Sex, Love, and Mental Illness: A Couple's Guide to Staying Connected

(Hardback)

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Description

A sex manual like no other, this book covers a variety of mental health problems and offers ways to overcome them when they threaten to undermine a loving relationship. Until now, the marketplace has offered little valuable information for couples in which one or both partners suffers from mental illness with resulting sexual problems. Sex, Love, and Mental Illness: A Couple's Guide to Staying Connected is for all of those couples. It will help both parties understand the effects of mental illnessand of the medications used to treat iton sexual desire and performance and provide ways to maintain both physical and emotional intimacy. The first section of the book centers on common sexual concerns and loving someone with a mental disorder. The second addresses a wide range of mental disorders, their effects on relationships, and ways couples can work together to overcome those effects. Among the conditions covered are mood disorders; anxiety disorders; chronic pain; eating disorders; substance-related disorders; post traumatic stress; ADD; Asperger's Syndrome; and even severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia. The emphasis throughout is on each partner developing empathy and communication skills to enhance the sexual experience and preserve a healthy relationship.

Reviews

In summary, my view of the volume is positive, and it is recommended as a useful resource for clinicians and patients alike. The metamessage here is that even in the face of significant mental illness, love, intimacy, and sexuality are possible, manageable, and worthy. That is an important message for clinicians and patients: All are deserving and capable of intimacy and sexuality, including the mentally ill. * PsycCRITIQUES *

Author Bio

Stephanie Buehler, MPW, PsyD, is director of The Buehler Institute, Irvine, CA, and an internationally recognized psychologist and sex therapist.