5 Mental Health Must Reads

One of the most impactful ways to improve your mental health is through reading. Reading allows us to challenge ourselves, our viewpoints, our knowledge and understanding, and our daily practices.

These 5 books have been instrumental in helping me process and interact with my own trauma, patterns, depression, and personality. This list is by no means exhaustive. But it’s a good starting point.

1. Maybe You Should Talk To Someone by Lori Gottlieb: this narrative of a therapist, her therapist, and her clients is the epitome of human interconnection. Gottlieb weaves together the lives of those she treats, as well as the ones treating her, into a beautiful tapestry of hope and healing. She’s down to earth and vulnerable and spot on about the value of therapy. You’ll laugh and cry and, best of all, learn.

2. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk: this is the Bible on trauma. It’s a comprehensive work containing the research, wisdom, and experiences of van der Kolk’s lifelong work in trauma. It’s not simply theoretical: his decades of interaction and investigation with people suffering from trauma is research lived out. His book is a wealth of scientific knowledge, human stories, and practical methods.

3. Daring Greatly by Brene Brown: this is the ultimate version of Brown’s infamous TED Talk on vulnerability. At the core of every human is the longing to be seen and understood. But we build walls of defense and artifice to protect ourselves from shame and rejection. Daring Greatly unlocks the mystery of how (and why) to be vulnerable with others, gifting us the capacity for greater joy, more meaningful relationships, and truly authentic living.

4. How To Do The Work by Nicole LePera: this is the manual, the blueprint, the nuts-and-bolts instructional on unearthing the demons of our pasts and repatterning the behaviors that no longer serve us. This is a practical, deep dive into why we do the things we do and how we can change. Note: If you’re planning to get this one as an audiobook, the original version of this on Audible is very monotonous and robotic. The author is currently re-recording the manuscript with a different narrator. I’d wait for the new version.

5. Quit Like A Woman by Holly Whitaker: this is the countercultural guide to living sober. This book pushes the envelope on everything we thought we ever knew about alcohol. Whitaker is wildly comfortable with making people uncomfortable about drinking. There are take-it-or-leave-it moments in this autobiography on sobriety, but it creates space for self-examination about the underlying reasons people drink and the consequences of having alcohol in our lives. There is a lot of support given in navigating a healthier way of being in the world, and there is a lot that is not one-size-fits-all.

Like life, our mental health is a journey, not a destination. These books, along with many others, can be teachers and guides along the path. They are not innately healers, but they are healing. They are catalysts for self-examination, reflection, inner knowing, and recovery. One step at a time, one moment at a time, one lesson at a time.