Autobiographies are great for the beach. A great activity to add to your summer list is reading the stories of inspiring people who went through life’s ups and downs and are brave enough to tell their stories.
To make reading these books more enticing, here’s a fun fact: Reading for 30 minutes can lower blood pressure, heart rate, and symptoms of psychological distress, just as well as yoga. Here are three inspiring autobiographies that deal with mental health that can help you reduce stress and find happiness.
An Angel At My Table – Janet Frame
This book tells the story of a literary icon diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age. Janet Frame spent eight years of her youth in a mental hospital in New Zealand. While she was admitted to the hospital, she was given a primitive form of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and was about to have a lobotomy. Fortunately, before the procedure, an official went over her file and noticed she had won a literary prize. This, along with other events, led to her discharge, after which a panel of psychiatrists determined that she was wrongly diagnosed with schizophrenia. After her experience, she spent the rest of her life writing novels, poems, and this three-part autobiography about the concept of “madness”.
Why I Jumped (My True Story of Postpartum Depression, Dramatic Rescue & Return to Hope) – Tina Zahn
In the summer of 2004, Tina Zahn drove to the top of a bridge while going through postpartum depression. She walked to the edge of the bridge and jumped. Fortunately, a state trooper present at the scene grabbed her hand just before she plunged into the water. “Why I Jumped,” tells the story of Zahn’s journey to the bridge on that hot July day, as well as what transpired after she attempted suicide. The book is a captivating true story of depression and hope.
Madness (A Bipolar Life) – Marya Hornbacher
In her unique voice, Marya Hornbacher takes her audience into her life, revealing her extreme attempts to control her violently careening mood swing. Madness shows that Hornbacher is not alone: millions of people in the United States today suffer from various conditions that may mask their bipolar disorder. Hornbacher’s intensely self-aware picture of her own bipolar disorder as early as age four will also profoundly alter the present discussion over whether bipolar disorder exists in kids.
