Mental health issues can be incredibly debilitating, but they don’t have to stop you from enjoying life and accomplishing your goals. There are many people who have struggled with their mental health, including the authors of some of the most influential books out there. Books are an extension of a person’s mind and personality. So, it makes sense that those with mental health issues would want to write books. Behind the melancholy, sufferers of depression and anxiety feel a sense of purpose when they put pen to paper or finger to keyboard.
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These books are all written by people who have struggled with their mental health, but have still managed to find success in their lives. They will therefore offer you some great insight into how you can overcome your own mental health issues and achieve your dreams. Here are just a few examples of those writers.
1. “The Noonday Demon” by Andrew Solomon.
Andrew Solomon’s “The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression” is an in-depth look at the disease. Solomon himself suffers from depression, and he uses his experience to talk about how it affected him in childhood and during his adult life. He also talks about how therapy helped him cope with the illness, along with medication, which he believes has been instrumental in keeping him well over the years since he first started taking it at age 23.
Solomon interviews a wide range of experts in each of these areas, and he also draws on his own experiences to provide insights into what it is like to live with this debilitating disease. Solomon’s book is both informative and moving, and it provides valuable insight into a topic that is often misunderstood. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand depression and its impact on those who suffer from it.
2. “An Unquiet Mind” by Kay Redfield Jamison.
“An Unquiet Mind” is a memoir by Kay Redfield Jamison. She is a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, an expert in bipolar disorder and the author of several books on the subject. She has had bipolar disorder since her early 20s and has experienced severe episodes throughout her life.
Jamison writes that she can trace her first symptoms back to childhood: “I was plagued by an awful sense of dread, especially when I was alone,” she explains, “and I felt I could never make up for what I had done wrong.” As a child, she often felt guilty about things that were not her fault—for instance, if someone else was sad or angry around her.
3. “The Center Cannot Hold” by Elyn Saks.
Elyn Saks is a professor of law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. She’s also an award-winning author who has schizophrenia. A well-known advocate for mental health, she uses her platform to raise awareness about mental illness and encourage people with similar disorders to seek treatment.
In her book The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness, Saks details her experiences living with schizophrenia while pursuing a successful career as a professor at USC Law School. In addition to describing what it was like for her growing up with this disorder, she discusses how she used medication and therapy to manage symptoms during college and graduate school before becoming an academic superstar at Yale Law School and later USC Gould—while still struggling with depression and anxiety along the way (partly due to her diagnosis).
4. “Depression and Other Magic Tricks” by Sabrina Benaim.
In this book, she talks about how depression has affected her life and how she’s learned to manage it over time. This is a book of poetry that explores the author’s experience with depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues. The poems are honest and vulnerable, and they offer a unique perspective on mental illness. The book is divided into three sections: “Depression,” “Anxiety,” and “Other Magic Tricks.” Each section contains a collection of poems that explore the author’s experience with each topic.
The poems are often dark and sad, but they are also hopeful and full of love. The author’s voice is clear and powerful, and her words will resonate with anyone who has ever struggled with mental illness.
5. “When I Say No, I Feel Guilty” by Manuel Smith.
“When I Say No, I Feel Guilty” is a memoir written by comedian Manuel Smith. The book discusses his struggle with mental health, including OCD. This book is an excellent read for anyone who has been diagnosed with or knows someone who has been diagnosed with OCD. In addition to being a great source of information and advice on living with and managing the disorder, Smith’s book is also funny and relatable.
We would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a better understanding of OCD and how it can affect someone’s life. So, if you or someone you know is dealing with OCD, be sure to check out “When I Say No, I Feel Guilty”.
6. “The Mindful Way Through Depression” by Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn.
This book is a great place to start. It gives you tools to use mindfulness in your daily life, and it teaches you how to use those tools to deal with depression. The authors teach readers how to focus on the present moment by using breathing as a focal point. They also talk about accepting your feelings and thoughts, and not judging them as good or bad; instead, they recommend that we accept our thoughts as they are and let them pass through us without attaching ourselves to them in any way.
The book emphasizes that mindfulness isn’t something that we do once or twice a day; it’s something we practice throughout our lives so that it becomes part of who we are and helps us cope with life’s challenges more effectively
7. “The Happiness Trap” by Russ Harris.
Russ Harris is a psychotherapist and author of The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living. He’s also the founder and director of the clinic, ACT Australia, which specializes in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). His book offers strategies for getting out of the “happiness trap”—the cycle of running after happiness that keeps us from experiencing it fully.
Harris argues that we’re all conditioned to believe that there are certain experiences that will make us happy. We think these things will solve our problems: Getting married will make me happy; buying this new car will make me happy; achieving fame or wealth will make me happy. But these thoughts lead to suffering when they don’t pan out as expected—and because we’re afraid of feeling unhappy without those things, we resist letting go of them before their time has come.
Harris explains how our minds create stories about ourselves, others, and situations—and how these stories prevent us from seeing reality clearly or responding appropriately in difficult situations like divorce or illness. In order to move forward toward true happiness (which doesn’t rely on external circumstances), he proposes changing your thinking patterns so you can accept your emotions when they arise instead of trying desperately not to feel them at all times
8. “DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets” by Marsha M. Linehan.
If you’re new to DBT or want a refresher course, look no further than Marsha Linehan’s DBT skills training handouts and worksheets. These handouts are great for people who are learning DBT skills, people who are practicing them in therapy sessions, or even those who just want to see what the fuss is about.
There are handouts for a variety of topics, including mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. Each handout includes space for you to journal about your experience with the skill, and there are also instructions for how to practice the skill on your own. If you’re looking for a comprehensive resource on DBT skills, this is the book for you.
There are many people struggling with mental health who have been able to accomplish a lot and enjoy life. Mental health issues can affect just about anyone at any time, but it’s important to know that there are also many successful people who have struggled with mental health issues and still gone on to achieve great things. Some of the most famous authors, actors, musicians and other public figures have written memoirs detailing their struggles with depression or bipolar disorder.
Conclusion
We hope this list has provided inspiration and insight into how to keep moving forward even when times get tough. There are many books written by successful people who have mental health issues. These books can be a great resource for people who are struggling with mental health issues. They can provide insight and inspiration, and they can help people to understand that they are not alone.
Now that you know about these books, which one do you think will be your next read? If you know of any other books written by successful people who have mental health issues, please share them in the comments below.
Also see: Books About How Mass Incarceration Affects Mental Health
