According to Juanita Carnes, the path to better mental health might be found in the pages of a book – specifically, an engaging novel. The theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Month, recognized every May since 1949, is “In Every Story, There’s Strength.” The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is addressing the need to support millions of Americans living with mental illness by encouraging involvement and asking individuals to share their stories. The campaign emphasizes the power of storytelling to foster connection, understanding, and hope, highlighting the possibility of recovery and the strength within each person.

Storytelling and bibliotherapy, the intentional use of literature to support emotional healing, self-reflection, and skill-building, align with this year’s theme. Bibliotherapy, a well-researched area of mental health care, is easy to use, low cost, requires minimal staffing, and allows for greater privacy. The concept of reading as therapy dates back over 40,000 years, with storytelling used to pass down family histories, moral values, and faith traditions. Therapy inherently involves stories, as clients share their experiences of loss, grief, trauma, and anxiety with therapists.

Reading engages the reader in the story and facilitates meaningful discussion by exploring themes, characters, and emotions. Bibliotherapy uses literature to support a person’s mental health, clinically defined as “the process of reading, reflecting, and discussing literature to further a cognitive shift.” Research indicates that it is therapeutic in reducing depression, aiding in eating disorder recovery, assisting adolescents and children with anxiety, depression, and aggression, encouraging positive social behavior, and decreasing stress. The term bibliotherapy first appeared in 1916 in an article in The Atlantic Monthly, which discussed a clinic practicing this new science. The article noted that a book could act as a stimulant, sedative, irritant, or soporific, emphasizing its potential impact on the reader.

Reading therapy was used by Freud. After WWI, librarians provided books to returning soldiers. Simultaneously, in Britain, Jane Austen’s novels were used for bibliotherapy. Bibliotherapy can be conducted with a licensed therapist individually or in a group setting. Therapists can recommend books tailored to a client’s needs, and it can be incorporated into literature courses for inmates in prisons, formal and informal reading groups, and reading circles for those with dementia. Bibliotherapists advocate for the restorative power of reading fiction.

To share your story, help change the conversation around mental health, or learn more about NAMI’s Mental Health Awareness Month Campaign, visit name.org/mham. Regular readers experience better sleep, lower stress levels, higher self-esteem, and lower rates of depression. Studies consistently demonstrate the positive effects of reading on the brain. Juanita Carnes is a nurse practitioner with extensive experience and has served on the Board of Health in Westfield, Massachusetts.