. In Children of Hoarders, you will get the support that you need to deal with your hoarder parent, and reclaim your own life in the process.
Review
Children of Hoarders provides a clear and thoughtful path out of the pain, terror, and shame of loving a parent who hoards. Filled with practical suggestions to manage a multitude of problems that plague adult children with a parent who hoards, readers are certain to visit and revisit this resource and pass it on to other family members who are looking for a way to help someone they love who hoards and, as importantly, to help themselves.”
Michael A. Tompkins, PhD, cofounder of the San Francisco Bay Area Center for Cognitive Therapy; clinical professor at the University of California, Berkeley; and author of Digging Out: Helping Your Loved One Manage Clutter, Hoarding, and Compulsive Acquiring
Review
If you are growing up in fear of your doorbell ringing because your parent is a hoarder, then this book is for you. Children of hoarders need support as much as any other group struggling with an addicted family member.”
Amy Doyle, supervising producer of seasons one and two of TLCs Hoarding: Buried Alive
Review
Written by experts in the field of hoarding research, this information-packed manual for children of hoarders offers helpful strategies for minimizing the suffering that naturally accompanies watching someone you love suffer, as well as fascinating explanations for the roots of hoarding behavior. As a child of a hoarder, I highly recommend it.”
Jessie Sholl, author of Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother's Compulsive Hoarding
Review
"Resources for individuals with bipolar disorder are few and far between, but those for the people who care for them are even scarcer. Julie A. Fast and John D. Preston have put together a valuable resource for families and caregivers of people with bipolar disorder. Taking a holistic perspective, these authors offer advice that will help readers help their loved ones with bipolar disorder. More importantly, this book encourages and helps readers to take good care of themselves and their relationships."
—Sheri Van Dijk, MSW, RSW, psychotherapist and author of The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Bipolar Disorder, The Bipolar Workbook for Teens, and other books
"Julie A. Fast and John D. Preston have put together an impressive second-edition guide for couples struggling with the reality of bipolar disorder. They strive to decouple the diagnosis from the individual living with it. This premise lays the groundwork for their discussion of compassionate, non-blaming communication combined with effective couples-based solutions for those striving to work through the interpersonal complexities of a relationship impacted by bipolar disorder. Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder really is a must-read for anyone who does."
—Russ Federman, PhD, ABPP, director of counseling and psychological services at the University of Virginia and author of Facing Bipolar
Review
"I am truly impressed with this wonderful book. I will have it in my office and recommend it to patients’ partners as a matter of course as they go through the journey with this illness."
—Steven Juergens, MD
Review
"More than an education about bipolar disorder, this is a welcome to the journey, in the kindest language you will find in any such book. Open to any page and you will notice the tone and wisdom of people who’ve obviously been there. It’s a challenge to maintain a relationship with someone who has this illness. You’d do well to have a guide, and you will not find any better than Julie A. Fast and John D. Preston. Nor will you find any clearer advice than that which the authors have laid out. Their book is remarkably emotionally intelligent and a privilege to read."
—James Phelps, MD, mood disorders specialist at Samaritan Mental Health in Corvallis, OR, and author of Why Am I Still Depressed?
Review
"This book will help the loved ones of people living with bipolar disorder to better understand its challenges. It provides clear, concrete ways of giving the support needed to keep their loved ones healthy and get them through the rough spots."
—Ruth White, PhD, MPH, MSW, associate professor of social work at Seattle University and author of Bipolar 101
Review
"For those of us who have often suffered the inevitable humiliating regression back to childhood during every holiday with the family…this book offers real help to the reader to develop the self-protective art of indifference, a cloak that can be used at many a holiday gathering…and to understand the subtle yet profound differences between ineffective and effective confrontation, empathy and sympathy, and attaching response and defusing strategy…a completely new cupboard of techniques."
—Joel C. Frost, Ed.D., assistant clinical professor of psychology in the Department of Psychology at Harvard Medical School
Review
"Children of the Self-Absorbed offers practical advice and guidance. The creative techniques and exercises are priceless to both the reader learning how to identify destructive parental behaviors and how to cope with them as well as the reader learning to nurture and protect his or her own developing self."
—Susan Hopper, Ph.D., clinical psychologist in private practice in St. Louis, MO
Review
"Children of narcissistic parents are provided techniques to dig themselves out of impossible relationships with their parents…a thoroughly well thought out, useful manual to help adult children move toward more productive connection to their narcissistic parents, to themselves, and to others."
—Joan Medway, Ph.D., LCSW, psychologist in private practice in Potomac, MD
Synopsis
In Children of Hoarders, a nationally recognized obsessive compulsive disorder expert Fugen Neziroglu, who regularly appears as a therapist on the TLC television series, Hoarders, shows readers how to cope with both the practical and emotional challenges of growing up with a hoarder, such as dealing with clutter, unsanitary conditions, and a parents unwillingness to change. This is the first book written specifically for adult children of hoarders that focuses on the interpersonal effects of hoarding.
Synopsis
Written to the partner of a bipolar individual, this book will help readers mend strained relationships, control episodic crises, learn which coping approaches work, and create loving, healthy relationships. Readers also learn how to recognize a bipolar conversation and survive the financial turbulence manic spending may cause.
Synopsis
Maintaining a relationship is hard enough without the added challenges of your partners bipolar disorder symptoms. Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder offers information and step-by-step advice for helping your partner manage mood swings and impulsive actions, allowing you to finally focus on enjoying your relationship while also taking time for yourself. This book explains the symptoms of your partners disorder and offers strategies for preventing them and responding to these symptoms when they do occur.
This updated edition includes a new section about the medications your partner may be taking so that you can understand the side effects and help monitor his or her bipolar treatment. As a supportive partner, you deserve support yourself. This book will help you create a more balanced, fulfilling relationship.
Improve your relationship by learning how to:
- Identify your partners symptom triggers so you can prevent episodes
- Improve communication by stopping irrational bipolar conversations”
- Handle your partners emotional ups and downs
- Foster closeness and connection with your partner
Synopsis
A second edition of a self-help classic, Children of the Self-Absorbed offers the adult children of narcissistic parents the means to understand and cope with the behaviors and attitudes of their mothers and/or fathers while still meeting their own needs.
Synopsis
Being a parent is usually all about giving of yourself to foster your child's growth and development. But what happens when this isn't the case? Some parents dismiss the needs of their children, asserting their own instead, demanding attention and reassurance from even very young children. This may especially be the case when a parent has narcissistic tendencies or narcissistic personality disorder. From the author of Working with the Self-Absorbed and Loving the Self-Absorbed, this major revision of a self-help classic offers a step-by-step approach to resolving conflict and building a meaningful relationship with a narcissistic parent.
Children of the Self-Absorbed offers clear definitions of narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder to help you identify the extent of your parent's problem. You'll learn the different types of destructive narcissism and how to recognize their effects on relationships. With the aid of proven techniques, you'll discover that you're not helpless against your parent's behavior and that you needn't consider giving up on the relationship. Instead, realistic strategies and steps are suggested for learning to set mutually agreed upon behaviors that can help you fulfill your needs and expectations.
About the Author
Fugen Neziroglu, PhD, ABBP, ABPP, is a board-certified cognitive and behavior psychologist and leading researcher on anxiety disorders. She is the director at the Bio Behavioral Institute in Great Neck, NY; professor at Hofstra University; clinical professor of psychiatry at New York University; and coauthor of
Overcoming Compulsive Hoarding. She has appeared numerous times on the TLC television series,
Hoarders.
Katharine Donnelly, PhD, is a behavior therapist at the Bio Behavioral Institute in Great Neck, NY. Her areas of interest include behavioral and acceptance-oriented therapies and obsessive-compulsive spectrum behaviors. She is also coauthor of Overcoming Depersonalization Disorder, another collaboration with Fugen Neziroglu.