12 Best books on overcoming depression:

What is bibliotherapy?

One of the best ways to overcome depression and work on your emotional health is to read good books about depression. Books offer advice, comfort, solace, and information that can be crucial to recovery. This article provides a list of some of the best books about depression. Reading self-help books about depression as part of your therapy is called “bibliotherapy,” which is therapy that comes from books. Bibliotherapy is a cognitive behavioral therapy technique, and a commonly recognized way to treat depression. It works best for a certain type of person, someone who learns well from books (or audiobooks).

There are a large number of books about depression, but not all of them are therapeutic to read. In other words they don’t all actually make you feel better.

Contents of this article on books about depression:

For example, the book, The Noonday Demon, by Andrew Solomon is an excellent book about what it is like to be depressed. Andrew Solomon’s book has won well-deserved prizes. It is very well-written and interesting. He has struggled with depression, and his real life story of the experience of severe depression and what it is like to be mentally ill is at times very inspirational. It is a great book about the experience of depression. However, in my opinion it is not a therapeutic book for people who themselves are currently immersed in the challenges of mental illness.

In fact I believe it can be the opposite for a large number of people. Although some might find comfort in knowing that they are not alone in the often crushing despair of depression, some others might find that having it described in painstaking detail only reminds them of their suffering and keeps them “stuck”. I would highly recommend Andrew Solomon’s “The Noonday Demon” to friends and family of someone who is depressed! It is great for understanding what a depressed person experiences, but not one of the best books about depression for therapeutic purposes. (continued…)

How to do Bibliotherapy:

You can work your way through a self-help book any way you like. However, there are some ways to read books about depression that are more likely to be helpful. If the self help book is not a workbook, I recommend getting a journal and writing down thoughts and ideas that occur to you after each reading session. Specifically, what did you learn? How do you think it could apply to your life? If you are seeing a counsellor, you can take these notes to your therapy session to discuss them in more detail.

Sometimes, it is a good idea to read books about depression through once quickly without stopping and then a second time more slowly, taking time to make notes, jot down ideas, and to reflect on how the material affects you. By reading books on depression twice, you can be sure you fully grasp the messages in the book.

Even if you really disagree with or hate something that you read, that is good information. Why? Well, first, it can give you (and your counsellor) an idea of what does NOT work for you. However, also, sometimes when something makes us feel very strongly, that is a sign that we are resistent to a new idea because we find it threatening in some way.

Try to be open to the idea that when a new idea upsets you, it might be because it is actually true for you, but you are not quite ready to face up to it yet. That is why writing down your response to books about depression can be helpful. It is also important to be true to yourself and if an idea really feels wrong, to feel free to reject it. I am suggesting that, before you reject it, you consider the possibility that it is an uncomfortable truth. However, obviously, that is not always the case. Not all therapeutical depression books have the same types of ideas about depression or how to treat it, so please be persistent and find what works for you.

How to deal with adult depression.

How to deal with teenage and young adult depression

Another type of bibliotherapy

The next section lists the best books about depression. However, there is another type of bibliotherapy, which is fiction books that help with depression because they have a cheering effect on the mind. Although they do not address depression directly, such books have a positive and often humorous outlook on life without completely glossing over life’s problems. After the following section about books about depression, there is a section listing fiction for people who are depressed. These books will not magically cheer someone up, but they can provide a welcome distraction, demonstrate a different outlook, and therefore be part of a person’s recovery process. They are great books for people who are not depressed too.

The 12 best books about depression:

Those are some very good books about depression. They can be helpful with a wide variety of depression-related problems including eating disorders, etc., but the focus is on depression, even severe depression. If you know of other excellent books, please write about them in the comments section below. There are, of course, many other books about depression, but I wanted to boil this list down to the very best books that would be most helpful to someone who is suffering from this illness.

Books about depression: Workbooks

This section contains a list of depression workbooks. Depression workbooks can be an excellent way to break through depression in small, manageable steps.

The Cognitive Behavioral Workbook for Depression: A Step-by-Step Program by William J. Knaus & Albert Ellis. This depression workbook includes a bonus of twenty five tips from depression experts to help you on the road to recovery. This highly recommended depression workbook will allow you to return from the darkness of depression, one carefully crafted step at a time.

The Mindful Way Workbook: An 8-Week Program to Free Yourself from Depression and Emotional Distress by John Teasdale, Mark Williams, and Zindel Segel. This 8-week program of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) can help you overcome depression, anxiety, and stress. You will learn new ways to respond to your thoughts and feelings. MBCT has been scientifically proven to be effective in clinical trials all over the world. By working through this carefully constructed depression workbook, you can now reap the benefits of MBCT any time, any place. This book on overcoming depression guides you step by step along the path of change.



Bibliotherapy: fiction for people who are depressed

As I mentioned earlier, another type of bibliotherapy is fiction that is light and enjoyable without glossing over life’s troubles. These books are the type of feel good reads that are likely to get your thoughts spinning in a positive direction without being superficial.

Conclusion

There are really three types of bibliotherapy or books to help with depression. The first is what I suggest in this article, which is to read self-help books that are books about depression and how to overcome it. This can be a very productive way to help yourself emerge from a depression. Many of these excellent books about depression are available in audiobook format as well, so if you don’t feel up to reading, that is an option.

The second type of books to help with depression are books, whether fiction or non-fiction, about people who have gone through depression themselves. Some people find this to be extremely therapeutic while others find it even more depressing. To my way of thinking, this is good for the family and friends of those who are depressed because it helps them to understand what the experience of depression is like.

Lastly, some books help with depression because these books offer a cheering effect on the mind even though they might not address depression directly. One such series is The Number One Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall-Smith. I recommend it highly to anyone, whether you are depressed or not. There is something uplifting about this series. Reading books such as the ones in this series, books that lift your mood, is another form of bibliotherapy, and I will be writing an article about books such as these that help lift your mood in the near future.

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