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Hello and welcome to recommendation nineteen of Blogmas 2020 with I’m NOT Disordered!
Today, I’ll be talking about the importance of books and reading for your mental health, as well as recommending a few of my absolute favourite books, with the help of Waterstones!
So, I’ve picked six books which I think illustrate six of the benefits reading can have on your mental health (these are in no particular order):
1. Escape
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Screenplay by J K Rowling: £6.99
“I’ve chosen my side.”
I think that all of the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts books and films have hugely had this component to them and that a lot of people who have read and watched the series have also felt that doing so, provided them with a huge opportunity to escape their reality.
Something I especially love about this series is that everything around magic is written in a believable, trustworthy way. Like, it had me thinking ‘that could actually happen!’ It’s a brilliant way to encourage the reader to let their imagination really run wild and to envision a whole alternate world. And doing that, means your head isn’t in this world and experiencing the difficulties and hardship you might be going through.
In Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) you’re taught to use distraction and mindfulness as a method to cope when you’re struggling with your mental health. The distraction part is pretty obvious, but mindfulness in regard to distraction is all about putting all your energy and focus into doing this one alternative activity. And it’s about bringing your mind back to the activity if it starts to ‘wander.’ You will most likely use these skills in reading in general, but I think it’s especially easy to use them in reading this book in particular.