Bookstrapping: Reading and its positive effects on mental health
In this week's Bookstrapping, our reviewer Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta sums up that reading offers an avenue for emotional expression, self-reflection, and empathy. Not just that, it also provides an escape, a way to experience other worlds, and a means of finding solace in difficult times.
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Reading books is the most underrated pathway to mental health.
NHS UK actually had a program called The Reading Well, where health practitioners used books and bibliotherapy to support the mental health of folks facing various challenges, including anxiety, depression, and grief.
This subject is moot because we are in May, which is designated as Mental Health Awareness Month. And whether reading alone or with others, when people find connection and meaning between the pages, they give their mental health a boost along the way.
The intimate connection between reading books and mental health can be explained in the following simple ways.
- Reading engages a number of regions in the brain; it is like an aerobic exercise for the brain and sharpens our neural pathways.
- Reading and discussing books in a group helps people find a starting point to talk about difficult or sensitive issues. At a time when young people are spending all their time on screens that accept or reject them without giving any reason, books and conversations generate connection, creativity and dialogue.
- Reading involves a highway system that connects the back of the brain’s reading network to the front. This highway system is an excellent basis to build new skills. Therefore, by keeping the brain active, reading fosters lifelong brain health.
Here are a few excellent books about mental health itself.
1. It's OK That You're Not OK by Megan Devine
2. Time Is a Mother, a book of poems by Ocean Vuong
3. Together : loneliness, health and what happens when we find connection by Vivek H. Murthy, MD
4. The courage to be disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
5. Lighter by Yung Pueblo
The above indicative list barely scratches the surface; because whatever you’re dealing with, there’s a book out there for you that can help you navigate your situation better. One must also take note of Jerry Rao’s book on living with a person who has a mental illness. Titled 'A Book of Light', it throws light on the life of caregivers as they face despair, grief, burden, and sometimes, frustration. A compilation of 13 true stories about caregivers for people living with mental illness - bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia, alcoholism, autism, and other mental and developmental disorders- this book can be a friend on a tough day!
Summing up, reading offers an avenue for emotional expression, self-reflection, and empathy. Reading for pleasure in childhood is proven to even keep us away from prison!
It provides an escape, a way to experience other worlds, and a means of finding solace in difficult times.
Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ Asia's first reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.
