Self-help books can be helpful for people with certain mental health issues because they can provide techniques and strategies for dealing with difficult situations and feelings.
This article features 16 self-help books to consider and explains what each has to offer.
Self-help refers to the use of specific tools to navigate and improve certain situations or mental states.
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Self-help books can allow a person to implement coping techniques on their own, without the need for a therapist, between therapy sessions or as a complement to a treatment plan.
An older one 2014 study using mindfulness self-help books, I have found it to be an effective intervention method for depression, anxietyAnd stresson a sample of students.
In the list of books below, we cover various topics and techniques that a person may consider.
Best Self-Help Book for Negative Thoughts: Clear your mind
This book may be helpful to people with anxiety or those who experience unhelpful and difficult thoughts.
It uses mindfulness techniques to help reframe unhelpful thoughts and improve or end difficult relationships.
It also includes information on meditation, deep breathing, and goal-setting practices.
Clear your mind costs about $4 on Kindle or about $15 in paperback.
Best Self-Help Book for Living in the Present Moment: A New Earth
Published in 2008, this book by bestselling author Eckhart Tolle remains popular. It focuses on mindfulness and spirituality.
A New Earth aims to teach people how to live in the present moment and manage conflicts and difficulties more effectively.
It costs about $14 on Kindle or about $7 in paperback.
Best Self-Help Book for Depression: Your happiness toolbox
The author of this book, Carrie M. Wrigley, is a public mental health counselor and educator and claims to have developed the book over 30 years.
It provides 16 self-help tools to overcome depression and other emotional challenges.
The author claims the book can also help people suffering from anxiety, addictions, abuse, trauma, grief, relationship difficulties, and low self-esteem. Caregivers may also find this book useful.
Your happiness toolbox is available for about $8 on Kindle or about $16 in paperback.
Best Self-Help Book for Insomnia: Say good night to insomnia
This book offers a 6-week program to fight insomniadeveloped and tested by Harvard Medical School alongside sleep expert Dr. Gregg D. Jacobs.
The author takes a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) approach to promoting healthy sleep behaviors. The book also offers relaxation and stress reduction techniques as well as ways to improve negative thoughts about sleep.
Say good night to insomnia costs about $12 on Kindle or about $10 in paperback.
Best Self-Help Book on Trauma and PTSD: Fight well: succeed after trauma
The co-authors of this book are veterans post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The book provides techniques for people who have experienced trauma to help them make peace with their past experiences, live in the present, and build a better future.
Fight well: succeed after trauma is available for about $10 on Kindle or about $16 in paperback.
Best Self-Help Book for Stress: The Strengths-Based Workbook for Stress Relief
This workbook provides tips and strategies to help people discover their character strengths and how to use them to achieve happiness and eliminate stress.
The author is a psychologist, coach and workshop facilitator.
The Strengths-Based Workbook for Stress Relief costs about $14 on Kindle or about $19 in paperback form.
Best Self-Help Book for Productivity: The 7 habits of highly effective people
This book is a New York Times best-seller and has been available for over 30 years.
Although originally written as a book aimed at business leaders, Stephen R. Covey also focused on applying the content to everyday life. The book can help people adapt to change and make the most of the opportunities created by that change.
The 7 habits of highly effective people costs about $14 on Kindle or about $13 in paperback.
Best Self-Help Book for Creativity: Great magic
Elizabeth Gilbert is a bestselling author of fiction and nonfiction books. This particular book can help people facing creative block.
Subtitle A creative life beyond fear, it provides techniques and ways to draw inspiration and creativity. He debunks the conventional wisdom that to be an artist you have to be troubled or come from a dark place.
Great magic is available for about $12 on Kindle or about $13 in paperback.
Best Self-Help Book for a Financial Roadmap: The one page financial plan
This book helps people focus on their financial goals and offers advice on how to cope when things don’t go as planned.
The author, Carl Richards, is a certified financial planner and director of an investor education company.
The one page financial plan costs about $5 on Kindle or about $16 in paperback.
Best Self-Help Book for Parents: The book you wish your parents would read
This bestselling book, written by parent and psychotherapist Philippa Perry, aims to help parents understand their own upbringing and how it influences them.
It aims to help readers break negative cycles and accept that they will make mistakes and learn from them. It also offers advice on how parents can manage their children’s feelings.
The book you wish your parents would read costs about $13 on Kindle and about $14 in paperback.
Best Self-Help Book for Organizing: The life-changing magic of tidying up
This is a slightly different topic regarding self-help. Written by Japanese decluttering consultant Marie Kondo, the book offers methods for properly organizing a person’s home, once and for all.
By helping to organize and order household items, a person can find greater peace of mind and relax more easily in their own space.
The life-changing magic of tidying up costs about $10 on Kindle and about $13 in paperback.
Best Self-Help Book for Mindfulness: The power of awakening
Subtitle Mindfulness practices and spiritual tools to transform your life, this best-selling book focuses on the teachings of inspirational speaker and spiritual teacher, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. It helps guide readers toward self-realization, using mindfulness tools to break old patterns and spark transformation.
It covers meditation and visualization techniques and can help one look beyond ego and worldly activities to see their impact on daily life.
The power of awakening costs about $2 on Kindle and about $12 for paperback.
Best Self-Help Book on Personal Growth: The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life
David Brooks wrote this for people who might feel unfulfilled even though they’ve followed the advice to “go to school, get a job, be successful.” He says it was the first mountain, and this book is about climbing a second mountain, a mountain that brings meaning and purpose.
This is a read intended for someone ready to commit to something bigger but simple, such as exploring what might result if they seek to commit to their family or community.
The second mountain costs about $14 on Kindle and about $10 in paperback.
Best Self-Help Book for Physical Health and Well-Being: Breath: the new science of a lost art
People have been doing it unconsciously for years, and this bestseller explores how ingrained they are in their breathing, how it affects health and well-being, and how they can do it wrong.
Author James Nestor is a journalist who set out on an investigative adventure to uncover the science behind breathing, and he breaks it all down here.
Breath: the new science of a lost art costs about $15 on Kindle and about $10 for paperback.
Best self-help book for twenty-somethings: The defining decade: why your twenties matter and how to make the most of them now
For twenty-somethings, this book explores why and how to view this decade as a time of transformation. It draws on scientific research and the stories of individuals in their 20s to create a guide on how to make the most of these years.
Author Meg Jay, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and associate professor of education at the University of Virginia.
The defining decade costs about $12 on Kindle and about $13 in paperback.
Best Self-Help Book for Understanding Human Emotions: Heart Atlas
Author and researcher Brené Brown has become famous for her research on shame, and her most recent book delves into 87 emotions that make up the human condition.
More than just understanding these emotions, Heart Atlas provides tactics and tools to address them in ways that help connect with others and the world.
Heart Atlas costs about $14 on Kindle and about $20 in paperback.
