It is an agreed-upon fact that mental health is of prime importance and it is undoubtedly essential to take care of it. If you are going through depression, it is important to remember that you are not alone, and there are a lot of people who are suffering too and are trying to get better and you should too. Depression is one disorder that can seem new and different every day and really drains you, mentally and physically, so much so that you cannot muster the strength to seek help or even help yourself. One of the best ways to put yourself out there and the initial steps to overcoming depression is to try to better your schedule and incorporate things that would make you feel better and more in control of your life. One of the best ways to do that is by reading books.
The real stresses of the world disappear when you read books and that really helps in your battle against depression. The familiar sense of comfort that you recognize in books is called bibliotherapy. We have curated a list of the best books that would help fight off depression. These are the most preferred and have helped a lot of people. The list is certainly not exhaustive but we are definite that we have included the best.
1. Books That Help Overcome Depression: Against Depression by Peter Kramer
In this book, Peter Kramer has tried to alter the manner in which antidepressants are used and the culture and perception people hold of them. He provides a more open and unflinching opinion at the reason behind the consumption of the medication- depression. He debunks the common perception of it standing for “heroic melancholy” and familiarizes the readers with the new groundbreaking research that confirms depression to be a devastating disease and advises a path of resilience. Not only does it unveil the truths of depression but also gives hope for everyone’s betterment.
2. Books That Help Overcome Depression: Change Your Brain, Change Your Life by Daniel.G.Amen
This bestseller walks you around the specific structures of your brain and the relation that it holds with your anxiety, depression, anger, obsessiveness, or impulsiveness. He says that no one is stuck with the brain they were born with and further provides a prescription to help heal your brain and change your life-
- With breathing techniques, you can calm your inner turmoil and better your anxiety.
- If you avoid ANTs(automatic negative thoughts), you will successfully fight depression.
3. Books That Help Overcome Depression: The Cognitive Behavioural Workbook for Depression: A Step by Step Program by Willian. J. Knaus
This book is the resource you need to lessen or overcome your depression and be the help you need. It is the complete and easily comprehensible step-to-step guide that would make you your own therapist and manage and do away with your depression. It will help you create a plan specifically for you that would help you assess your depression and understand the best possible manner to challenge it and overcome negativity. This is the positive change you need to make yourself feel better.
4. Books That Help Overcome Depression: Control Your Depression by Peter Lewinsohn
This book has helped thousands of people regain control of their life and can help you without having to worry about professional help. It provides you with an explicit understanding of the nature of your depression and helps pinpoint the specific areas of your depression and then helps in the creation of a personalized therapeutic program. It covers your progress, maintains your advancements, and sees whether you require further help.
5. Books That Help Overcome Depression: Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David D Burns, M.D.
In this book, the eminent psychiatrist has spoken about the scientific advancements and the exemplary and scientifically proven techniques which would help uplift your spirits and help in the creation of a more positive outlook towards life. He says that all the “black holes” like anxiety, depression, procrastination, and pessimism can all be cured without drugs and medications and highlights what you can do to help yourself.
6. Books That Help Overcome Depression: Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson
This book has a lot of essays that are both hysterically funny and poignant. The author is known to suffer from a variety of things clinical depression, anxiety disorder, impulse control disorder, avoidant personality disorder, insomnia, and rheumatoid arthritis, just to name a few. Owing to these, she is chronically depressed and goes through serious lows like days when she cannot get out of bed and has suicidal thoughts. One particularly bad day motivated her to counter depression and be furiously happy.
7. Books That Help Overcome Depression: Hardcore Self Help: F**k Depression by Robert Duff
This is the self-help book for you if you are not particularly fond of the idea of self-help books. In this book, you are spoken to like a friend and that means that you are directly spoken down and the psychobabble is cut down. You are explained why your brain behaves in the manner that it does and the reason behind no energy or motivation and why you are particularly bad at offering help. You are told the best possible and realistic ways towards solving these and other problems caused by depression.
8. Books That Help Overcome Depression: How To Be Happy (Or At Least Less Sad) by Lee Crutchley
This is the more lively and interactive approach to the issue that is often not talked about but is very common- both depression and anxiety. This is a series of engaging prompts which is full of support and surprises and helps you witness things in a new light and rediscover the smaller and simpler pleasures in life and for each day to help you be happy or less sad. The pages of these books would lend a helping hand and be a friend or a confidant or a security blanket and offer peace, distraction, a newer perspective, and hopeful new beginnings.
9. Books That Help Overcome Depression: The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon
Not only does this book contribute to a different understanding of depression but unveils the stunning condition of humans. It examines depression in all faces- cultural, scientific, and personal. The author provides the complexities and pain of depression as he drew from his own experience, interviews with fellow sufferers, doctors and scientists, policymakers and politicians, drug designers and philosophers. He has also exposed moral and ethical questions posed for mental illness.
10. Books That Help Overcome Depression: The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman
This book will compel you to reconsider your attitude toward failure, death, and uncertainty and is a witty and counterintuitive read and so engaging. It brings to you a plethora of journeys of people who have a single and surprising manner in which they perceive life. The commonality between all of those is the underlying psychology of elimination of negatives that causes you to feel anxiety, insecurity, or unhappiness. The path to choose is embracing the things you spend your life avoiding.