Looking after your mental health: books to help you through
Lily Hollins on the best books for feeling better, from novels to self-help
The Self-Help Book: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Dummies Rhena Branch and Rob Willson, Wiley & Sons (£11.99)
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy has become a hugely popular technique for tackling all kinds of mental health problems, but with huge waiting lists at the University Counselling Service and on the NHS for CBT, this self-help guide is perfect for those who want to start working on their mental health straight away. Written by some of the top experts, it provides the reader with simple explanations of different thinking errors and ways in which we may be damaging our mental health. Alongside this, the book offers practical exercises and pen-and-paper tasks which will have a long-term impact on the way you think.
The Pocket Guide: The Little Book of Mindfulness, Dr. Patrizia Collard, Gaia (£5.33)
The idea behind mindfulness is that our mental health will benefit when we become more aware of our surroundings rather than being so focused on the anxiety in our heads. This handy pocket-sized book gives you tasks to do each day to help you cultivate a more mindful approach to life. It is perfect for the busy student, since most of the tasks can be incorporated into your everyday life.
The Novel: Perfect, Rachel Joyce, Black Swan (£5.59)
Fictional stories can provide an amazing insight into what it’s like to live with a mental illness, and this novel by Rachel Joyce is a perceptive depiction of the life of a man, Jim, who has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This book manages to be both tragic and humorous at once, encapsulating the difficulties of living with such an illness within what is ultimately an uplifting tale.
The Memoir: Black Rainbow, Rachel Kelly, Yellow Kite (£8.99)
In this first-person memoir, Rachel Kelly tells of her struggle with depression and how she used literature to work her way out of it. During one of her worst bouts of depression, Kelly turned to poetry, reciting it as a mantra and using its words to uplift her, and she includes some of the most powerful poems in this book. This is an incredibly poignant book in terms of breaking the stigma of talking about personal experiences of mental health, but it is also an important reminder to reach out for the things you always used to love doing when you are feeling depressed.
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