10 Best Books for Mental Health UK 2023 | Reasons to Stay Alive, Anxiety Relief for Teens and More

Don't be fooled by the title – this book doesn't tell you why you should be happy, it actually talks to you about a man and his real-life struggles. Haig helps to put our own issues into perspective to show us how to appreciate our time on Earth. 

With a funny yet moving approach, Matt Haig discusses his past traumas and experiences living with depression and anxiety disorder, describing how he managed to overcome his mental health problems. His joyful, humourous tones highlight the blessings of each day and his encouragement teaches us all to find beauty in everything around us.

Introducing one of the most popular books of this year, filled with touching words and wonderful illustrations, this a lovely book to turn to as a reminder to appreciate life and all of our blessings. The story takes the reader on a beautiful journey, diving deep into the human mind and heart as we watch the characters encounter and accept life's lessons. 

This book doesn't address anxiety as an illness, it addresses it in the obstacles that we cross each day and symbolises it using doubts, fears, and struggles. We follow the conversations and thought trails of each character, connecting with their relatable personalities and listening to how they overcome every obstacle. 

This engaging guide takes you through everything you need to know about OCD. Written by two PHD-qualified psychologists, this book contains the ins and outs of different symptoms, why they develop, how to understand them, and when you might need professional help. 

While extremely scientific in its wording, the text is also full of empathy and understanding, featuring breakdowns of the latest treatments and real-life tools that can help to manage obsessions and compulsions. If you like to read and absorb every inch of information to keep up to date with either your own mental illness or that of a loved one, this is the book you need. 

This book discusses how we can often feel that strange urge to perform extreme actions when we're faced with potential danger; wanting to jump when we're standing on a bridge or fighting the thoughts of walking into a busy road. It's not because we want to self-destruct, it's because we're human. And believe it or not, these thoughts occur in the minds of almost every one of us. 

David Adam has suffered from OCD for twenty years and this insightful account takes a witty, brutally honest approach to his own personal nightmare of these thoughts and how they spiralled to something much deeper. More importantly, he shows how he overcame it with the help of self-growth and science. 

If the witty front cover caught your attention, you'll love what this book has to offer. A modern, straight-to-the-point approach to the nasty, demeaning voice of depression; this book is a guide to help you get a hold of your mind and push yourself to break through the barriers of mental illness. 

It's a very literal guide, questioning the 'voice' of self-doubt that you may hear and what you can do to ignore it and continue to succeed. The language is very colloquial and it's an informative alternative for people who can often feel overwhelmed by the scientific jargon in psychology books. 

This book gets straight to the facts and explains ten of the most effective strategies for managing anxiety, depression, anger, panic, and worry. Helping you to self-evaluate and practise the most essential parts of cognitive behavioural therapy, this book is the key to emotional management without having to visit a psychologist. 

Seth J. Gillihan himself is a licensed psychologist and has written this book to provide a useful source of information on the benefits of cognitive behavioural therapy that you can use whenever you need it. 

Lawrence Wallace is a past sufferer of mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, and intrusive thoughts. He wrote this compassionate piece to reach out to people living through similar stories, offering his advice to manage your thoughts. 

His approach is bold, grabbing the problems you face and staring them in the eye so you can take back control. Along with CBT, this book focuses on self-compassion and development. The tone is strongly empowering with a forceful push to achieve the most from it, so it might not be ideal for someone who is looking for a deeper understanding of the illness.

Growing up, it's more than normal to experience some element of stress and anxiety. When those feelings start to intensify and you can't seem to shake them, you could turn to this book. Covering the general triggers and topics like maintaining friendships, social media, and good grades, it provides a thorough guide to using CBT techniques to manage your anxiety. 

The book includes over six emotional management methods for anger, stress, and sadness, and mindful practices of visualisations, breathing, and meditation that you can use when you need to. It's specifically written for teens, so if you're much older it might not be all that helpful, but perhaps you know a teen who could use some extra help.

Joshua Fletcher is one of the many success stories of someone living with a panic disorder. Drawing from his own personal experience, Fletcher explains his struggles with panic attacks, talking about the dread of his health and future panic attacks, and why we question our own emotions. 

In great clarity, he discusses his own coping mechanisms in the hopes of normalising and simplifying the reader's opinion of anxiety by educating them on their conditions. The book is simple, straightforward, and easy to understand, and although it isn't very psychology-orientated, it happens to be Amazon's #1 Bestseller for medical assistants.

This book is all about worrying. Carbonell explains his own theories of worry management, the most interesting of which is to address "worry as a process" to understand that your fear and panic won't last forever. With its witty humour and tried-and-tested methods, this book is well-known in the world of licensed psychologists.

Looking at reader's feedback, it seems like this book takes a while to get to the management tactics and spends a long time discussing your thoughts and feelings. If this isn't what you need and you'd like a more direct approach, you might prefer another book on our list.