Promoting good mental health is important, and as the boundaries break down on feelings surrounding depression, anxiety and even suicide many more books have appeared on the subject. We all know that reading is great therapy, but you can also tailor your reading by trying out some books to promote good mental health, and you might be surprised as they aren’t all self help manuals.
All of these books are suggested by psychologists as books worth reading if you want to promote good mental health and there are some great suggestions!
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
Siddhartha is about a young man on a quest to know himself and the book provides some real analogies to our modern life making it a great teaching tool.
Boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend
This book is especially recommended for Christians, using bible stories to help people who want to pay more attention to their own self care, and learn sometimes to say ‘no’.
The Feeling Good Handbook by David Burns
The Feeling Good Handbook is the perfect book for anyone suffering from depression, low self-esteem or anxiety and offers cognitive techniques and real ways to cope.
A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer
This book has been around a while and was hugely popular, but it’s also said to be a must read for anyone recovering from childhood trauma or abuse.
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
This memoir, of surviving a Nazi concentration camp is inspiring and full of lessons of our meaning and purposes in life, no matter what challenges we face.
Facing the Fire – John Lee
We all suffer from anger at times and this jargon-free self help guide is perfect for those who struggle with anger.
Electroboy by Andy Berhman
Another memoir, recommended to anyone suffering from or better wanting to understand bi-polar disorder.
We hope you found our list useful, all the books are recommended by experts and psychiatrists from psychcentral.com and as always if you have any other suggestions feel free to make them in the comments.
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The Journeys of Socrates and Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman. This author is amazing at forcing the reader to understand adversity while teaching his unique perspective, on the mindset he needed, to overcome it.
Robert de Board’s ‘Counselling for Toads’…a very clever story inspired by ‘The Wind on the Willows’. It’s always wonderful to look at well known stories from different angles and perspectives.
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I found “The Art of Asking” by Amanda Palmer really spoke to me. Absolutely a must-read 😀