Angels Fall From Gasoline Rainbows: A Novel

Description

With all odds against him, sixteen-year old Simon struggles with the loss of his alcoholic mother, which leaves him fending for himself. Later that day he finds out that his best friend is a victim of sexual abuse and witnesses this horrible act when visiting her home. Simon finds himself an orphan who turns to self-mutilation, violently lashing out against the evils of the world. This novel is based on one boy's true-life tragedies and has given him the passion to be the voice for the forgotten children of the world.

Blade Silver: Color Me Scarred (Truecolors)

Description

Ruth Wallace knows she can hide the scars on her arms for only so long. Who wears long sleeves all summer? Cutting herself doesn't make Ruth's problems disappear, but at least it helps her cope - or so she thinks. Her dad is a nightmare, her mother is lost in a medicated dreamland, and her brother can't handle their family life any more than she can. This is just my way of dealing with the pain. Ruth's new crush, Glen Collins, and her good friend Abby are starting to get suspicious. Hopefully they can help Ruth heal her scars - the ones she hides and the one's she can't - before something terrible happens.

Crosses

Description

We cut ourselves. Not by accident we do it purposely--and regularly--because physical pain is comforting and because now it has become a habit.

Cut

Description

When she arrives at Sea Pines Callie is self-destructive unresponsive and withdrawn. Her parents and doctor have placed her in the "residential treatment facility" after discovering that she cuts herself. Callie refuses to talk to anyone including her psychiatrist. But slowly through compelling first-person narrative the event that traumatized her comes to light. Callie reveals that her brother Ben nearly died from liver failure while in her care. Her mother was unavailable and her father was at a bar. Although their absence is evidence of a deep family dysfunction Callie blames herself for the crisis. When the threat of expulsion from Sea Pines precipitates a cutting incident that frightens her Callie finally begins her healing process. She opens up to the girls around her and surrenders to her therapist the compass she's been using to cut herself. Through Callie's frank and realistic voice first-time novelist Patty McCormick illuminates a subject that is rarely discussed. Her story of Callie's recovery will speak to the more than 1 million people - mainly girls and young women - who engage in acts of self-inflicted violence every year.

Cutting Out the Pain: A Poetic Guide to Teen Depression

Description

Cutting Out the Pain: A Guide to Teen Depression is a collection of poetry based on the author’s own bout with the disease as well as self-mutilation. The purpose of the publication is to educate people about the disorder and relate to those who already have it. It is a blend of sadness, hope, depression and reason. Through these firsthand words, the reader will see what it is like to feel pleasure through pain, relief through blood. Thousands of teens all over the world suffer from this disorder. Now you can read why and how.

Dancing in the Rain

Description

From Innocence to Insanity: The Diaries of the Spiral into Darkness

Description

Let me begin my story... At twelve years old, Marie Winters experiences life as any typical pre-teen girl. Talkative and full of energy, she transcribes her world of friends, crushes and school life into a diary of bittersweet innocence. At times poignant but mostly whimsical, Winters barely treads beyond her bubble of childhood dreams and optimism as she sprinkles her heart among the pages. At sixteen, the world she sees begins to change, like a dark cloud moving slowly across a clear blue sky. Withdrawn and confused, she runs to her journals, her only reliable outlet, to sift through the rubble of the world that has begun to crumble around her. Soon, the shadows emerge from the back of her mind, each delivering their own form of distress. Depression, anxiety, panic, cutting, eating disorders and insomnia culminate in a mind-shattering experience that obliterates everything she thought she knew, making each journal a downward spiral from innocence...to insanity.

Saint Jude

Description

Taylor Drysdale, 18, suffers from bipolar disorder. During her senior year, she is reluctantly admitted to "Brick House," the outpatient program at St. Jude Hospital, where she meets other teens coping with mental illness. Together with the staff, they form a kind of family, and the teens learn to deal with conflicting attitudes and personalities. As the members prove themselves "worthy" and leave Brick House, they must confront their worst fear of all: surviving in the outside world where there are no counselors to cushion the blow. The novel focuses on the characters' interactions and on how, as Taylor comes to terms with her disorder and her family problems, she becomes ready to move out and move on. Similar to Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted (Vintage, 1994) and Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone (WSP, 1993), this is an excellent read with well-developed characters.

Sleeveless

Description

Sleeveless is the darkly humorous and provocative story of Lisha a sardonic and very twisted teenager living on Long Island in the late 80s dealing with the accidental death of her younger sister after a botched DIY abortion. Alienated from her peers and a fanatically religious mother Lisha begins exploring the creative potential of self-abuse through what she refers to as skin design.

The Craving

Description

In a sterile, white room that might almost be mistaken for a medical lab if not for the bedroom furniture occupying it, a young woman stares intently at the surgically sharp knife lying on her bed. Trembling hands reach for it, like an addict fighting the urge to grasp her glass pipe, but the cool tip gives a rush like any drug. Sweat beads on her smooth skin as she caresses the weapon like her lover. Her heart pounds in her chest like a hammer, but little else matters besides the glinting steel and her exposed wrist. She's not suicidal, but anyone who sees the scars would think otherwise. This is a tale that could be happening in any home around the world. Young, old, rich, poor, popular, or loner, this is a growing plague that, to date, still has no cure. The best one can hope for is to sate The Craving.