Book suggestions please - mental health / addiction

[VictimofLava]

To end some of the isolation I’m going through and because I’d like to start reading again.

Thank you

Are you looking for non-fiction or fiction? If you're coming out of a period of isolation might it not be worth reading something that is not so potentially traumatic?

You might enjoy the Boy in the Topknot. It's by a journalist whose family suffers from schizophrenia (not him, other family members) but not only about the schizophrenia, so it's not totally dark, and quite funny in places. It's not Great Fiction (as he's a journo, so he writes like a journo), which I think actually makes it more accessible to people who don't read much IYSWIM

Mad Girl by Bryony Gordon about OCD? Be kind to yourself, OP.

Cheer Up, Love by Susan Calman is about her battles with depression and anxiety. She also has a new podcast series with BBC called Mrs Brightside where she talks to other people about their MH problems.

VictimofLava Olivia Laing's The Trip to Echo Spring is her journey across America exploring the background of a group of famous writers who had drinking problems, she also talks about her own history of addiction and her family. She also wrote a book about loneliness and isolation and how she dealt with it, she's an excellent writer. Also Marya Hornbacher Wasted. I only suggested other things as have a very close friend with issues, who finds sometimes that books on the subject make him feel worse and sometimes escapism helps. I hope things improve for you, just take it slow.

Rachel's Holiday

Yes to Rachel’s Holiday (addiction) and The Mystery of Mercy Close (depression)

The Shock of the Fall - Nathan Filer (he is also a psych nurse)
Even the Dogs - John McGregor. Brilliant author but this one is very bleak....

Alastair Campbell wrote a good one whose name I can't remember. Well written and he's lived through it.

There is Matt Haig's oeuvre too – Reasons to Stay Alive and he has a new one coming out now called Notes on a Nervous Planet.

Hope you come out the other side soon, OP.