Gary Green's Blog, page 9

Author News

I have several bits of news.

I will get the unpleasant news out of the way first. I have had to take “The Mindful Lifestyle” off the market for a while. Apparently the term “transcendental meditation” is trademarked by the Maharishi Foundation. At least that’s what their lawyers say. So I have had to remove all reference to it from my book. Revisions are currently at the publisher and I expect the revised edition to be out soon.

The good news is that “In Pursuit of Joy” has won the Reader’s Favorite Bronze Medal in the category of Non-fiction—Inspirational. I will be receiving my medal at the awards ceremony in Miami the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Since that is the week of the Miami Book Fair I will be visiting there also. By the way, there were over 450 entries in this category so I’m feeling pretty good about third place.

I have always thought “In Pursuit of Joy” was a pretty good book, but it is nice to get some objective validation. I encourage you to check out the reviews on Goodreads or Amazon.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22979094-in-pursuit-of-joy

http://www.amazon.com/Pursuit-Joy-Gary-Green/dp/1631354213/

My final bit of news concerns my new fantasy “Rebecca’s Initiation”. Last weekend I ran a free Kindle download promotion. People download 89 copies. At one point it was #7 in one category and #23 in another category on the “Top 100 Free Amazon Best Sellers” list. I am hoping for more reviews out of this. Reviews so far are good. Here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W2UZ0V0

 

 

 

In Pursuit of Joy now an award winner!!!

Hurray!!! I just found out that “In Pursuit of Joy” has won the Bronze Medal in the prestigious Readers Favorite book awards!

In my category there were over 400 entries and I got 3rd place!

Here is the link to its’ Amazon page:

http://www.amazon.com/Pursuit-Joy-Gary-Green/dp/1631354213/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1441564392&sr=8-2&keywords=In+Pursuit+of+Joy

Also, I would like to remind everyone that my new fantasy, “Rebecca’s Initiation” is FREE to download on Amazon through Monday. It has gotten positive reviews so far.

Here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Rebeccas-Initiation-Redemption-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00W2UZ0V0/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1441564756&sr=8-2

Also, I wanted to thank you all for your support.

 

Do you like fnatasies with strong, likeable characters, a playful gnome, fairies, elves and a dragon?

Then you will love “Rebecca’s Initiation“

I really want people to read it, so I’m giving it away. You can get signed copies by entering the Goodreads giveaway: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/150442-rebecca-s-initiation (Pay no attention to the cover on this page. It has been changed.)

Or, you can get the Kindle version free on Amazon this weekend. “Rebecca’s Initiation” will be free from Friday through Monday here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W2UZ0V0

Medications and Recovery

A couple of days ago I posted about depression. After I posted I realized that I hadn’t mentioned anything about medications. I suppose that is because I didn’t use medications in my recovery from depression. There are two reasons for that.

First, and foremost is the fact that I didn’t want to admit that I had a problem. I just thought I was stressed out. Interestingly enough, years later when I was the director of a residential treatment facility for mentally ill adults; I observed that many of my clients were of the same opinion. We have so stigmatized mental illness that people are afraid to admit they have it. We are afraid to ask for help. “I’m not mentally ill; I’m just stressed out.”

Second, when I was struggling the most there were fewer options available for anti-depressant medication. There have been many useful drugs developed in the last 30 years.

I did, however, use medication for anxiety. That medication was alcohol. I self-medicated my anxiety with booze. While I do not currently recommend this practice, and at the time I knew it was not a good idea—I did it anyway. I did it because I was fed up by being immobilized by anxiety in social situations. I will say that I did benefit somewhat by being able to practice my social skills while under the influence. The problem is, of course, I became an alcoholic.

I also used mindfulness practices to overcome anxiety. The effects last longer and there’s no hangover.

Knowing what I know now, I would recommend that anyone with depression and anxiety work with a good psychiatrist AND a good therapist. Medication will help with the symptoms while the therapist helps you figure out what is broken in your life and fix it.

I have seen several kinds of wrong thinking regarding psychiatric meds.

“If I start I will have to take the meds forever.” I have seen many professionals tell their clients this. While it is sometimes true (particularly with bipolar or psychotic disorders), it is most certainly not always true.
“When my symptoms go away I can stop taking my meds.” It doesn’t work like that. Mental illness is not a headache. However, once your symptoms are under control you have more internal resources available to work on your “true recovery”. Perhaps as you make progress on that you can work with your psychiatrist to reduce or eliminate your meds.
“Taking psychiatric meds is the same as being chemically dependent.” I have heard this from people who are passionately devoted to the 12-step approach to recovery—like AA. My response to these people is that there is a big difference between taking a medication according to doctor’s orders and self-medicating. Taking meds as prescribed enhances recovery. Self-medication sabotages it

Only a Few Days Left

Win $50 Amazon gift card

I just wanted to let everyone know that there are only a few days left to sign up for my newsletter and get a free download of “Rebecca’s Initiation” and a chance to win a $50 amazon gift card.

Depression

I believe that Depression is the most common mental illness. Almost everyone has had a day or two in their life when they just don’t feel right. Sometimes this feeling passes. Sometimes the days turn into weeks, then into months, then into years. That’s how it was for me.

Not that I was depressed every minute of every day. I had many good days. However, as I grew through my teens and into my twenties the good days became less and less. This is how my days went: I had difficulty sleeping at night. As soon as I put my head on the pillow I would start thinking about all the crap in my life that wasn’t working—churning it over and over until I was clenching my teeth so hard it gave me a headache. It wasn’t uncommon for me to stay awake until three or four in the morning.

Then, when it was time to get up I had trouble waking up. When I did finally wake my first thought was “Another crappy day”. Oddly enough, as I got up and went to work, my mood improved. This is probably due to what they call in DBT “opposite action”, or “act in spite of how you feel”.

I came to view depression as a big scary monster that wanted to kill me. It made me feel like doing nothing. If I did nothing, it got stronger. But if I made myself do something it would get weaker. It is ironic that research indicates that aerobic exercise is as effective as antidepressant medication in treating depression. The problem is getting a depressed person to exercise.

In addition to the mood issues, I had a crippling anxiety. I was anxious all the time. That’s what came to the surface when I tried to sleep at night. It prevented me from getting my social needs met. It pressured me to inaction, which made the depression stronger. It gave me stomach problems.

It is a fact that anxiety is often a component of depression. I used to call it “depression’s ugly twin”.

Here is another sad fact about depression: It can be fatal. It is estimated that over 20,000 people a year commit suicide in America each year due to depression. Not only that, but I believe that a person can become so depressed that they simply die. Also, depression can be a complicating factor in many physical ailments such as heart disease and cancer.

Clearly depression is a serious condition and not to be trifled with. So, what do we do about it?

Here’s what I did:

Human beings are social animals and as such have social needs. One of those needs is the need to have at least one person in your life you can talk to about anything and have a reasonable expectation of being heard with unconditional acceptance. If you don’t have someone like that a paid professional like a therapist will work.
Work on self-acceptance. Talking with someone who unconditionally accepts you is a start. Additionally, learn to recognize judgmental thoughts and practice dismissing them
Learn and practice mindfulness. I started with Transcendental Meditation. The deep relaxation helped me to sleep better and combat anxiety.
Recognize that recovery is a growth process. I used to tell my clients that recovery is the hardest, scariest thing a person can do.
As you get better—however you measure it—learn to recognize the signs that your depression is trying to return. Take action immediately if you see the warning signs. Talk to that accepting person in item #1 above.

Recovery might be hard, scary work; but it is SO worth it. Don’t give up. It will get better.

 

Mental Health

This is the first post in response to people letting me know what they want me to write about. It is an excerpt from my first book, “In Pursuit of Joy”. I wrote that book in the hope that telling my recovery story would help others with their own recovery.

I am still taking requests for blog post topics, by the way. You can leave a comment or contact me in other ways–check out my contact page.

People love a good story. They love to hear a good story, and above all they love to tell a good story. For what it is worth, this is my story. I believe that all human beings are more alike than they are different. By looking beyond the differences, you can often find the commonality. So in that context, I hope you will see that my story is your story too.

I am an alcoholic. I say this not to impress, or to gain sympathy, or to excuse bad behavior. I say it as a simple statement of fact. It has been at various times the central fact of my life and has had a profound effect on my development as a human being. I also have a serious and persistent mental illness. That illness is depression. These two conditions interact and feed off each other. Sometimes it is hard to tell where one condition begins and the other ends. None of this is particularly unique. There are many people, not only in this country but worldwide, with similar issues. I have been sober for more than fifteen years, and the depression is mostly a thing of the past. I will tell you right now that recovery is hard, scary work. I did not make it alone. In fact, I have never met anyone who was successful in recovery (any kind of recovery) without help. I am writing this book in the hope that it is helpful to someone. It is my effort to give back what was given to me.

I have worked these last fifteen or so years in the field of mental health. In this work I have noticed several things. When I was in college, I noticed that every time you told someone you were studying psychology, people would invariably say something like, “I’d better be careful what I say.” It was as if you were going to pull a stamp out of your pocket and stamp “Insane” on their foreheads if they said the wrong thing.

While it was always said in a joking manner, it happened so frequently that it gave me the impression that many people have some real insecurities about the state of their mental health. This phenomenon and my experience of working with many families and first-time users of the mental health system have led me to believe that most people are woefully misinformed on the topic of mental health. I think this is unfortunate.

I think that everyone with a mind should be concerned about mental health. Certainly we are all concerned with other people’s behavior—things like crime, war, that troublesome clerk at the shoe store, or that guy that cut us off on the freeway. We don’t generally think of these things as mental health issues, but they really are. Yes, we are all concerned with behavior, and when viewed in that context it is easy to see that mental health is everybody’s business.

However, when it comes to looking at ourselves, people like Freud have us thinking that we all might have some demons lurking in the dark, nether regions of our minds that must be kept hidden or we will surely be banished from the company of civilized men. An exaggeration? Perhaps, but I think that there is enough truth in that statement to make a couple of points. First, when people express concern about mental health, they are usually referring to other people. Second, most people are a bit nervous about discussing or even thinking about the state of their own mental health. Yet, Socrates tells us that the unexamined life is not worth living. I think it is as true today as it was when he said it over two thousand years ago.

I believe that every human being on the planet goes through a natural growth process throughout their entire life spans. What we generally call mental illness happens when, for various reasons, people get stuck in this growth process. The reasons range from trauma to some unfortunate genetic time bomb going off to a combination of these factors. In any case the plain and simple fact is that mental illness can and does strike people at any time or place in their lives, from the richest (think Howard Hughes) to the poorest and everyone in between.

Another way to describe the process of becoming mentally ill would be to say that a person gets lost in a tangle of their own emotions, attitudes, and beliefs, precipitating bizarre, erratic, or dangerous behavior. The good news here is that if a person can be lost, generally they can be found. I say this in large part because of my own experience of recovery but also because of watching hundreds of my clients over the years struggling with their own issues.

I have come to think of the recovery process as similar to finding your way out of a maze. You choose to go one way or another; some choices lead you closer to the exit, and some get you even more lost. People can and do recover their lives after a period of being lost to mental illness.

An interesting thing that I noticed as my recovery progressed was that the character of things changed. It became not so much a way to lessen my discomfort but more a quest for joy.

What to do?

I have noted recently there has been an up-tick in the number of people following my blog. So, I thought I would ask my followers a couple of questions.

I have written posts on various topics, including my writing, mental health, addiction, alcoholism, recovery, personal growth, mindfulness, farming, and current events. My question to you is what would you like me to write about now?

It could be something I have already written about or a new topic.

You can answer by commenting  on this post or contacting me by email or other means.

Thanks

A Few Words About My Writing Career

I have taken a turn in my writing career. My first two books are non-fiction. “In Pursuit of Joy” is about my recovery from depression and alcoholism. But more than that it has important life lessons that I think everyone should know. However, because I learned these lessons during my recovery it limits the number of people who are willing to listen. Too bad.

My second book, “The Mindful Lifestyle”, is a concise, easy to understand, comprehensive how-to on mindfulness. However, competition on this topic is pretty stiff. I’m not famous so who’s going to care what I have to say on mindfulness. I actually have a unique point of view, but nobody’s going to find out because I’m not famous.

Even though both of these books have good reviews, my message—to inspire joyful sanity—is not getting out because these books aren’t selling.

So, what’s a boy to do? I gave it some thought. I like fantasy so I thought maybe if I wrote stories in this fairly popular genre that had these lessons as an integral part, perhaps some people would actually read them. Thus “Rebecca’s Initiation” was born. The few reviews I have are good. I’d like more. So, I’m giving it away. I currently have a Goodreads giveaway running until the end of the month. It is on Kindle Unlimited and is free to borrow for Amazon Prime subscribers. Here’s the link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W2UZ0V0

Anyway, it’s a really fun story with some really good stuff in it. There, I bragged about it. Get it, read it, and please, please leave a review. If you can’t get it for free, contact me and I’ll figure something out.

 

Thanks

This morning I made an awesome discovery. A few days ago I posted an offer of a free copy of “Rebecca’s Initiation” as an incentive to sign up for my newsletter.  Then I boosted the post on Facebook. It seemed to be very popular in India. I was very pleased with the number of likes on both my post and Facebook page. I was very pleasantly surprised when I checked my sales figures this morning.

“Rebecca’s Initiation” Kindle edition went from a sales ranking of #2,231,804 on Friday to #130,603 on Saturday. I just wanted to say thanks. A special thanks to all my new friends in India. If you like my book please consider leaving a review on Amazon.

To make things easier to find I decided to post the link to the Kindle edition of “Rebecca’s Initiation” to make it easier to find:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W2UZ0V0