When you think of “mental health” books, do you think of nonfiction and self-help? I’ve sought and received plenty of guidance from nonfiction books, but I also happen to think any book that can make you think about yourself, your perspective, your environment, or your loved ones in a healing way is beneficial for your mental health. This includes all forms of fiction.

That being said many of the fiction choices will be highly personal – a story and characters that speak specifically to you. So here are a few of my more non-fiction selections that have helped over the years.

HOW TO KEEP HOUSE WHILE DROWNING by KC Davis

I started watching KC Davis’ TikToks and “you deserve a house that functions for you” messages really hit home. Her videos helped me start looking at tasks around the house as “morally neutral” and gave me ideas to think outside the box on how to organize our house that functions for us, not just how we’re “supposed” to do things. Her book is an extension of that, and written with a neurodivergent reader in mind.

THE WOUNDED HEART by Dr. Dan B. Allender

This was an extremely difficult but life-altering book and workbook to go through. For those who have experienced childhood sexual abuse, it may be eye-opening. While I haven’t read it in literally two decades now, there are parts of it that still stick with me. It has a Christian perspective, so it may not be for everyone, but it got me thinking about my healing in a very different direction way back when – it helped me get un-stuck.

CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE WRITER’S SOUL

This is really less about the book itself, and more about finding essays or stories that help you find a community that makes you feel less alone or less strange. And for me this book by a bunch of “regular” working writers helped me for the last many years when many people don’t understand the professional life of a writer. Many of them in a funny way. lol

THE ARTIST’S WAY by Julie Cameron

This book and workbook are almost a course in diving deep into your art – whatever that may be. Not to become a professional, but because art helps us express ourselves. And there are few stronger ways to deal with mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health than expressing yourself with the arts. This book helped me develop some artistic habits (that I adapted of course!) I continue to this day. But more importantly helped me look at the point of it all differently.