May is the mental health awareness month. On this occasion, I want to share some of my favorite books that talks about mental health issues including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorders and suicidal ideation among youth.
Obsessed by Allison Britz:
After a terrifying dream of getting stage four brain cancer, Allison is scared to face reality. First, her brain tells her to avoid cracks on floors, and begins to restrict herself from things she loves and things that seem completely normal, like the color green, or restricting her from eating and wearing an outfit. This completely drains Allison mentally and physically and causes her perfect GPA to drop, losing the things she loves and falling out with her friendships and family. After continuously fighting a quiet battle, Allison is determined to fix herself and seek help going to therapy. This story has shown readers the point of view of how Obsessive Compulsive Disorder feels like and it felt like I was stepping into Aliison’s shoes while reading this book.
I highly recommend this book to middle grade readers. I enjoyed reading this well written book with easy language and flow.
Suicide Notes by Michael Thomas Ford:
Fifteen-year-old Jeff wakes up in the Psychiatric ward and has been kept for 45 days in the hospital ward for recovery after his failed suicide attempt. He is placed in a program with a couple other teens who are also in the recovery program in the Psychiatric hospital. At first, Jeff feels like the people there are crazy, and that he is an outsider because he is the only “normal” person. However, the forty five days of recovery don’t only require the doctor, and the nurses, but they also require people to support him. That’s where he is introduced to many other teens and their background stories. From getting to know these kids, Jeff finds out his identity and his self worth. He gets to experience the importance of love, friendship, forgiveness, family and restarting his life. If you want to know more about Jeff’s recovery, and his days in the hospital, I highly recommend you to buy this book.
All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven:
Violet Markey, a typical popular teen, can’t wait to get out of her small Indiana town.Especially after her sisters accidental death, Violet feels remorse and carries the guilt of her sisters passing. Whereas Theodore Finch AKA Finch, is known to be the freak of the school. He has a strange strong fascination with death and suicidal ideation.One day when Violet and Finch want to end their lives, they decide to jump off the highest point of their school building. However, they end up meeting each other instead. Some time later, they decide to be partners for a school project where they have to look at some of the wonders in Indiana.While doing this project, they realize that labels that people put for others don’t really define them. They help one another through their ups and downs and learn more about letting go in life. However, when Violet’s life slowly gets better, Finch’s life gets thrown upside down. What will happen next? How will Violet and Finch help each other? If you like stories about grief, loss,friendship and mental health, this book is just for you.
My Life in a Fish Tank by Barbara Dee:
This book My Life in a Fish Tank is written by the amazing author Barbara Dee. This book talks about mental health problems and its impact on families of people suffering from it because of stigma about it.
Zinnia aka Zinny is a twelve-year-old girl, who loves animals and gets even more excited when her science class starts their marine biology unit, and Zinny is all for it. But her life falls apart when her best friend and older brother, Gabriel, gets diagnosed with bipolar disorder after several tests. After the car accident where he wrecks a friend’s car , he has to stay in a hospital for recovery and gets diagnosed with Bipolar disorder. Gabriel’s college friend reports that he was acting strange lately. Zinny’s parents are traumatized by the diagnosis and want to hide it from the rest of the world.They request Zinny and her siblings, sixteen years old Scarlett and eight years old Aiden to keep the diagnosis’ private’ and not share anything about Gabriel’s mental health . But Zinny feels like it’s a ‘secret’ and that she’s betraying her friends by hiding it. Zinny is going through a lot because of inner conflicts and is disturbed.However a lunch group at school helps Zinny’s life pull back together with the help of a guidance counselor. What will happen to Zinny next? Why is this mental disease considered taboo? How will Zinny’s life pull back together? If you like books that consider the topic of mental health, I highly recommend this book to you. You can get this book on Amazon, your local library or audiobook.
Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich:
Dear Evan Hansen is a novel written by several screenwriters and authors and was made into a Broadway play in 2016. The story starts off with Evan Hansen, an awkward high school senior who suffers from social anxiety. His therapist suggests that he writes notes to himself to reframe his thinking. Unfortunately, one letter leads to the unexpected loss of a loner classmate , Connor Murphy from suicide who used to target him. After Connor´s death, Connor´s family thinks of Evan as a hero by being one of Connor´s ¨friend¨. Evan doesn´t know how to tell them the truth. But through keeping this lie, Evan is able to make a difference in Connor´s past mental health, his own mental health and his community´s mental health. This book was really heart warming to me as I hope to go into the Mental Health related field as a Psychiatrist. This book gives people hope in the community as Mental Health is a growing issue and that we can all overcome our struggles and ¨be found¨.
Happy Reading Everyone!
Lit Lounge Reads 