Someone asked: “Books to understand anxiety.”
Books to understand anxiety.
No book replaces a professional, but the right one can make you feel understood and less alone. Some explain what happens in your body; others simply tell the truth about living with it.
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Reasons to Stay Alive
Matt Haig · 2015
Haig's memoir of his breakdown in his twenties. Short, honest and full of hope. Many readers say it helped them.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
Lori Gottlieb · 2019
A therapist goes to therapy. Funny, wise and the best way to understand what therapy really is.
The Body Keeps the Score
Bessel van der Kolk · 2014
How stress and trauma live in the body, and what helps. Dense, but it changes how you see yourself.
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers
Robert M. Sapolsky · 1993
A neuroscientist explains the biology of stress with humour. You'll finally understand why your body reacts as it does.
Full Catastrophe Living
Jon Kabat-Zinn · 1990
The book behind mindfulness-based stress reduction. Practical, calm and grounded in science.
First, We Make the Beast Beautiful
Sarah Wilson · 2017
A journalist with lifelong anxiety tries every remedy and makes peace with it. Warm and practical.
Anxious People
Fredrik Backman · 2020
A novel: a failed bank robber takes a flat viewing hostage. Funny and tender about how anxious everyone is.
The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath · 1948
Plath's only novel, about a young woman's depression. A classic that still makes people feel seen.
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