When you’re struggling with your mental health, it’s easy to feel like you are going to be stuck in the depths of it forever. And while we won’t tell you that improving your mental health is easy, we can say from experience that reading helps.
Whether you’ve never been much of a reader before or you just struggle to pick up your favorite book while in a slump, we’ve compiled a list of mental health health benefits you get from reading to encourage you to do so!
It Opens Up Your Imagination
Unlike TV and movies that give you a visual to follow along with the story, reading gives you an opportunity to create the stories in your head. Whether you’re reading a fantasy novel where you have to picture what the dragons look like when they fly, a memoir where you’re imagining what the author’s childhood home looked like, or a graphic novel where you think about how the characters move between scenes, you’re using your imagination.
This practice in visualization - even when done subconsciously - forms a healthy sense of escapism from the depressive or anxious thoughts we find ourselves bonding with. Healthy escapism is important so you can avoid a self-fulfilling prophecy with the dark side of your mental health.
Reading Moves You Away from Social Media and Screens
There’s no short of studies showing that spending time away from social media and screens in general is good for your mental health.
What can be difficult with that, though, is that people often reach for the remote when they want to avoid their mental health issues or they struggle to say, “Okay, put the phone down” - understandably!
It’s hard to tell yourself not to do something if you don’t have something else engaging to replace it. Putting your phone down just to….look at the ceiling? That is way harder when your mental health isn’t in a good place.
But if you’re putting your screen and social media away and immediately replacing that habit with something healthier, like reading, it’s not nearly as difficult for your brain to keep up. And having a book in your hand is only going to continue to benefit your mental health!
You Start to Understand Yourself More
Every character in a book is going to have their own personality, and when you’re reading from their perspective, you inevitably compare yourself to them. It’s only natural!
You may find that a character has a trait you don’t like, or they work through a flaw they’ve struggled with and it’s something similar to your own story or they build a connection to another character that you never thought of before.
The more books you read, the more characters you come across. These are all opportunities to discover something about yourself. It may be a realization of a flaw you want to work on improving, a trait that deserves more credit than you’ve previously given yourself or a skill you have that is actually pretty kick ass!
Struggling with your mental health can often turn into seeing yourself through very dark clouds, rather than for who you truly are. When you find dots that connect your true self to the characters you read about, it starts to clear those clouds and paint a truer picture of who you are. Those clear pictures ensure that the darker parts of your mental health have less to land on and feel like reality.
Reading Literally Changes Neural Pathways In Your Brain
There are numerous psychological studies using functional MRI to measure brain changes from all sorts of things, and reading is definitely one of them.
First and foremost, our brains don’t immediately understand how to read from the start of our lives. Hence, why we have to learn the alphabet and how to pronounce letters and sounds together in elementary school! The process of learning to read is done by repurposing parts of the brain that are used for other things, like speech and visual processing.
This skill doesn’t stick forever unless it’s utilized. It’s why our owner, Sierra Mafield, found that when she picked up reading for fun again after her years at Ohio State University, it took her longer to get through a page than it used to when she was in high school.
These shifts in your brain push it to grow outside of the systems it is used to in the depths of mental health issues. It’s like when you exercise for the first time: at first, your muscles are sore but then they get used to getting their limits pushed! And what felt hard at first eventually becomes a lot easier.
Reading will help you manage your mental health struggles because your brain is getting new skills. It trades in drowning in negative thoughts for growth to do new things, which only benefit us in the long run.
It Can Improve Sleep
You know how people talk about reading before bed all the time? That’s because it’s only beneficial!
Research shows that being on your phone (or in front of any screen) before bed increases your risk of poor sleep, so choosing to read before bed helps your eyes and brain get ready for a good night’s rest!
Not to mention that reading helps you manage stress for all the other reasons listed above, and when your stress is decreasing, it’s easier to fall and stay asleep. You’ll likely suffer less from waking up in the middle of the night, stressful dreams and tossing and turning.
And then, once you get better sleep, you get even better at managing stress which then improves your mental health even more! Everyone knows that a well-rested brain is more capable of managing any situation because it’s not using up important energy on trying to stay awake.
Reading Gives You Another Route to Connect With Others
Oftentimes, mental health issues can make you feel like you can’t connect with others around you. Or maybe you isolate yourself more out of fear of being a burden to others. There are lots of reasons why people struggling with their mental health feel alone.
It’s also common knowledge that being with loved ones helps our mental health, but sometimes reconciling that fact with how we feel seems impossible.
Reading, though, is a very easy, natural way to connect with others. There are literally millions of books out there and inevitably other people that have read them! You can bond over books you love, books that change the way you think, or maybe even books you couldn’t stand.
And there’s so many ways to find connections - maybe you start with messaging someone on Instagram that is reading a book you really like and see how you connect. Then you could find a book club at your local library, where maybe you can be more quiet at first until you feel more comfortable speaking up. Who knows, maybe eventually you will feel brave enough to talk to the person at your favorite coffee shop reading a book you have interest in!
In our experience, you should never underestimate how excited readers are to chat with other readers. It’s a fantastic way to feel like your social network is genuinely growing, which will only improve how you feel over time!
Which Book Are You Going to Pick Up to Improve Your Mental Health?
Now that you know how much reading can positively change your mental health, which book are you going to pick up? We would love to hear in the comments - you never know, maybe someone else in the comments loves the one you choose! And you can bond from there. :)
If you don't already have a book at your disposal, check out our listings here.