Product Description

Getting Unstuck is a groundbreaking first-look at stuckness the profound inability to move one s life forward. Being stuck is a mental health problem that affects thousands of adults; and yet, it has gone unrecognized and misunderstood by mental health professionals, until now. The author, psychiatrist Don Kerson, argues that adults who are stuck are bedeviled by a complex interaction between depression, attention deficit disorder and dissociation, a consequence of childhood trauma.

People who are stuck can t get things done, no matter how smart, skilled, articulate or creative they may be. Their personal and professional lives are often on shaky ground, and depression is a constant problem. Therapy helps, sometimes. Anti-depressants help, sometimes. But they never really feel good. They remain stuck, Kerson argues, because the problem if recognized at all is being treated only partially. The key to getting people unstuck is to tease apart the depression, ADD, and dissociation (or whichever of these conditions is present at any one time), and then to address each of them separately.

Kerson wrote Getting Unstuck to help people with this problem to lead more productive and satisfying lives and to share what he s discovered with mental health professionals so they can begin to recognize the problem and offer effective treatment for it. Kerson details the successful and efficient method he developed to help his patients get their lives moving again. It includes the innovative use of neo-Ericksonian hypnotherapeutic integration exercises to address the procrastination and disorganization that plague individuals with ADD.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #655952 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780976986720
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
While Kerson, a psychopharmacologist and psychotherapist with 20 years of experience, doesn't break new ground in this self-help book, he provides a knowledgeable, practical overview, with detailed techniques, for people who find themselves "stuck" in mental or emotional straits. Looking at three major mental illnesses-attention deficit disorder (ADD), depression and dissociation-and how they overlap, Kern covers lucidly the varied medications available, but puts equal effort into explaining induced trance states ("the therapeutic wave of the future"), guided visualization and time management techniques. Kerson is convinced that the extent of mental illness in the U.S. is hugely underestimated given the expectations of modern American life, sufferers' ability to cope successfully and a "broken" mental health system that separates "prescribers" (MDs) from therapists. Undiagnosed ADD patients may have serious trouble with authority and motivation, and have probably "half-convinced themselves that they're just lazy...and need a good kick in the pants." Though wide-ranging and at times technical, this is a thorough and easy-to-understand guide for certified patients as well as the worn-down, those who might not consider themselves sick but could probably use the help.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
A superb book by a superb clinician. This book has what so many books on this subject lack: the honesty and truth that can only be gained by working in the trenches of real life. What you'll get from Getting Unstuck are nuggets you can really use in your everyday life. Dr. Kerson has worked a lifetime to write this book, and his life s work now becomes a precious gift to us all. --EDWARD HALLOWELL, M.D., author of national best sellers Driven to Distraction, Worry, and Connect

About the Author
Don Kerson, M.D. has practiced outpatient psychopharmacology and psychotherapy for over 20 years in Manhattan and at Greenpoint Psychiatric Services, the clinic he founded in Brooklyn, New York. Until 2000, he was Medical Director of the Long Island Consultation Center, the fourth largest freestanding mental health and substance abuse clinic in New York State. Dr. Kerson is currently developing a group therapy program that uses an integrated approach to help participants get back to fully enjoying life, seminar for young adults on using their right brain and a seminar for adults in which he will teach the trance skills he discusses in Getting Unstuck.

Customer Reviews

If you are ADD or ADHD you have to read this
After a couple of false starts with depression medications, I was accurately diagnosed ADHD about 1-1/2 years ago (in my late 50's), although I now understand (because of this book) I have been struggling with it my entire life. "Getting Unstuck" acurately describes what I have been living, especially being "stuck"... knowing exactly what I needed to do, but absolutely unable to get it done. Medication alone was not working for me (I was still getting stuck two or more days a week), so now I am working with an ADHD specialist (sort of a combination doctor, coach, therapist) and he suggested this book. I am involved in construction management, and truthfully for years I was only OK when my job was so big and scary it demanded my attention (like a house on fire), but when the project was closing out (the fire was under control) I could not get the work done, and I am getting to the point where few construction related situations scare me. "Getting Unstuck" follows essentially the same path my therapist developed for his clients over the last 18 years, so I am very hopeful if I do the work, I will get the same results ... control of my life and freedom from getting stuck.