8 Memoirs And Other Reads For Understanding Your Mental Health Challenges

If you struggle with any type of mental health challenge - whether it be a diagnosis, impacts of trauma from earlier in your life, or managing mental health symptoms - it may be an experience of confusion and isolation. There’s famously a lot of stigma around mental health struggles, and because of this, we’re not necessarily exposed to others with similar challenges, at least knowingly.

It’s incredibly important, when confronted with a mental health challenge, to learn about it and research steps and strategies to take to manage it or recover. However, most of our research sources tend to be academic or scientific, written by doctors and mental health professionals, and not necessarily meant for us to even understand. This type of learning can be very helpful, but it doesn’t necessarily help us conceptualize or explain elements of our experiences, or make us feel seen and held. Reading a list of symptoms and tips and tricks for managing a condition can often make us feel even more isolated and alienated from other people than we already do.

There’s no more powerful way to develop understanding and belonging than hearing stories of shared experiences. Exploring stories is an alternative type of research that can be incredibly formative in how you move forward in managing and/or treating your mental health. Below is a list of memoirs and other types of narrative reads that share intimate stories of experiencing, managing, and overcoming mental health challenges. Give them a read to find camaraderie in your experience, and learn new strategies and insights about your condition or the aspects of life you struggle with that are impacted by your mental health.

  1. What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing From Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo

  2. The Flower That Went Mad: Bipolar Poetry by Yogesh Chandra

  3. I’m Glad My Mother Died by Jeanette McCurdy

  4. An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir Of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison

  5. When Your Daughter Has BPD: Essential Skills To Help Families Manage Borderline Personality Disorder by Daniel S Lobed, PhD

  6. I Hate You - Don’t Leave Me (Third Edition): Understanding the Borderline Personality by Hal Straus and and Jerold J. Krausman

  7. Run Towards The Danger: A Confrontation With A Body Of Memory by Sarah Polley

  8. Post-Traumatic: A Novel by Chantal Johnson


If you are struggling with your mental health, please consider reaching out to a licensed therapist or mental health professional. You are not alone - and you do not need to go through this alone!


What other stories and narratives have helped you better understand your mental health challenges, and/or made you feel less alone? Share with us in the comments!

Sarah Nemetz