On Books With Mental Illness
Trigger Warnings: Anxiety, Depression, Mental Illness
I was asked to discussed books on protagonists with mental illness and how common this is in fiction. The asker said that reading about a character with anxiety was like being âat homeâ in their mind, and Iâd guess that they are far from alone in this feeling. To me, this is precisely why we have fiction and why books remain so important to this day: they open up our access to the minds of others, show us that we are not alone in this worldâno matter how much it may feel like it somedays. They show us perspectives not often talked about, and they give us a companion we can take with us wherever we go.Â
In researching this topic, I came across an article on the 11 Most Realistic Portrayals of Mental Illness in Literature, where it was discussed just how far weâve come in de-sensationalizing mental illness. Too often, discussions of mental illness have focused only on the extreme: âmad scientistsâ or mental institutions in the 1800â˛s, stories, in short, that painted mentally ill people as dangerous, incapable of personal survival, or downright villains.Â
I canât remember the first book I read that seemed to tear down this perspective, but I can remember the last. When I read After the Parade by Lori Ostlundâa story of a gay man with anxiety and childhood traumaâI felt, as the commenter above said, truly âat homeâ in his perspective. It was not mental illness like Iâd ever seen it fictionalized beforeâover dramatized, downright offensive at timesâbut subtler, more personal, something I could understand. It was a character I knew, and one I kept coming back to time and time again.Â
But books like these arenât common. Or at least they havenât been in my reading circles. If you google books with mental illness, you still too often find stories written from the perspective of people dealing with family or friends who have mental illness, or else, a writer without mental illness trying to âimagine themselves in a new mindsetâ and thoroughly missing the mark. Itâs always someone elseâs story, and too often it feels unauthentic, forced, and often even hurtful.Â
In another article (coincidentally written by a girl I used to go to school with), there is a list of 10 YA books in which the main character suffers from severe anxiety, and here, the books seem to get better, more realistic. Maybe the assumption is that only children suffer from these things, or that only children relate to it, but this is far from true. So what about the adult books?
Instead of recommending booksâsince I donât have any to recommendâIâd like to try something new. Below, Iâve linked several Goodreads book recs, and Iâll leave it to all of you. Which ones have you read? Which ones portrayed mental illness correctly, and which ones completely missed the mark? Particularly (and if you feel comfortable sharing), which ones were harmful? Which books should be avoided? And on the other end of the spectrum, which ones helped you?
YA Involving Mental Health Issues
Characters With Mental Illness or Learning DisabilitiesÂ
Best Mental Health Books For Teens
Best Novels About Mental Illness
Romance Books Who Have Characters With Mental Disorders
Best YA Mental Illness Books 2016
YA Anxiety Disorder Fiction
Please note that some of these links may be triggering or upsetting to some readers. What one reader enjoys, another may not like. These links are not necessarily a recommendation but are meant to direct us toward a conversation and to promote a dialogue that may help us create better books on these topics in the future.Â
