Bøker av Sharon Begley

This groundbreaking book by a pioneer in neuroscience brings a new understanding of our emotions - why each of us responds so differently to the same life events and what we can do to change and improve our emotional lives.If you believe most self-help books, you would probably assume that we are all affected in the same way by events like grief or falling in love or being jilted and that only one process can help us handle them successfully.From thirty years of studying brain chemistry, Davidson shows just why and how we are all so different. Just as we all have our own DNA, so we each have our own emotional 'style' depending on our individual levels of dimensions like resilience, attention and self-awareness. Helping us to recognise our own emotional style, Davidson also shows how our brain patterns can change over our lives - and, through his fascinating experiments, what we can do to improve our emotional responses through, for example, meditation.Deepening our understanding of the mind-body connection - as well as conditions like autism and depression - Davidson stretches beyond mainstream psychology and neuroscience and expands our view of what it means to be human.

Using in-depth case studies, Can’t Just Stop examines the science behind both mild and extreme compulsive behavior—“a fascinating read about human behavior and how it can go haywire” (The Charlotte Observer).Whether shopping with military precision or hanging the tea towels just so, compulsion is something most of us have witnessed in daily life. But compulsions exist along a broad continuum and, at the opposite end of these mild forms, exist life-altering disorders. Sharon Begley’s meticulously researched book is the first to examine all of these behaviors together—from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to hoarding, to compulsive exercise, even compulsions to do good. They may look profoundly different, but these behaviors are all ways of coping with varying degrees of anxiety. Sharing personal stories from dozens of interviewees, “Begley combines a personal topic with thoughtfulness and sensitivity” (Library Journal) and gives meaningful context to their plight. Along the way she explores the role of compulsion in our fast-paced culture, the brain science behind it, and strange manifestations of the behavior throughout history. Can’t Just Stop makes compulsion comprehensible and accessible, with “fresh insight that could fundamentally alter how we think of, and treat, mental illness going forward” (Publishers Weekly).

HIGHLY COMMENDED for the British Medical Awards book prize for Popular Medicine'Filled with emotionally resonant stories, Can't Just Stop helps us understand not only the underpinnings of some forms of mental illness, but also the everyday worries that drive so much of our behaviour. A fascinating peek into the human mind in our age of anxiety.'David Kessler, author of Capture: Unraveling the Mystery of Mental Suffering Do you check your smartphone continuously for messages? Or perhaps do the weekly shop with military precision? Maybe you always ensure the cutlery is perfectly lined up on the table?Compulsion is something most of us have witnessed in daily life. But compulsions exist along a broad continuum, and at the opposite end of these mild forms are life-altering disorders.Sharon Begley's meticulously researched book is the first of its kind to examine the science behind both mild and extreme compulsive behaviour; using fascinating case studies to understand their deeper meaning and reveal the truth about human compulsion - that it is a coping response to varying degrees of anxiety.Through the personal stories of dozens of interviewees exhibiting behaviours such as OCD, hoarding, compulsive acquiring, exercise or even altruism, Begley employs genuine compassion and gives meaningful context to their plight. Along the way she explores the role of compulsion in our fast paced culture, the neuroscience behind it, and strange manifestations of the behaviour throughout history. Can't Just Stop makes compulsion comprehensible and accessible, exploring how we can realistically grapple with it in ourselves and in those we love.

For decades, the conventional wisdom of neuroscience held that the hardware of the brain is fixed - that we are stuck with what we were born with. But recent pioneering experiments in neuroplasticity reveal that the brain is capable not only of altering its structure but also of generating new neurons, even into old age. The brain can adapt, heal, renew itself after trauma and compensate for disability. In this groundbreaking book, highly respected science writer Sharon Begley documents how this fundamental paradigm shift is transforming both our understanding of the human mind and our approach to deep-seated emotional, cognitive and behavioural problems. These breakthroughs show that it is possible to reset our happiness meter, regain the use of limbs disabled by stroke, train the mind to break cycles of depression and OCD and reverse age-related changes in the brain.