I Am Thankfully Addicted to Books: Why I Think You Should Be Too
“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling had a point. Books have filled my life for as long as I can remember. I devoured them as a child and as an adult I never go anywhere without one. Even when I know there are zero chances of being able to even look at the front cover let alone dive into the pages, I will have one tucked about my person. If buy a new handbag, the most important criteria is that it can hold a standard sized paperback. I am completly and happily addicted to books.
I truly believe books can aid positive mental health. I don’t mean just the self help books which are designed with that purpose. I mean fiction and poetry, words which have been beautiful strung together to transport the reader to a different time and place.
As a child I vividly remember laying on the sofa at home during the middle of a hot summer’s day reading a book about a family cut off in a snow storm. When I eventually looked up from the pages I couldn’t believe it wasn’t snowing outside. As an adult I have missed tube stops because I have been so buried in another world through the pages of a book.
Book Healing
Bibliotherapy, the ancient art of book-healing is not a new concept. It has been around for two and a half thousand years and is as relevant today as it was then. Even the NHS is using literary prescriptions A scheme run by the Reading Well organisation provides lists of books recommended by mental health professionals and people with experience of the conditions covered.
I have lost count of the number of times I have been asked to recommend books for someone who is struggling to read because of difficult life issues or events. I love being asked this. I enjoy little more than discussing and thinking about books.
In Matt Haig’s excellent book ‘Reasons to Stay Alive’ he writes of the comfort he found in reading books from his childhood when he was struggling with very serious mental health illness. As he was recovering from his breakdown he found he was able to read lots of stories which had the therapeutic effect of taking him out of himself.
The Mental Health Benefits
- Escapism
Books, like films provide an escape from the reality and sometimes drudgery of daily life. Unlike films, in books you can lose yourself in your own imagination. Without images, you are left to create your own scenes and pictures. A good book will transport you to another world, where you can be anyone you want to be — an interested bystander or a full on participant. Whichever you choose, time spent in a book is time away from the difficulties or stresses which impact on poor mental health. Reading demands nothing of you.
- Self Care
Self care is such a buzz word, it is easy to become cynical or jaded by it. We have been gifted with amazing bodies and minds and its important we take care of both. When we feel physically unwell, we rest, or go the doctor or take paracetamol. When we feel mentally unwell or tired, the temptation is to just carry on regardless.
Self care is about doing something active to care for your self. Reading is such an easy and inexpensive way to do this.
A study conducted in 2009 by the University of Sussex revealed that reading for just 6 minutes a day can be enough to reduce stress levels. It slows the heart rate and eases muscle tension, both of which lead to a more relaxed state of mind.
Picking up a book at the beginning or end of a busy day is a way or restoring equilibrium.
- Reducing Feelings of Loneliness and Isolation
On my blog I wrote a Bibliotherapy post on books to help with loneliness. Most of us will feel lonely at some time. It can be debilitating and miserable. Spending time in books can help. It will often be the books we read as children that fill us with a nostalgia and warmth.
Lucy Mangan has written a glorious book called “Bookworm — A Memoir of Childhood Reading” In it, she revisits all those books she devoured as a child, and captures the joy that comes from childhood reading. Reminding yourself of those characters which filled your thoughts and dreams when you first read them. Some novels when read at different times throughout life will help you recognise changes in yourself as you identification with different characters shifts with your own life changes. My own example of this is The Great Gatsby. I first read it as a university student and now read it with a different perspective many years later.
- Structure
A novel has a natural structure; a beginning, a middle and an end punctuated by chapters. Troubled minds sometimes lack structure and are a muddle of chaotic thoughts and feelings. The predictability of a novel can be calming. The ebb and flow of a story, or the rhythm of language has the power to soothe and settle.
Poetry particularly works in this way. If you are not up to reading a novel, then try just a poem. Re Lit an organisation which promotes bibliotherapy recommends, “when you are feeling stressed or anxious, worried or sleepless, panicky or unable to cope, sit yourself down with a poem
Books provide a stability to life. Books soothe when soothing is needed. Books induce laughter when joy is a distant memory and when tears need to flow, then books can do this too. All of this is why I am thankfully addicted to books.
I write more about books on the bibliotherapy section on my blog.
