Calm Collective Picks: Mental Health Memoirs and Non-Fiction Reads

“Have you read An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison? Maybe it’ll make you feel less alone,” my psychiatrist suggested to me during a session. Reading has always been a source of comfort for me; the (perhaps clichéd) notion that it is a form of escapism holds true. As such, I used to gravitate towards fiction, until I learned about the value of memoirs and non-fiction works, especially those about mental health.

The beauty of memoirs lies in seeing your own experiences mirrored in a text, or being able to gain insight to and learn about another’s. Non-fiction, on the other hand, teaches, elucidates, and elicits that “aha” moment. It was incredible seeing my thoughts and feelings articulated so beautifully in a book, and I felt more well-informed after learning about why we sometimes think the way we do. I felt represented to be part of a wider community that I’d previously not known about, and it was almost a relief that I was finally heard, that I wasn’t the only one to face such difficulties. Reading An Unquiet Mind had indeed made me feel less alone — I often struggled to find the words to convey how I was feeling, and I have, at times, felt frustrated when the people around me didn’t understand what I was trying to express, or explain about my mental health condition.

Here are a few books that I would wholeheartedly recommend to my family and friends, and to those who wish to expand their reading horizons.

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness – Kay Redfield Jamison

“I look back over my shoulder and feel the presence of an intense young girl and then a volatile and disturbed young woman, both with high dreams and restless, romantic aspirations”

Jamison’s account of living with manic depressive disorder is equal parts vulnerable and poignant (she avoids using the term “bipolar disorder” as she believes that it doesn’t accurately portray the nature of the disorder). Intensely intelligent and powerful, Jamison takes us through how her manic depression seeps into and touches every aspect and facet of her life, and how she eventually became a successful psychologist.

The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays – Esmé Weijun Wang

“I tell myself that if I must live with a slippery mind, I want to know how to tether it too.”

Wang’s experiences of living with schizoaffective disorder is recounted in a series of essays that form a memoir of sorts. The Collected Schizophrenias essentially looks at mental health with an intellectual lens: she examines the concept of her own identity, on what it means to have a serious mental health disorder, coupled with an autoimmune disorder, late-stage Lyme Disease, as well. It’s an honest book that is not of recovery and miracles, but instead is deeply reflective as Wang tries to understand her conditions, psychosis, and self.

Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry –  Randolph M. Nesse

“The body is not shaped for maximum health or longevity; it is shaped for maximum transmission of its genes.”

Perhaps memoirs aren’t your thing, and you want something less emotional and more factual. Good Reasons for Bad Feelings looks at emotions and mental health from a biological perspective, and proposes that there is an evolutionary explanation as to why people suffer from mental health disorders, and why our minds are so vulnerable and susceptible to emotional stress. For fans of more serious, academic texts!

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma – Bessel van der Kolk

“Trauma is not stored as a narrative with an orderly beginning, middle, and end.”

The Body Keeps The Score is a non-fiction book that doesn’t feel like one. It’s an in-depth exploration of PTSD, and how trauma can affect the brain and the body. It also explores treatment options for traumatised individuals that are not medication, such as neurofeedback, yoga, and theatre. It’s honestly an amazing piece of work –– definitely not your ordinary academic, dry, textbook-y piece –– as Van Der Kolk writes with clear and compassionate language. Huge trigger warnings for this book of course, as it deals a lot with domestic abuse and sexual assault, among other heavy topics.