10 Books for Teens and Young Adults to Support Mental Health
Did you know that reading books can improve your mental health? Not only can reading provide entertainment and an escape from daily stressors, but it can also have therapeutic effects. According to this article from Psychology Today, reading can help individuals develop resilience and subdue the effects of multiple mental health struggles, including depressive disorders. As numerous psychological studies have shown, reading fiction amplifies our ability to empathize and can prepare individuals for difficult experiences by exposing them to a simulated version of that experience. Similarly, reading memoirs about other people’s experiences with mental illness and their road to recovery can assist one’s own journey toward mental health.
As essayist Thomas Macaulay wrote in 1835, “Literature has saved my life and my reason. Even now, I dare not, in the intervals of business, remain alone for a minute without a book in my hand.”
Nonfiction
Life Inside My Mind by Jessica Burkhart
Brave Face by Shaun David Hutchinson
Don’t Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health edited by Kelly Jensen
Hope Nation: YA Authors Share Personal Moments of Inspiration edited by Rose Brock
Fiction
Who Put This Song On by Morgan Parker
American Road Trip by Patrick Flores-Scott
Home Home by Lisa Allen-Agostini