While reading these books alone won’t solve all of your mental health issues, they can be powerful tools to help you gain insight and learn new skills. They also help normalize mental health struggles and reduce stigma, allowing people to feel less isolated in their experience.
A powerful and hopeful narrative of recovery, this young adult novel follows a teenager with anxiety who starts to connect with others after experiencing a trauma.
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz
Mental health books can be a great way to process your own experiences, learn about psychology, and find techniques and tools that you can use in daily life. The book world is full of options ranging from scientific research to different types of mindfulness and meditation, as well as stories from people who have overcome mental health struggles or are living with depression, anxiety, and more.
Author Don Miguel Ruiz brings ancient Toltec wisdom into modern terms, helping readers to understand their thoughts and emotions practically. He offers ways to transform these obstacles into stepping stones toward freedom and teaches that the first step in healing is honest self-understanding.
The co-founder of menswear startup Bonobos shares his struggle with bipolar disorder and how he found a new sense of purpose through art, family, and entrepreneurship in this frank memoir. A must-read for anyone struggling with bipolar disorder or finding a new path in life.
Written by a psychiatrist and developed by an experienced group therapist, this guide to managing your mental health uses simple but effective exercises to help you cope with depression and anxiety. The book offers a unique mix of behavioral techniques, such as cognitive behavior therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), and mindfulness meditation, and is the perfect complement to a professional treatment plan.
Whether you’re struggling with depression or fighting burnout, these books will help you find balance and compassion for yourself. But remember that reading is not a replacement for therapy, and if you are in crisis, seek help immediately.
It Didn’t Start With You: A Practical Guide to Managing Your Mental Health by Sarah Knight
If you’re looking for a book on managing mental health that is practical, informative, and compassionate, this is the one. Backed by years of research and interviews with patients, it emphasizes that prioritizing your mental health is more important than ever.
For anyone struggling to find their way back after trauma, this hopeful and approachable guide offers ways to heal to become a better version of themselves. Written by the creator of Instagram’s largest trauma healing community, this book is designed to help survivors learn how to take control of their lives and move forward in positive and productive ways.
This uplifting collection brings together authors from different walks of life, including actors, musicians, and athletes, who share their stories of overcoming mental health struggles. The result is a book that celebrates the power of community and encourages readers to seek the support they need.
Mental health is not just a personal issue, but an issue that affects everyone. This incredibly powerful and timely collection of essays by Black writers explores the many ways that people from marginalized backgrounds struggle with their mental health and the stigma surrounding it. From micro-aggressions and bias to religious and cultural issues, this book shows how it’s essential to break down barriers and ensure that mental health is not only prioritized but accessible for all.
While these books can provide excellent resources and a solid foundation to understand psychological concepts, it’s always a good idea to consult with a mental health professional if you are struggling. These can be found in your local library or Overdrive app, like Libby.
The Beasts in Your Brain: A Young Adult Collection of Mental Health Fiction and Nonfiction
For young adults who are juggling school, relationships, and their mental health struggles, this collection offers hope and support. Authors draw from their own experiences and extensive research to provide helpful, empowering tips for managing stress, anxiety, depression, and other conditions.
This quippy, fun read reminds readers they are not alone in their feelings, teaches them the science of mental illness, and empowers them to quell the brain beasts of anxiety and depression. Through a combination of personal anecdotes and scenarios from pioneering work in psychiatry, the book provides an essential first dose of information, understanding, and validation about how mental illness impacts the teens of today.
The co-founder of menswear startup Bonobos shares his struggle with bipolar disorder in this raw and uplifting memoir. By frankly discussing his experiences with medication, therapy, relationships, and other coping strategies, he provides an honest, compassionate look at the challenges of living with mental illness.
In this collection of memoirs, essays, poetry, and short fiction, writers from different backgrounds share their experiences with trauma and mental health. From the founder of the Black and minority ethnic mental health campaign Jonny Benjamin to award-winning author and activist Andrea Bennett, this diverse book illustrates that everyone is affected by trauma in some way. In addition to exploring a range of traumas, the book discusses how people of color are more likely to be mistreated and held under the Mental Health Act compared with their white counterparts.
A riveting account of the human cost of mass incarceration for those with mental illness, this book draws on a psychiatrist’s experiences treating psychiatric patients in America’s jails and prisons. The authors’ clear, honest, and reassuring presentation of the facts about mental illness and the criminal justice system is a crucial wake-up call to our society.