Mental illness is a huge problem in our society, and it's on the rise. It's estimated that about 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health issue at some point in their lives.If you or someone you love is struggling with mental illness, you may be looking for information and resources to help you understand what they're going through.
Here are 10 books that will help you learn more about living with mental illness:
- The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness by Jerome Groopman and Pamela Hartzband
The Anatomy of Hope is a book about living with mental illness. It’s not a medical textbook or an academic journal. It’s written by two doctors who have been treating patients with mental illness for decades, so they know what they’re talking about, but it’s also written in a way that anyone with access to Google can understand.
Groopman and Hartzband provide an overview of how different illnesses affect the brain and body — from depression to addiction to schizophrenia — while also focusing on how people can persevere through these challenges. They argue that hope is essential for overcoming mental illness, and that learning about the biology behind these diseases helps us understand why some people thrive while others struggle.
- An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison
Kay Redfield Jamison is a famous psychologist, who has battled with bipolar disorder for her whole life. She wrote this book to share her experience, so that others could learn from it.
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness is the first book in the series of memoirs by Kay Redfield Jamison. In this book, she describes her battle with manic depression and how she overcame it. This book was written in 1995 and was published by Alfred A. Knopf Inc., New York City, NY.
The main theme of this book is about living with mental illness and how to overcome it successfully. The author describes her struggle with bipolar disorder from childhood until now, when she is an adult woman who lives a normal life without medications or any other treatments for her condition. The author describes her own experiences as well as those of other people who suffer from similar conditions like depression or bipolar disorder or schizophrenia etc., so that readers can understand better what these people go through on a daily basis and how they feel inside their minds and hearts when they are not feeling well mentally due to the disease.
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
This book is about living with mental illness. The main character is John Savage, a man who has been raised in a futuristic society where all emotions have been eradicated. He is depressed and suicidal, but the rest of his society does not understand why. They do not realize that feeling unhappy is possible, or even worse, normal.
As his depression worsens, he finds himself in conflict with his doctors and family members who believe that he needs medication to feel better. He runs away and finds himself on an island where people are allowed to express their emotions freely. Although he enjoys this freedom at first, he soon becomes homesick for his family and friends back home.
In the end, John realizes how important it is to live your life according to your own beliefs and not someone else's expectations of you.
- When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chödrön
Author Pema Chödrön is a Buddhist nun and a teacher of meditation. She's written several books, including The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times.
In When Things Fall Apart, Chödrön offers advice for dealing with difficult times, such as the death of a loved one or mental illness. She says that meditation can help you become more present-minded during these moments by helping you focus on your breathing, which will help you calm down and think clearly.
Chödrön also encourages readers to learn about their mental illness and to speak with others who have been through similar experiences. This will help them understand their own emotions better, she writes.
- The Man Who Couldn’t Stop : OCD and A True Story Of A Life Lost In Thought By David Adam
The Man Who Couldn’t Stop: OCD and A True Story Of A Life Lost In Thought By David Adam is one of the most important books on mental health that you can read.
The book is about David Adam, a British journalist who was diagnosed with OCD at the age of 16. At first glance, this may not seem like a big deal — after all, everyone has their quirks, right? But for Adam, his OCD was debilitating. It affected his relationship with his family and friends, as well as his career aspirations.
The book chronicles Adam’s life from childhood through young adulthood as he struggles to cope with OCD. He battles with intrusive thoughts and compulsive rituals that control his life. And while it might seem that he could easily get rid of them if he wanted to, they were so much a part of him that they became ingrained in everything he did — even if it meant causing him more stress than if he had just let them go.
What makes this book so valuable is that it gives an inside look at what it means to live with mental illness — specifically OCD — from someone who has actually experienced it firsthand.
- Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions by Johann Hari
Lost Connections is a book about depression and mental health. But it's also about a lot more than that.
The author, Johann Hari, is a British journalist who has spent his career writing about social issues. He was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the war in Afghanistan, and he has won numerous other awards for his stories on topics ranging from drugs policy to the rise of right-wing populism in Europe.
But he also struggled with depression for most of his life — until it finally hit him hard enough to make him realize that something was seriously wrong. In this book, he explores why so many people suffer from depression, how we can treat it better and why we need to consider our society as a whole if we want to change things for the better.
- The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison
Leslie Jamison's debut novel The Empathy Exams is a book about living with a mental illness. But it's also a book about the way we live now, in a world where we are constantly told to think of ourselves first and to ignore other people's needs.
Jamison writes about this in her essay collection The Empathy Exams: Essays, which was published by Graywolf Press in 2014. In the book, she explores cultural norms around empathy and how we relate to one another, particularly when it comes to mental illness.
In The Empathy Exams, Jamison writes about her own experiences with depression and anxiety as well as interviews with others who have struggled with these conditions. She also explores different ways that people try to cope with their illnesses — from therapy sessions like EMDR (eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing) therapy to meditation practices like mindfulness meditation — and how these coping mechanisms can help people heal from emotional pain.
The result is an insightful exploration into how our culture has changed over time and how we relate to one another today — both online and off.
- A Mind That Found Itself by Clifford Whorton
A Mind That Found Itself is a book about living with mental illness. It's not a medical textbook and it's not a memoir; it's a novelized version of what it felt like to have schizophrenia for the author, Clifford Whorton.
The book is divided into three sections: The first section describes the author's early childhood, including his first experience with mental illness (he was hospitalized after attempting suicide at age 13). The second section describes his adult life leading up to his hospitalization again at age 23. And the third section describes his experience in an asylum where he is treated successfully for his mental illness.
A Mind That Found Itself was written by Clifford Whorton who suffered from schizophrenia himself. He was first hospitalized at age 13 and then again at age 23 before being successfully treated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) which helped him regain control over his mind and body.
Whorton wrote A Mind That Found Itself while still hospitalized as a way to keep track of his recovery process; he also wanted to help others who were suffering from mental illnesses like himself by making them feel less alone in their struggle against their own minds.
- The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar is a book about mental illness. The author, Sylvia Plath, was suffering from depression when she wrote it. She had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital before she wrote the book, and she had attempted suicide.
The Bell Jar is a semi-autobiographical novel set during the 1950s. It follows Esther Greenwood as she struggles with mental illness while trying to navigate life after college.
Esther is an aspiring writer who has just graduated from college and moved to New York City to pursue her career as a writer. She becomes increasingly unstable as she tries to find her place in the world. She experiences symptoms of depression and anxiety, including difficulty sleeping, crying spells, and suicidal thoughts. She gets treatment for her symptoms through therapy and medication but continues to struggle with them throughout the novel even as she begins writing again.
The Bell Jar explores how difficult it can be for someone suffering from mental illness to live their daily lives when they're not feeling well themselves — particularly when they don't know how to explain their symptoms or ask for help when they need it most.
- Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
In Girl, Interrupted, Susanna Kaysen tells the story of her time in a psychiatric hospital as a young woman struggling with bipolar disorder. The book was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie.
In this memoir, Kaysen recounts her time at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, where she was committed after attempting suicide. She lived alongside other young women who were struggling with mental illness and addiction.
This book is a must-read for anyone interested in learning more about living with mental illness.
The book offers an insightful look into what it’s like to live with bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses — something that many people don’t know much about outside of movies and television shows.
We could all use this reminder to get out of our heads and stay present in the moment. On the topic of books, reading is a great self-care strategy for reducing stress. Reading can also increase empathy and understanding for those who suffer with mental health issues. By reading about others' experiences, we can gain more insight into their lives—and into our own.
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