What if the path to better mental health could be found in the pages of a book? Not a textbook, psychology book or self-help book but a page-turning, curl up on the couch and lose yourself novel. “In Every Story, There’s Strength” is this year’s theme of Mental Health Awareness Month. It has been recognized in May since 1949.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness is addressing the need for helping the millions of Americans living with mental illness. They are encouraging involvement and asking everyone to tell their story. The campaign “celebrates the power of storytelling to fuel connection, understanding and hope for those navigating their own mental health path. Each story shared is a testament to the possibility of recovery and the strength that lies within us all.”
Story telling and bibliotherapy, the intentional use of literature to support emotional healing self-reflection and skill building align with this year’s theme. Although a focused area of therapy for mental health care, it is well researched, easy to use, low cost, low staffing demands and allows greater privacy.
The concept of reading as therapy is not a new one. Story telling has been around for over 40,000 years. It has been used to pass down family histories, moral values and faith traditions.
Therapy cannot happen without stories. The client shares their story of loss, grief, trauma, anxiety and brings it to the therapist in the course of healing. Reading a book engages the reader in the story and then allows for meaningful discussion, exploring themes, characters and emotions.
Bibliotherapy uses literature to support a person’s mental health. Clinically it is defined as “the process of reading, reflecting, and discussing literature to further a cognitive shift.”
Research shows it is therapeutic in many ways. It reduces depression, helps with eating disorders, helps adolescents and children with anxiety, depression and aggression, encourages positive social behavior and decreases stress.
The term bibliotherapy was first mentioned in 1916 in an article in The Atlantic Monthly. The article centered on a clinic that practiced this new science. “A book may be a stimulant or a sedative or an irritant or soporific. The point is that it must do something to you, and you ought to know what it is. A book may be of the nature of a soothing syrup or it may be of the nature of a mustard plaster.”
Reading therapy was used by Freud. After WWI, librarians were charged with giving books to returning soldiers. At the same time, in Britain, Jane Austen’s novels were used for bibliotherapy.
Bibliotherapy can be with a licensed therapist alone or with a group. It can be a therapist recommending books tailored to a client’s needs. It can be literature courses for inmates in prisons, formal and informal reading groups and reading circles for those with dementia.
Bibliotherapists advocate the restorative power of reading fiction.
If you want to share your story, help change the conversation around mental health or learn more about NAMI’s Mental Health Awareness Month Campaign, go to name.org/mham.
Regular readers sleep better, have lower stress levels, higher self esteem and lower rates of depression. A multitude of studies show reading’s positive effects on the brain. Great news for those of us who have been self-medicating, perhaps over-dosing on books for years.
Take care of yourself and someone else.
Juanita Carnes is a nurse practitioner with 39 years of experience in a hospital emergency department and urgent care facilities. She served 30 years on the Board of Health in Westfield, Massachusetts.