Improving Mental Health

Lloyd I. Sederer, M.D., is Chief Medical Officer of the New York State Office of Mental Health, the nation's largest state mental health system. He is adjunct professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. Previously, Dr. Sederer served as the Executive Deputy Commissioner for Mental Hygiene Services in New York City. He also has been Medical Director and Executive Vice President of McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, a Harvard teaching hospital, and Director of the Division of Clinical Services for the American Psychiatric Association.

This is an intelligent, balanced, and very useful guide to becoming a knowledgeable and confident actor in pursuing your mental health. It will also help you to approach mental health professionals as an equal partner.—Andrew Solomon, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Columbia University, and author of Far From the Tree and The Noonday Demon, winner of the National Book AwardThis book is a must read for those who experience or have a family member with a psychiatric condition. Dr. Sederer gives moving descriptions of patients and their suffering and sage advice about interventions. His deep experience in working with those afflicted with mental illness comes ringing through, page after page.—Maria Oquendo, M.D., Ph.D., President, American Psychiatric Association, and Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical CenterLloyd Sederer has written this book to help laypeople and practitioners see what’s right before their eyes, but often unnoticed. He explores four “secrets”—that behaviors have meaning, that attachment is central to health (and recovery), that “doing more” often means doing more harm, and that chronic stress may be the most debilitating condition of life...This is well worth reading, digesting, and using as a foundation for interactions between clinicians and the people they aim to serve.—Paul Gionfriddo, President and CEO, Mental Health AmericaThere are secrets hiding in plain sight, so writes Dr. Lloyd Sederer in his new (10th!) book, which can make a real difference in the lives of people with mental and addictive disorders and their families. He is not only right, he reveals these secrets using stories, anecdotes, science, and history. This is a must and wonderful read for clinicians and for those affected by these all so common conditions.—Linda Rosenberg, MSW, President and CEO, National Council for Behavioral HealthIn this slim and eminently readable volume, Dr. Sederer combines historical anecdotes, patient stories, research findings, books, and movies to illustrate four stragithforward principles that are central to our mental well-being. [...] The wisdom in this book lies in its simplicity. These "four secrets" do, indeed, lie in plain sight. In calling attention to them Sederer calls back mental health professionals from their focus on the trees to the wider perspactive of the forest, and lays down a trail of breadcrumbs for trying to improve mental health.—Harold I. Schwartz, The Lancet

• Introduction. Chapter 1: Behavior Serves A Purpose. Chapter 2: The Power of Attachment. Chapter 3: As a Rule, Less Is More. Chapter 4: Chronic Stress Is the Enemy. Some Closing Thoughts.