39 Best Mental Health Books
Discover the best mental health books & workbooks, including popular therapy titles & psychology guides, to enhance your well-being & mental wellness.
Can reading books improve mental health? A discussion about books and the spiritual world recommended the top mental health books that will change your life for the better in 2024.
I have received many requests to recommend some of the mental health books. In response, I'm pleased to offer my expert recommendations in this article based on my in-depth study and reading in this field.
Some notable books are included here: This Is Depression, We've Been Too Patient, This Too Shall Pass, Black Pain, Own Your Self, and Be Calm.
These aren't the only books on this topic. Below, you'll find 39 books with detailed descriptions of each of these outstanding resources.
39 Best Self-help Books for Improving Mental Health & Well-Being
It is a good idea to improve your mental health by reading books, but it takes time, and it may not be short. I just don’t know what your own inner experience is.
If the anxiety, loneliness, or pain you feel affects your interpersonal relationship, even work, and life, it is better to seek professional advice.
If there is no serious impact, reading is okay. The most important thing is to practice according to the method in the book.
For example, if you don’t like to interact with people, the book suggests that you communicate with people, but you don’t do it because of various concerns. It is unfavorable to solve your mental health problem.
1. This Is Depression
This Is Depression: A Comprehensive, Compassionate Guide for Anyone Who Wants to Understand Depression by Diane McIntosh
This is depression, psychiatrist, Dr. Diane McIntosh shares what she's experienced in the last 20 years. she's been working with patients who have been diagnosed with depression. she takes readers through common causes of depression and the diagnosis process for depression.
And the many possible treatment options an individual may be prescribed her take on the topic is not only founded in research but her use of stories shared by patients also provides real-life examples for anyone experiencing depression in their own life.
this book is a necessary guide for anyone who faces depression whether their own or loved ones in their life.
2. We've Been Too Patient
We've Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health--Stories and Research Challenging the Biomedical Model by L. D. Green
We've been too patient as a collection of 25 stories and essays that portray the unfortunate reality of many who have been diagnosed with a mental illness editors Kolechia Ubozo consultant and keynote speaker and led green advocate and author diligently curated stories of mental health experiences all in an attempt to break the stigmas that so easily surround the mental health space.
These stories while in many cases hard to stomach shed light on experiences of medication electroconvulsive therapy involuntary hospitalization and other traumatic events that can forever alter someone's life their discussion of the systemic problems within mental health care educates readers to empower writers and breaks stigmas.
3. This Too Shall Pass
This Too Shall Pass: Stories of Change, Crisis and Hopeful Beginnings by Julia Samuel
Psychotherapist Julia Samuel uses hours of conversations with patients to showcase how individuals adapt differently in the face of hardship backed by academic medical research in her analysis of the story.
She shares clearly explains how mental health is different for every person yet the prioritization of positive mental health should remain the same.
4. Black Pain
Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We're Not Hurting by Terrie M. Williams
Mental health advocate Terry Williams knows that black people are hurting, she knows because she is one of them in black paint. Williams addresses the topic of depression a topic that is still taboo, especially in the black community with down-to-earth discussions.
Williams tackles emotional pain and how it uniquely affects the black experience encouraging women and men to seek the help they need without feeling ashamed having experienced depression first-hand after overworking herself as the head of a demanding public relations company.
Williams knows what it takes to finally come to terms with your inner sorrow she reminds us that we are brave, not cowardly for facing our traumas head-on and finding solutions with the help of others.
5. Own YourSelf
Own Your Self: The Surprising Path Beyond Depression, Anxiety, and Fatigue to Reclaiming Your Authenticity, Vitality, and Freedom by Kelly Brogan
While medication is a common method for handling mental health disorders holistic psychiatrist Kelly Brogan MD offers alternatives.
she discusses how the symptoms we face in mental illness are not always in need of fixing but instead need to be processed accepted and then healed with non-medicated methods with research to back her up.
She lays out how to identify factors find transformative emotional opportunities and find ways to heal your mind from within Dr. Brogan believes that when there is a prioritization of self-care individuals will find themselves with clearer sharper mental health.
6. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb
Therapist Lori Gottlieb got a taste of her own medicine when after an incident that left her shaken and confused, she found herself on the therapy couch.
She has the education to be a doctor but now her experience has made her the patient as well her perspective expands to understand and feel both sides of a therapy appointment in her witty endearing story of self-discovery.
She discusses the truths and lies we all tell ourselves examining the harm they can cause when allowed to be out of control maybe you should talk to someone who will make you feel heard while encouraging you to open up and reach out to the people who are there to listen.
7. Your Happiness Toolkit
Your Happiness Toolkit: 16 Strategies for Overcoming Depression, and Building a Joyful, Fulfilling Life by Carrie M. Wrigley LCSW
Carrie Maxwell Wrigley has been a counselor for 30 years her career has largely been focused on providing applicable steps for individuals struggling with their mental health your happiness toolkit follows this focus.
It provides a simple understanding of what depression is and what feeds or fights that depression she provides a self-assessment model to help individuals identify what their depression is.
She offers 16 self-help tools that help them overcome it and find happiness your happiness toolkit is a guide for both those experiencing psychological issues and loved ones trying to help them along the way.
8. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Made Simple
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Made Simple: 10 Strategies For Managing Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Panic, And Worry by Seth J. Gillihan
Cognitive-behavioral therapy made simple takes the concept of mindfulness to the next level with its 10 strategies for improving an individual's mental health.
Author, Seth J. Gilligan's Ph.D. focuses on effective tools like identifying negative thoughts that allow individuals to find relief from their anxiety and depression while each tool is thoroughly backed with research the book serves as an easy-to-read manual full of small simple steps that lead to success.
9. Be Calm
Be Calm: Proven Techniques to Stop Anxiety Now by Jill Weber PhD
Jill Weber Ph. D. is a clinical psychologist who helps people of all backgrounds manage their anxiety become takes all that knowledge and divides it into three sections feelings, behaviors, and thoughts each section takes the main anxiety symptom an individual finds themselves.
Facing and providing an explanation for that symptom techniques to control it and a path to finding intercoms are easy to read understand and apply to your life no matter what situation you find yourself in.
10. Own Your Anxiety
Own Your Anxiety: 99 Simple Ways to Channel Your Secret Edge by Julian Brass
Anxiety coach Julian Brass's career has been spent guiding individuals toward empowerment in the face of anxiety own your anxiety provides readers with tools that focus on what they can control positive action and motivation instead of viewing anxiety as a disorder to be ashamed of brass encourages
readers to look at their anxiety as an intimate aspect of who they are to be shaped not hidden he combines medical research and personal experiences to provide a resource that leads readers toward a healthier happier life.
11. Attitude Is Everything
This book is clearly about how your attitude can change everything in your life it depends on how you are looking at things and if you can just change your attitude change your perspective from looking at everything in a negative way to shifting towards a positive attitude a positive perspective your life can also change at a great level.
I recommend this book highly for beginners because it's thin the language is very easy and the author is literally just talking to you it is so candid that you will have so much fun reading it.
12. Notes on a Nervous Planet
This book is so good but I don't highly recommend it to people who are not avid readers of self-help books, you can start with it's not like the language stuff or something but the entire layout the entire structure of the book is very different from like any other general book.
This entire book has been written in the format of notes itself it's like the author is taking one paper every single day and writing notes on our nervous planet and the author has talked about all the mental health issues we are having right now.
How we have so much information to consume right now, which is boggling to our brains, and how we must be very choosy about the kind of content we are consuming.
The author has also given examples of his own life experiences which really makes the book very very relatable and towards the end, the author also gives us practical things that we can do to take care of our mental health.
which is why I love this book so much it is easy to read it has the philosophy but it also has practicality so if you want to read something like this if you want to read something on mental health if you want to read about information consumption and everything please pick this book.
13. The Four Agreements
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book) by Don Miguel Ruiz
This book is a little fear to recommend as a mental health book but at the same time, it talks about the four things that you're supposed to accept you're supposed to understand about the world and about yourself, and once you agree to these just simple four things your life will change.
It is a very short book honestly speaking but I still won't recommend it to beginners in the reading world fine if you are trying it try it at you know at your own risk like it's not like to talk or something like that.
It's a very thin book also but at the same time the principles that the book has talked about are so so heavy on the head and they're so so important I would name the principles but if I say the principles right now then there is no point of reading the book at all.
14. What to Say When You Talk to Yourself
This book is like just like the title suggests it's about what you are supposed to tell yourself when you are talking to yourself now listen to me guys, especially during quarantine or even in general days of our life there are so many times when there is nobody else that we are talking to we are just talking to ourselves in our mind so many times,
we have so many voices of our own and at other times, we have the voices of other people in our heads but it is talking to us as if we are talking to ourselves and self-positive talk is extremely important.
If you want to have good mental health this book will teach you step by step how you are supposed to talk to yourself how to do self-positive talk and what kind of effects it can have on your life.
If you are a beginner in the reading world it will take you a little bit of time to like get into the book and read it and finish it specifically but it is such a good book and it is so important that I highly recommend it to everybody.
15. Peace Is Every Breath
This book will teach you how you don't even need to like to do big things in your life to meet Bheem mindful or to be peaceful and calm when I read the book I was so amazed at how the author has explained step by step in your entire day.
When you can do the smallest things that will help you to be mindful and it will help you to have amazing mental health again it is so easy it is so practical the language also is so easy therefore yes I recommend it to anybody to read it.
16. Why You're Still Stuck
This book I read this in February I guess and it is one of the best first books ever that I have read on being stuck, this book won't tell you the basic things that you know you're supposed to find what motivates you and then go towards it and all those kind of things like that.
This book will actually just dive into your brain it will take a deep dive into your brain it will start opening it slowly and slowly and you will realize why you are still stuck in your life now.
Why I am recommending this book here is that the language is easy but the content is amazing.
Secondly, I feel like because we're staying at home, there can be so much anxiety and you may feel so much like you're not doing anything like you're not achieving enough maybe, or like you're not going out so you're not doing anything for your life and all those kind of things.
On the other hand, there may be so many people who will be at home right now and reflecting upon their lives and they'll be like, what am I even doing in my life is this really what I want to do they will feel stuck in their life how that is where this book comes into play and it is one of the worst books out there that will help you to become unstuck.
17. Turtles All the Way Down
I'm following John Green's "Incomparably Wonderful Pain" to pursue his new work-"Turtles All the Way Down". In the beginning, I was overwhelmed by the author's description of the obsessive-compulsive disorder-like stream of consciousness. I have to say that John has a lot of experience in describing the inner feelings of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder or anxiety.
Throughout the book, the heroine has been struggling with the "Spiral of Thinking". When the "Spiral of Thinking" breaks out, one after another devastating thoughts will pop up in her mind. Can't get rid of it. In an interview with us on Monday, Green said that the reason why he described the terrible thoughts of the protagonist in detail was that it reminded him of himself.
Green said: "When I fall into the spiral of thinking', the real problem is not whether I can break free at this moment, but that I may not break free for the rest of my life. I will be bound by it for the rest of my life. It fights until the day I die. This is terrible."
Whether it is for Green or the characters in his works, explaining and expressing to others the mental illness he is experiencing is a core difficulty. Throughout the book, Aza tries her best to explain her inner experience to the people around her.
Green said: "In the face of pain, language will appear pale and weak, which is why pain is always a lonely experience." Aza did not express pain directly but chose to use the metaphor of "spiral of thinking" to refer to it. generation.
A member of the group named Jason had a similar performance. He himself suffered from anxiety and depression. Jason asked Green how he came up with such a metaphor.
Green said that the inspiration came from a painting by Raymond Pettibon: "When I saw this painting, I thought to myself, that's it, that's how it feels.'"
In the book, people around Aza—including her mother, her best friend, and the person she has a crush on—have different reactions to her illness: some want to cure her desperately; some treat her as nothing. You're welcome; some seem to be very indifferent.
Green wanted to show how hard it is to watch the person he loves struggling with mental illness, and "can't stop the pain, and even have no way to deal with all this"-this is how difficult it is.
For himself, Green hopes that people around him can be patient. He said: "The best partner will always tell me that no matter how uncomfortable you or your loved one are, you will always be rewarded with warm care. Be patient and let your loved ones know Everything will pass, and spring will always come.
As I grew older, I gradually realized that when you try to accept your imperfect self, the world also accepts you unknowingly.
18. Daris the Great is Not Okay
I bought it in the new book section of the bookstore in 2018 and bought a Paperback by the way. I didn't expect it to be watched until three years later. The serial episodes were released, and even the movies were arranged. It was basically an Iranian-style introduction. My favorite plot may be the part about interacting with my father.
Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He's a Fractional Persian—half, of his mom's side—and his first-ever trip to Iran is about to change his life.
Darius has never really fit in at home, and he's sure things are going to be the same in Iran. His clinical depression doesn't exactly help matters, and trying to explain his medication to his grandparents only makes things harder. Then Darius meets Sohrab, the boy next door, and everything changes.
Soon, they're spending their days together, playing soccer, eating value, and talking for hours on a secret rooftop overlooking the city's skyline. Sohrab calls him Darioush—the original Persian version of his name—and Darius has never felt more like himself than he does now that he's Darioush to Sohrab.
Adib Khorram’s brilliant debut is for anyone who’s ever felt not good enough—then met a friend who makes them feel so much better than okay.
19. Watch Over Me
Mila is used to being alone. Maybe that’s why she said yes to the opportunity: living in this remote place, among the flowers and the fog and the crash of waves far below.
But she hadn’t known about the ghosts.
Newly graduated from high school, Mila has aged out of the foster care system. So when she’s offered a job and a place to stay at a farm on an isolated part of the Northern California Coast, she immediately accepts. Maybe she will finally find a new home, a real home.
The farm is a refuge but also haunted by the past traumas its young residents have come to escape. And Mila’s own terrible memories are starting to rise to the surface.
Watch Over Me is another stunner from Printz Award-winning author Nina LaCour, whose empathetic, lyrical prose is at the heart of this modern ghost story of resilience and rebirth.
Nina LaCour grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her first job was at fourteen in an independent bookstore, and she has since worked in two others. She has tutored and taught in various places, from a juvenile hall to a private college. She now teaches English at an independent high school.
Nina lives in Oakland, California with her wife and their two cute cats. Visit her online at www.ninalacour.com.
20. Highly Illogical Behavior
Sixteen-year-old Solomon has agoraphobia. He hasn't left his house in 3 years. Ambitious Lisa is desperate to get into a top-tier psychology program.
And so when Lisa learns about Solomon, she decides to befriend him, cure him, and then write about it for her college application.
To earn Solomon's trust, she introduces him to her boyfriend Clark, and starts to reveal her own secrets.
But what started as an experiment led to a real friendship, with all three growing close. But when the truth comes out, what erupts could destroy them all.
Funny and heartwarming, Highly Illogical Behavior is a fascinating exploration of what makes us tick, and how the connections between us may be the most important things of all.
21. How It Feels to Float
Biz knows how to float, right there on the surface--normal okay regular fine. She has her friends, her mom, and the twins. She has Grace. And she has her dad, who shouldn't be here but is.
So Biz doesn't tell anyone anything--not about her dark, runaway thoughts, not about kissing Grace or noticing Jasper, the new boy. And not about seeing her dad. Because her dad died when she was seven.
But after what happens on the beach, the tethers that hold Biz steady come undone. Her dad disappears and, with him, all comfort. It might be easier, better, and sweeter to float all the way away?
Or maybe stay a little longer, find her father, and bring him back to her. Or maybe--maybe maybe maybe--there's a third way Biz just can't see yet.
Debut author Helena Fox tells a story about love, grief, and inter-generational mental illness, exploring the loss of the hard and beautiful places that can take us, and honoring those who hold us tightly when the current wants to tug us out to sea.
22. Every Last Word
Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn off.
Second-guessing every move, thought, and word makes daily life a struggle, and it doesn't help that her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush.
Yet Sam knows she'd be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school.
So when Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret, right up there with Sam's weekly visits to her psychiatrist.
Caroline introduces Sam to Poet's Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who have been ignored by the school at large.
Sam is drawn to them immediately, especially a guitar-playing guy with a talent for verse, and starts to discover a whole new side of herself.
Slowly, she begins to feel more "normal" than she ever has as part of the popular crowd . . . until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear.
23. Look Me In The Eye: My Life With Asperger’s
This book has a place that makes people think, moves people, and makes people warm.
Growing up author John Elder looked back at his own experience when he was a child and found that Asperger had such a profound impact on every aspect of his life as a child, and social problems have deeply troubled him since he was a child.
Fortunately, he was smart enough, focused, and studious enough, and his skills were enough to make up for his emotional intelligence flaws and barely live a life.
His family is a mystery in my mind. His father's alcoholism is getting more and more fierce, and his mother's mental problems are getting worse.
As a university professor with a stable job, why did John's father drink a little alcohol every day to drink in cans? Because of alcoholism, my temper became grumpy, and it was terrible to start abusing children.
Every time he thinks of the scene where he uses Varmint's forehead to extinguish the smoke, he feels creepy and deeply saddened.
My supervisor said that raising a child with autism is a very stressful thing, which will seriously affect the marriage relationship.
Of course, John's parents themselves are very traumatized people, and it is normal for them to affect the marriage relationship.
When he grew up, John learned to reconcile with his father. He remembered that he had a happy life when he was a child. It is really hard to accept the parents who hate and love him like this.
Asperger himself does not have much concept of social cues. Adding to the alcoholic father and the mother with mental problems, everything becomes more incomprehensible, because the feedback from the outside world to him is inconsistent, and he does not know how to deal with it. all of these.
Fortunately, he passed everything safely in ignorance. He has neither gone bad into prison nor has he been tainted by the dirty environment.
He is still immersed in his own world, doing what he likes to do and staying away from the things that make him uncomfortable.
It's also great for John to have a younger brother, at least they can depend on each other in the hardest years. They are all good storytellers, and this is really inherited from their parents' good intelligence and language skills.
When reading the epilogue, I really felt warmed up. After 50 years of ups and downs, John can finally feel society like an ordinary person, reflect on life, and write this paragraph:
With the insight gained from writing the book, I now believe my parents did the best they could under tough circumstances.
They were both damaged as children, and my brother and I grew up damaged as a result.
But the damage is not always permanent, nor is it always passed down from one generation to the next. I'm Okay today, and so is my brother.
24. An Untamed State
Roxane Gay is a powerful new literary voice whose short stories and essays have already earned her an enthusiastic audience.
In An Untamed State, she delivers an assured debut about a woman kidnapped for ransom, her captivity as her father refuses to pay her husband fights for her release over thirteen days, and her struggle to come to terms with the ordeal in its aftermath.
Mireille Duval Jameson is living a fairy tale. The strong-willed youngest daughter of one of Haiti’s richest sons, she has an adoring husband, a precocious infant son, and by all appearances a perfect life.
The fairy tale ends one day when Mireille is kidnapped in broad daylight by a gang of heavily armed men, in front of her father’s Port-au-Prince estate.
Held captive by a man who calls himself "The Commander," Mireille waits for her father to pay her ransom.
As it becomes clear her father intends to resist the kidnappers, Mireille must endure the torments of a man who resents everything she represents.
An Untamed State is a novel of privilege in the face of crushing poverty, and the lawless anger that corrupt governments produce.
It is the story of a willful woman attempting to find her way back to the person she once was, and of how redemption is found in the most unexpected of places.
An Untamed State establishes Roxane Gay as a writer of prodigious, arresting talent.
25. The Year of Magical Thinking
"It turns out that before the sadness begins, none of us will know what it is like." We are still on the way to life, but we have to face death. Joan Didion’s mourning work was praised as soon as it was published in the United States.
The author did not excessively exaggerate the nobility of the object of mourning lyrically and nostalgically.
Instead, he chose a more exquisite and peculiar writing technique, completely disrupting the narrative before and after death, deliberately as close as possible to a real one, while facing the serious illness of the lover, the woman's seeing, thinking, feelings, and thoughts.
It was during my undergraduate course in creative writing that the teacher gave me this sample essay. I can still be overwhelmed by the author's sudden grief in an instant.
"Life changes quickly. Life changes instantly. You sit down and eat, and the life you know is over." Documents that dare not reopen, bloody nights with missing memories, lights on and off in the emergency room, messy footsteps, all these make up the traces of Joan Didion’s sudden loss of her husband.
That’s the sorrow. Suddenly, the accustomed life collapsed. The author must have consulted a large number of books on medicine, psychology, philosophy, and so on that study sorrow.
She even raised her own question as to why human beings should let time pass to heal sorrow, just as sorrow is inevitably healed by time.
"I want more than one night's memories and sighs. I want to scream. I want him to come back."
Joan Didion is surprisingly sensible and calm at the most superficial level, but behind this, she, However, the shoes of the dead were kept for a year.
After accepting the fact that death is irreversible, Didion reveals her true desires to our readers.
This impossible thought came closest to the essence of sorrow, disordered breathing, choked throat, untouchable old place, as well as the early snowfall and the gift that only John gave her.
How was she then? Unexpectedly, he only had twenty-five nights left to spend. "We want to forget the fate of death, but we can't do it."
Didion apparently spent a lot of time and energy this year reorganizing the memories of John's death and before, which is indeed doubly tormenting. The results are gratifying.
The long-lasting pain must not end, but as Didion said, when the year was about to end, she suddenly discovered that she had to end the time keeping track of what she did a year ago today. Method-After that, a year ago, today is no longer a day without John.
She thought about mourning, and at the same time, she truly realized that she was getting older and dying is the true value of life, and the essence of the sorrow caused by mourning is self-mourning, which is self-pity.
So she can come out because she bravely admits that this kind of self-mourning will end sooner or later.
"We try to keep the dead alive so that they can be with us. If we are to live alone, sooner or later we will abandon the dead, let them go away, let them die. Let them sink under the water." This did not make it easy.
However, I think Didion finally found the answer. In the memory of the deceased, her beloved people kept whispering their vows of love to her and their daughter-
"I love you, and love for one more day." Not enough." I know that loving you is the most vulgar word, but how can I stop talking?
26. Mental Health Awareness
Mental Health Awareness: What You Need to Know about Mental Illness (Mental health awareness, mental illness, symptoms, and signs, diagnosis, treatments, drugs) by Patricia A. Carlisle
This book contains information on what causes Mental illness and other factors about how to maintain healthier mental health.
Millions of Americans live with various types of mental illness and mental health problems. Mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions and disorders that affect your mood; thinking and behavior.
Examples of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders, and addictive behaviors. Many people have mental health concerns from time to time.
But a mental health concern becomes a mental illness when ongoing signs and symptoms cause frequent stress and affect your ability to function A mental illness can make you miserable and can cause problems in your daily life, such as at work or in relationships.
In most cases, symptoms can be managed with a combination of medications and counseling (psychotherapy).
Mental illness is any disease or condition that influences the way a person thinks, feels, behaves, and/or relates to others and to his or her surroundings.
Although the symptoms of mental illness can range from mild to severe and are different depending on the type of mental illness, a person with an untreated mental illness often is unable to cope with life’s daily routines and demands.
27. The Body Keeps the Score
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk M.D.
Recognize and heal wounds. The author has 30 years of cutting-edge research and clinical practice in the field of psychological trauma, and all treatment methods in this book have been verified by his own tests.
- When danger comes, the brain issues instructions to either fight or flee, and the danger passes and calms down. However, trauma keeps people stuck in the predicament of fighting and fleeing, no matter how hard it is to calm down.
- The human brain develops from low-level to high-level. The first level is the functional brain, which is fully developed before birth; the second level is the emotional brain, which is fully developed between 0-6 years of age. Therefore, the trauma experienced before the age of six will have a lifelong impact.
- Numerous studies have shown that social support is the most effective way to cope with stress and trauma.
- If adults and children are easily frightened or emotionally numb and cannot get comfort from humans, dogs, horses, and even dolphins can provide companionship and a sense of security.
- If child abuse can be eliminated in the United States, it will reduce the incidence of cancer by 1/2, alcohol abuse by 2/3, and suicide, drug abuse, and domestic violence by 3/4.
- Those helpless memories of trauma are stored in the tense muscles of the victim, or in the disability of certain parts of the body. So, don't hit your child, his body has never forgotten your violence.
- Perceive that all experiences are short-lived, which will change traumatic thinking and open the way to healing.
- People are like a hotel, and new guests are welcomed every day, such as joy, depression, anger, shame, and so on. Accept every guest's stay, no matter how bad the guest will eventually leave, come and go.
- Drugs can only relieve uncomfortable physical sensations, but will not teach people to self-regulate.
The key to healing trauma is to feel the past and the present, find your own island of safety, and truly relax. Ordinary people can self-heal their wounds through exercises, yoga, drama, body massage, etc. Serious wounds must seek medical attention in time.
28. Change Your Brain, Change Your Life
Change Your Brain, Change Your Life (Revised and Expanded): The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Lack of Focus, Anger, and Memory Problems by Daniel G. Amen M.D.
BRAIN PRESCRIPTIONS THAT REALLY WORK
In this breakthrough bestseller, you'll see scientific evidence that your anxiety, depression, anger, obsessiveness, or impulsiveness could be related to how specific structures in your brain work. You're not stuck with the brain you're born with.
Here are just a few of neuropsychiatrist Dr. Daniel Amen's surprising--and effective--"brain prescriptions" that can help heal your brain and change your life:
To Quell Anxiety and Panic:
- Use simple breathing techniques to immediately calm inner turmoil
To Fight Depression:
- Learn how to kill ANTs (automatic negative thoughts)
To Curb Anger:
- Follow the Amen anti-anger diet and learn the nutrients that calm rage
To Conquer Impulsiveness and Learn to Focus:
- Develop total focus with the "One-Page Miracle"
To Stop Obsessive Worrying:
- Follow the "get unstuck" writing exercise and learn other problem-solving exercises
Discuss the change of the brain on the personality, the way of doing things, the way of thinking, and the further impact of this change on the brain. An excellent book on brain science.
Written in 1999, I look forward to reading more cutting-edge brain research books. Some of the methods for controlling negative emotional thinking are worth learning.
29. Hope and Help for Your Nerves: End Anxiety Now
Hope and Help for Your Nerves: End Anxiety Now by Claire Weekes
Dr. Claire Weekes offers a practical program for replacing fear and anxiety with understanding and self-confidence.
It should be of interest to those suffering from panic attacks, stress, agoraphobia, stage fright, and shyness. --This text refers to an out-of-print or unavailable edition of this title.
After reading for 10 days, one hour of reading time a day is like chatting face-to-face with a psychiatrist to help me calm down. Whether you are anxious or depressed, try your best to reconcile yourself.
Of course, the author is not a literary man... But she is very sincere and sincere, and I can feel that she is a doctor/scholar who really cares about patients. For some friends with obvious anxiety, reading this book will give them a lot of comfort
The original inspiration for me is actually quite big. Although many things are different when I know and understand, I feel that the nerve impulses sent by my neurons are getting stronger and stronger.
This is probably a good thing, but I don’t want my emotions. The changes are too ridiculous.
30. Recovery
Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions by Russell Brand
The difficulty of life is that it is easy to get addicted, but it is even harder to quit.
If we really forcibly break the addiction, we will ask ourselves: "What's the point of living without buying, buying, drinking, or eating skewers? It's better to be a monk directly!"
Since the cost of withdrawal is so huge, Then the question is, is there a systematic method of "quitting addiction", with strong operability, and sufficient scientific basis, that can really help us get rid of addiction?
The answer is, that it is true. At present, all major drug rehabilitation centers and alcohol rehabilitation organizations in Europe and the United States have adopted a set of "12-step addiction treatments", which has achieved very good results.
But it is a pity that for a long time, this set of "jargon" in the addiction circle has been covered with a veil of mystery and cannot be used by ordinary people.
What's so exciting is that on October 3 this year, the world-renowned British comedy actor Russell Brand published his third super best-selling book "From Addict to Rehab ( Recovery: Freedom from our addictions)".
In the book, he not only explained: "Why are we addicted" concisely and vividly, but also turned this "jargon" of the addiction circle into a four-step addiction guide that ordinary people can use.
Oh, by the way, Russell Brand is a very attractive man in the UK. He was elected as the Playboy of the Year by the British "The Sun" for three consecutive years.
He loves rock and roll, has a weird character and behavior, and is called "Uncle Weird". And his ex-wife is so famous: "Fruit Sister" Katy Perry.
You may be curious, why did a world-famous comedian write a book about quitting addiction? Brand himself said: "Before, we always let those experts and scholars who were never addicted teach us to quit the addiction.
But I am different. I am a heinous addict. No one of you can ruin your life more than I. a."
I was a child abused by his father, his mother had cancer, and I hate this world. So, I binge eating, drinking, smoking, drug use and even. "as an artist, he certainly tattoos.
But all the above did not prevent him from turning into a good boy. With the help of the drug rehabilitation organization, he mastered the methods of drug rehabilitation and helped himself to solve his addiction to tobacco and alcohol. Now he is a competent and good father.
Brand, who discovered his conscience, decided to write down the drug treatment guide he learned differently, hoping to save more ordinary people who are addicted but not going to the drug treatment center.
Thanks for his great kindness! Next, let's talk about Brand's point of view in detail: first, why we become addicted; second, how to use the four-step addiction guide to successfully stop addiction.
31. Healing the Trauma of Abuse
Healing the Trauma of Abuse: A Women's Workbook by Mary Ellen Copeland MS MA & Maxine Harris PhD
Trauma can turn your world upside down; afterward, nothing may look safe or familiar.
And, if you are a woman, studies show that you are twice as likely as your male counterparts to suffer from the effects of a traumatic event sometime during your life.
Whether the trauma is physical, sexual, or emotional, these events can overwhelm you, destroying your sense of being in control and altering your attachments to others.
If left unaddressed, the resulting psychological trauma can lead you to a wide range of destructive symptoms like anxiety, depression, substance abuse, phobias, personality disorders, flashbacks, emotional numbing, and nightmares.
This book offers effective, step-by-step exercises you can use to work through and minimize the consequences of a traumatic event.
32. Codependent No More
Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself by Melody Beattie
How important it is to have a healthy personality, and how important it is to care for and have warm childhood experiences. Pitifully many of us don’t. It is not easy to find in group life.
Once extreme situations arise, the defects of personality will emerge. Small ones become setbacks, big ones.
In the past few years, I have seen too many tragedies. For example, people have been chattering about how men treat her badly, and you have repeatedly made suggestions, and she still keeps complaining-going back to being abused-suffering-telling, until you lose patience until She has real tragedies, such as getting sick, committing suicide, such as enduring incest. For example, losing her beloved child.
In fact, this is a typical manifestation of mutual dependence. Her life has been magnified and filled with the shortcomings of others. She tells how much she has given her family. How pitiful the situation is. The real reason may be that she doesn’t love herself at all.
She feels that she is not worthy of love and enjoying a good life. Only when she gives her can she feel safe? Over time she turns into unwillingness, then turns into anger, destruction, and the other party The revenge, which leads to a real tragedy.
Most lives don’t have such concentrated conflicts. Some are just so lifeless, life is worse than death.
"It seems that I have never lived for myself."
33. Burnout
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski Ph.D. & Amelia Nagoski DMA
Very simple and easy to read but a very powerful book!
It may be that I have too high expectations for this book, and it is not as practical as I imagined. And to be honest, a book about female burnout does not mention the menstrual cycle, which is quite disappointing. However, an interview with the author is more interesting.
If we divide human beings into two categories, one is more selfish to gain a sense of accomplishment from their own dreams and benefits, and the other is more empathetic to gain a sense of accomplishment by helping others.
It is not difficult to see that in today's society, more men are the former, and more women are the latter.
We have been thinking about how to change from the latter to the former, but why shouldn't the former become the latter? Melinda's moment of lift talks about wars and also mentions similar ideas.
A self-help book that does not take the usual path: not only gives some ways to reduce stress but also explains from the perspective of patriarchy why women feel pressured in today's society. The biggest inspiration from this book is to realize my prejudices.
Asian women are the target of double discrimination in the West. However, in anti-discrimination and self-consideration,
I also inadvertently discriminate against fat people, especially fat people who are close to me: for example, forcing family members to exercise and lose weight in the name of health, laughing at the belly of the target, and so on. According to the author, this is sizeism as bad as racism and sexism.
34. Emotional First Aid
Emotional First Aid: Healing Rejection, Guilt, Failure, and Other Everyday Hurts by Guy Winch Ph.D.
After reading this book, I wonder, what does a person with a strong heart look like? Don't be surprised, go and stay unintentionally? Open-minded? Lotte? More frustration, more courage?
I think these are all appearances or performances. Who can't sleep at night, who knows? The inner strength should be deeper, and only the part that you can see:
- know yourself objectively and accept yourself bravely.
- Know others and the world comprehensively, and accept others and the world frankly.
- Not only understand their own abilities and limitations but also understand the beauty and cruelty of reality.
- There is a love for life sober but without backing down and without reservation.
- There is hard work and dedication with a clear conscience, reasonable expectations, and fetters, and some redundancy gives way to unexpected surprises and disappointments in life.
Every one of us encounters various troubles in life. There will inevitably be depression. Many times, depression is only temporary and will pass by itself after some time.
However, there are also many times when depression will last for a long time. So it is like strained muscles and damaged internal organs, becoming a part of our life and affecting our quality of life. Therefore, we should take measures to help ourselves.
This book provides solutions to six common depressions in life. When you are rejected, lonely, lost, guilty, fail, and have low self-esteem, don't let yourself indulge in negative emotions.
Know that this is not you. You shouldn’t let yourself taste the bitterness of your emotions. According to the recommendations in this book, start actively saving yourself.
35. It Didn't Start With You
It Didn't Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle by Mark Wolynn
Probably it is Intergenerational transmission of trauma Your problem is not your problem, your disease is not your disease " Tracing the root cause".
Throw the pot to the source and borrow the "supernatural ability" to cure the disease that is not yours. How many uses of psychological suggestion?
This book is poisonous and the identification is complete. In the beginning, I said that I was almost blind and then I went to Southeast Asia to ask for a guru.
I didn’t believe it. Later, I said that the memory of the grandmother’s massacre would remain in the granddaughter’s body.
The analysis is all speculation. I believe that trauma can be passed on from generation to generation, and I also believe that science can help explain it, but the explanation given in this book is too rough for me, and the references are not professional enough.
At the same time, even if one day we really have authoritative research to prove physiological heredity, the impact of the trauma and pain of the predecessors on the subsequent generations is still intricate.
Even if the biochemical principles inside are explained, the manifestations are varied, only Only by touching and exploring with the perspective of literature and humanity, and thinking about the dynamic relationship between memory, pain, taboo, and forgetting, can we understand our misfortune as people and families more accurately.
36. Attached
Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find - and Keep - Love by Amir Levine & Rachel Heller
I am a typical anxious type, and what is ridiculous is that I continue to meet avoidant lovers. I always thought that I was abnormal, so I found all kinds of psychology books and even sought religious beliefs to appease my broken heart and bring it peace.
And this book easily solves all the problems. If I could meet it when I was young, my life might be rewritten.
To be in love is to be close, not independent of each other. Biological research tells us that being dependent is not a bad thing. If you want to be independent and happy, you must find someone you can attach to, and spend your life with that person.
As a faithful believer in energetics, I think the author’s categorical classification of the three types of attachment is too precise: Although it is mentioned that the safe type can exhibit the characteristics of anxiety and avoidance in different intimate relationships, for anxiety and avoidance.
Even in my personal experience, people’s attachment types do not exist naturally due to brain chemicals, but change back and forth in different relationships and getting along with different people.
Safety people will also become avoidant when faced with people who are too clingy and annoying, and the avoidant will naturally become anxious when faced with undesirable avoidance and higher energy.
In short, it is better to improve yourself to increase attractiveness. Don't be annoying.
I believe that humans like to chase advantages and avoid disadvantages. Animals who like to take advantage of instinct are more reliable.
This is a very good book on love psychology. I strongly recommend that you read it.
37. The Highly Sensitive Person
The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You by Elaine N. Aron
A very interesting book, I feel that it has a relatively large overlap with the HSP's own trait introduced, and there is also a lot of resonance during reading.
I feel that no matter whether you are an HSP or anyone with HSP friends around you, you can read at least the first few chapters.
The whole book is a bit long. Starting from the identify HSP, it introduces the various situations that such people may encounter in their growth, life, work, and society, and provides corresponding suggestions.
- Fortunately, this book gives some specific methods for sensitive people to deal with different incidents and also puts forward good suggestions about self-cultivation. It has considerable practical significance for sensitive people. Compared with some psychology books that only ask questions, countermeasures are crucial.
- As a sensitive group of people, the author has established confidence in sensitive people and spent a considerable amount of space telling readers that sensitive groups of people have their own unique talents. Colleagues mentioned suitable industries. This is the interesting part.
- Sensitive people can indeed find a lot of resonance in the book, and the sense of identity generated during reading is very pleasant.
- I don't know whether it is the translator or the author. The language logic of some paragraphs jumps greatly, and it takes a little effort to read, which seriously affects the reading process.
- Compared with the "useful" part of the appeal, some cases and some circumstantial language in the book add a sense of cumbersomeness.
In short, highly sensitive people are worth reading about. It is not said that they have benefited a lot, but they can also learn some useful things.
38. Loving Bravely
Loving Bravely: Twenty Lessons of Self-Discovery to Help You Get the Love You Want by Alexandra H. Solomon PhD
A book that is very helpful for relationship management and cultivation. I probably still can’t read it half a year ago. If you know how to love someone from the beginning, it’s good, but it’s not too late to start learning again.
From the original family-parent relationship, and family atmosphere discussion, to the model setting of the intimate relationship you want, setting the boundary, and when you encounter problems with your partner, try to press pause and use an outsider perspective, self-care. Remember that behind an angry person is a hurt person. Hurt hurts!
I was in a relationship that was dying, so I bought it immediately. At first, I felt that it was not just a cliché, but after substituting the situation into it, I felt that the soul is tortured. In the past few years, I feel that I have been quite sensible most of the time, quarreling will be organized (?), almost not emotionally out of control (when I am out of control, hiding alone, or annoying friends), and I pay attention to communication.
While reading, I felt that I was doing quite well, but it was of no use. The gap in understanding between two people has never been filled by love. Leading to doubt whether I have actually met love. So it seems that the subconscious is beginning to resist another person entering his own life.
Every time I fall in love, apart from knowing that I am very difficult to love and that the love I can give is not a big deal to others, there is very little that I can gain. It's a different kind, it's simply "alien" but not a special kind. I think I'm brave enough, maybe it's just not attractive.
39. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
In any case, the easiest thing for people to change is themselves. Learning good habits is the beginning of success.
As everyone grows up, most of them will experience the process from dependence to independence and from independence to mutual dependence. Learning different behaviors can change the door of fate.
"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," tells us what to do and how to do it. The seven habits are:
[Habit 1: Proactively]
Only a person who is responsible for himself can be responsible for others; only when a person has his own principles and values can he be respected. Believe in yourself, go all out to do things, full of passion and vitality, and you will infect the people around you. Everyone’s choice to create his own life is also the most basic decision for everyone.
[Habit 2: Always unswerving]
Sometimes, the hardest thing for people is to stick to the original dream.
[Habit 3: Important things first]
The most precious thing in the world is time. Time management skills determine your success or failure. What must be done by yourself, what must be entrusted to others, what must be considered in advance, and what must not be considered? The more you are good at judging and handling decisively, the higher your efficiency and the more obvious your value.
[Habit 4: Win-win thinking]
Get rid of the military mentality of life and death, establish a wide range of cooperative relations, and use competition and cooperation to establish a good ecological environment. The ancients said that to lose money is to take advantage.
[Habit 5: Knowing the enemy and confidant]
Sincere communication with the soul can enhance understanding and friendship. To do things is to be human.
[Habit 6: Eclectic]
Collect the wisdom of all people, and use it for yourself. To achieve a lofty goal, is often not possible to accomplish it alone. The person who makes good use of the team's strengths is really smart.
[Habit 7: Comprehensive development]
Life is so important, so you don't need to be too serious.
This book not only made me come alive but also alive very well! Therefore, I strongly recommend that you read this book carefully, and I suggest that you learn to cultivate these habits in actual work, I believe that the change for you is fundamental!
Check out more Mental Health Books on Amazon.com
- Best Sellers in Mental Health - Amazon.com
- Mental Health in Education: Books - Amazon.com
- Best Sellers in Popular Psychology Mental Illness Books
Conclusion
A person's mental health is very important to oneself, and ensuring one's mental health is also the primary task of people.
People must adhere to a healthy and scientific lifestyle, and explain their inner depression in a reasonable and timely manner so that they can be mentally and physically healthy.
It is recommended that you analyze your main mental health problem first, such as taking a professional psychological test and then looking for related books or related chapters in a book for your problems. Maybe the efficiency will be higher.
The best way to change your way of thinking is to interview mental health professionals, follow the guidance of professionals, step by step to understand the psychological problems you encounter, find ways to solve the problems, discover your strong vitality, etc..
The second is to expand your thinking by reading good books, thinking deeply about the knowledge in the books, improving your original way of thinking, enriching your life experience, and looking at your mental health problems from a broader, more tolerant, and more diverse perspective. Found the other side behind.
I hope you enjoyed the article and you will pick up at least 2 books for yourself that will help with your mental health problem.
