There’s no magic solution to anxiety, and, more often than not, reading one book will not solve it. However, reading can help you find excellent tools to fight those anxious days. Here is a list of five books to help with anxiety and how they’ve been valuable to me.  

I can’t deny my disappointment when I have anxiety attacks, as I’ve always been my harshest critic. A big part of me wants to “pass the anxiety test” and think of it as a stage. However, the reality is that we learn to live with our mental health instead of just getting over it. 

A year after this crisis began, I’d love to say I got it all under control, but that’s not always true. I still have anxiety crises, though fewer and less intense, and that, for me, is a significant win. 

Therapy has been a crucial part of my progress, and I will always recommend people talk to professionals. Still, there’s another aspect that has helped me with anxiety, and it doesn’t necessarily have to do with therapy. At least, it doesn’t in the traditional way.  

I don’t know about you, whoever is reading this article. Still, whenever I go through a crisis, I read, journal, or exercise. These are all excellent ways to deal with anxiety, but all of them work differently. 

I’ve written about the power of journaling before, and now I want to talk about another great tool for anxiety: reading. 

How books helped me with anxiety 

I don’t want to come off as stubborn (though I am), but I can’t stress enough how powerful therapy can be. However, there are times when it’s inaccessible. 

Sometimes, we can’t pay for it, or we can’t have our therapist next to us every single day. So, from time to time, we need to discover tools to cope with stress, depression, and PTSD. Not only that, we might even learn something new about ourselves. That’s what has happened in my case. 

Moreover, as I look back at this journey, I realize that reading helped my mental health long before this crisis started. I can safely say it even helped the situation become more manageable. 

The aspect that changed was that, during this crisis, I began actively looking for books that would help me learn something. Granted, and I will insist on this, I didn’t look for the solution to all problems. 

Instead, I wanted to expand my horizons to understand my mental health better. My stance is that it’s essential to have such an approach. 

Expecting to find a cure for all our mental health problems in one book is close to impossible. However, embracing that we can add more to our never ending knowledge about ourselves can help immeasurably. 

This is my list of five books to help with anxiety and why I chose them. (Plus, a special honorable mention). 

As you’ll see, not all are direct tips for helping our mental health, but they’ve all taught me something. 

Five books to help with anxiety

Atlas Of The Heart by Brené Brown

There’s something about how this book presents emotions that makes them easy to grasp. After reading it, I understood the origins of many of my emotions. 

Plus, if you’re using the audiobook, you get a great layer of added depth, as Brown goes the extra mile to transport the listener to her conferences. 

The aspect I love the most about this book is how approachable the content was. I tend to stay away from books that dive deep into emotions. I fear I will unlock something and be unable to cope later. 

Brown’s ability and storytelling helped me learn, uncover, and understand part of my emotions. Moreover, this wasn’t a one-time thing. 

As I read more and more, I learned something new, and there’s no beating that. This book is an excellent way to discover what’s behind the terms we use daily, significantly impacting our lives. The beauty is understanding them so that we become better individuals.

The Burnout Society by Byung-Chun Hal

What’s ironic about this book is that I read it while going through what was, most likely, my worst burnout. So, its content hit me like a hammer. 

I find something about Hal fascinating, and it has to do with how he writes. Though controversial, his ability to mention other works of philosophy and be manageable is essential.  

Not only that, but Hal is poignant in one thing. There’s no way we can deny that we, in fact, live in a burnout society. It’s just that he does an excellent job of reminding us. 

When I read this book, I wasn’t sleeping much or eating well, and my goal was to achieve my professional objectives as best I could. There was no “me” in the equation unless I was talking about how great a professional I was. 

I couldn’t talk about how tired I was. I had no permission, and that’s the mentality that most of our society has. 

This couldn’t be more wrong, but we’ve been driven to exhaustion trying to prove ourselves, but to whom? Who is rating us? That’s what this book wants to change and a big reason why it’s one of the five books to help with anxiety, even if it covers other topics more in-depth. 

Dare: The New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks Fast By Barry McDonagh

This is part of my list of five books to help with anxiety because that’s its intention. I turned to this book before I started therapy, and that’s not a disclaimer to undermine it. 

In fact, the total opposite. When I read this book, I had very little understanding of how anxiety worked in my specific case, and even with such ignorance, I found valuable tips to get through the day. 

Dare is an excellent book for tips that are easy to learn and, more importantly, easy to use. It’s one of the books I keep handy on my phone as an audiobook for whenever I need quick tips or to feel I’m not alone in this battle. 

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: a Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed By Lori Gottlieb

I can’t recall how I got to this book. At first, I found the title intimidating because I felt again that I would uncover something I couldn’t handle. 

Instead, it was one of the most jarring books I’ve read because it took me to that other side. My therapist is human, and so are the thousands of mental health professionals working tirelessly to help people. 

It also gave me a glimpse into their lives, the challenges they face, and how, sometimes, they don’t have the answer. Instead, they have tools, and they try their damn hardest to help us. 

I loved every bit of this book. It was sad, happy, enlightening, and, in the end, human. There’s no replacing such a read. 

Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl

This masterpiece is a part of the five books to help with anxiety, but not because that is its end goal. It isn’t. Instead, I put this book here because it helps me understand what the human mind can do. 

I have a big problem with the “you could be worse” philosophy. I get angry whenever I struggle, and people drop the “things could be worse” line. Of course, we can be worse. I’ve been clinically dead once, but there’s no real benefit to hearing that. 

However, going through the paces of voluntarily reading how others have faced their challenges is a valuable way of learning how well we are. 

Man’s Search For Meaning took me on a rollercoaster ride. I’ve had to read it multiple times to capture the nuances of how the mind can carry us through the worst hells we’ve endured. Or, more importantly, that others have endured. From that mental endurance, we can learn a lot about how we can overcome our dark times. 

Slumberkins Presents Yeti By Kelly Oriard (Honorable Mention)

I was shopping around a kid’s store for a gift for my nephew, who turned three. So, I wanted to give him something special, but kids’ stores overwhelmed me. 

I like to give presents that aren’t plastic, don’t need batteries, or don’t create a lot of noise (this is mainly for the parents), so I went to the book section. Who knows? Perhaps he’ll take on reading. 

There, I found this gem: Slumberkings Presents Yeti. The book reminds children to slow down and be mindful of the world around them. 

Lo and behold, I opened the book and forgot about the world around me. There I was, a 37-year-old man reading a children’s book on the verge of crying (granted, I was going through my worst crisis). Yet, I found it so insightful, powerful, simple, and essential that I couldn’t stop reading it. 

It’s definitely a book that’s not for kids. It’s for everyone. 

Closing thoughts on five books to help with anxiety

Books are a great way of learning more about ourselves in most areas of life. Mental health is no exception. 

I wanted to write this list because these are books that have helped me with anxiety. Reading them has left me with valuable lessons, some small and others massive, which I believe others can use to their benefit. 

Again, these are no replacements for therapy. Instead, I like to think of them more as tools for life, in general. Of course, there’s also the enjoyment. They can be emotionally devastating sometimes, but once you finish them, you want to start again.