16 Best Mental Health Books to Read This Year

Understanding the connection between mental health and physical well-being is essential for a balanced life. Mental health books deliver a wealth of knowledge, whether you’re battling anxiety, dealing with trauma, or exploring the impact of a narcissistic parent. While they can’t replace professional help, mental health books provide valuable insights, scientific research, and guidance to enhance well-being.

The Best Books for Understanding Your Mental Health

Whether you’re looking to help someone with a mental illness or deepen your mind-body connection, these books about mental health are powerful tools for starting a journey of self-discovery and personal growth.

Here are 16 of the best mental health books to read this year:

1. You Are Not Alone: The NAMI Guide on Navigating Mental Health

Written by psychiatrist Dr. Ken Duckworth, You Are Not Alone offers researched-based evidence on treatments and approaches to several mental health conditions. For example, learn practical guidance for what to do about a suicidal teenager, how to navigate the legal system, or how to deal with the shame you feel.

This book also includes 125 first-person stories about mental health by real people who have dealt with mental illness or supported a family member’s mental health disorder.

2. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

Even therapists need to talk to someone sometimes.

Psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb shares her experience as a therapist, helping clients through the emotions associated with terminal illness, suicidal thoughts, and having a lack of meaningful relationships. When she experiences her own unexpected breakup, she finds herself in need of a therapist, too, proving that we’re all human and need help sometimes.

3. Nobody’s Normal

In Nobody’s Normal, How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness, anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker explores the cultural aspects of mental illness stigma throughout the years. He uses personal anecdotes and extensive research to make the point that stigma is a social construct that can be dismantled.

The Best Mental Health Books for Shaping Your Thinking

Improving mental health often begins with reshaping our thoughts and perspectives. By actively challenging negative beliefs, cultivating self-compassion, and adopting a positive growth mindset, we can transform our thinking patterns and enhance our well-being.

4. Unf#ck Your Brain

Prefer to read books that sound like a conversation with your best friend rather than a college psychology lecture? Dr. Harper explains what’s happening inside your brain and how to use the science to get over depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues while sprinkling in enough swear words to keep you entertained.

5. Mind Over Mood

Have you heard of “The Secret” or the Law of Attraction, a universal principle that states you will attract whatever you put your energy and focus on? In Mind Over Mood, authors Dennis Greenberger and Christine Padesky guide readers through cognitive-behavioral therapy exercises to change their thoughts to overcome depression, anxiety, anger, panic attacks, and more.

You can test the theory for yourself and find out if you can change your feelings by changing your thoughts. If you’re a hands-on person, you’ll appreciate the included worksheets, goal-setting, rating scales, and progress tracking.

6. Mindset: The New Pasychology of Success

Pulling from decades of research, Carol S. Dweck offers insights into the power of our mindset and how our beliefs shape our achievements. Developing a growth mindset can unlock your potential in all areas of your life, from parenting to business, school, and relationships.

The Best Mental Health Books for Becoming Unstuck

Improving mental health often involves recognizing patterns, especially unhelpful habits, so that you can make positive behavioral changes. The following books will help you learn how to become “unstuck” by creating new routines and journeying down a path toward healthier behaviors that enable personal growth.

7. Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself

You may think you’re stuck with who you are due to your genes or predetermined wiring, but in Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, Dr. Joe Dispenza shows you how to break out of the habit of being yourself and be whoever you want.

Combining quantum physics, neuroscience, and other fields reveals an exciting new science that empowers you to create your own reality and bring change to any area of your life.

The Best Books About Mental Health & Feeling Alone

Finding others with similar mental health challenges can be a powerful and transformative experience. Explore the following books to learn the importance of forming relationships and feeling connected to others who understand your journey and remind you that you’re not alone in your struggles.

8. Loneliness: Human Nature & the Need for Social Connection

Neuroscientist John T. Cacioppo explores the interdependence of human beings and shows how loneliness disrupts our cognitive abilities, immune systems, and willpower – making it as harmful to our health as obesity or smoking.

Cacioppo traces the evolutionary origins of our need for social bonds and highlights the healing potential of social connection in overcoming loneliness and finding greater happiness.

9. The Loneliness Cure: Six Strategies for Finding Real Connections in Your Life

With all social media networks and technology, we’re more connected than ever, right? Not so much. Communication expert Kory Floyd addresses the feelings of disconnection and loneliness many of us feel, despite living in an always-connected, technology-driven world.

Through practical strategies and exercises, you’ll learn how to build meaningful connections, improve relationships, and cure loneliness to lead a happier and more affectionate life.

10. Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World

Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy says we are living in an epidemic of loneliness, and it’s impacting health and society. Throughout this book, Murthy offers remedies for this hidden crisis, including practical strategies to establish a human connection and community while sharing personal experiences and universal insights to help people understand and overcome loneliness.

The Best Mental Health Books for Navigating Emotions

Our emotions strongly influence our everyday experiences. They impact the decisions we make and the activities we engage in. Learning to embrace our emotions, whether happiness, sadness, anger, frustration, or boredom, can help us understand why we feel the way we feel and develop healthy coping mechanisms.

11. The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You

In The Language of Emotions, you’ll learn how to acknowledge the power of emotion to navigate them better. Counselor Karla McLaren shares exercises that develop skills and insights for dealing with the full spectrum of our emotions – from jealousy to joy, grief, fear, and anger – in healthier ways.

As a result of participating in the exercises in this book, you’ll also learn how to better deal with others’ emotions so they don’t negatively affect you.

12. Highly Sensitive Person

Some people are overwhelmed by noise and stimuli, earning themselves the label of a “highly sensitive person” (HSP). Written by a highly sensitive person, Dr. Aron offers self-assessment tests for anyone wanting to know if they are an HSP, and what to do about it to manage overstimulation.

13. The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook

If you prefer hands-on exercises and practical strategies to apply new skills and mindfulness, The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook should be your go-to resource. The workbook features step-by-step dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) exercises that start at an introductory level to help you learn to manage your emotions better and gradually progress to more advanced skills.

You’ll come away with practical tools to navigate challenging emotions and improve your relationships and overall emotional well-being.

The Best Books About Mental Health & Overcoming Trauma

Understanding and working through past trauma can transform all aspects of your mental health. The following mental health books provide strategies and guidance to help heal emotional wounds, process trauma, and cultivate healthy relationships.

14. The Body Keeps The Score

Drawing on decades of research and clinical expertise, author Bessel van der Kolk examines how trauma affects memory, emotions, and physical health. Consider The Body Keeps The Score the roadmap for healing and overcoming trauma, with several therapeutic techniques to help you recover and reclaim your life.

15. The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

The Courage to Heal should top the reading list of every woman who experienced sexual abuse as a child and to those who care about her. The authors combine personal experiences, stories from diverse survivors, and their professional knowledge to offer support throughout the healing journey. Readers can try the book’s various healing tools, including meditation, imagery, and body-centered practices.

16. Waking The Tiger

Comparing human resiliency to that of wild animals in nature, Waking the Tiger offers a unique perspective on trauma and hopeful visions for healing. Readers journey through exercises focusing on bodily sensations and increased awareness to help facilitate trauma healing.

Continuing Your Mental Health Journey Through Therapy

While books about mental health can be valuable resources that expand your knowledge and help you take steps to improve your health, it’s important to note that they should not replace professional help. If you or a loved one is seeking a deeper understanding of mental health, need help processing trauma, or overcoming depression, it’s highly recommended to consider therapy.

You can use an online therapist directory to find qualified therapists specializing in the mental health areas you most want to focus on, while online therapy platforms provide convenient and accessible options for connecting with licensed therapists.