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5 mental health memoirs that will sort your life out
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FOR those jetting off somewhere hot, life will still be messy when you get back from the beach. These five memoirs have carried me through some tough times and showed me that our struggles, however isolating they seem, are shared. None of these books are recent releases, but at least one will be new to you, and their insights feel more relevant than ever.
Each offers a different window into the landscapes of suffering and survival, written by people brave enough to map their pain so the rest of us might understand ours.
‘Shoot the Damn Dog’
The first mental health memoir I read. Sally Brampton founded Elle UK but behind the glossy exterior was a woman battling severe depression and alcoholism. Her account is unflinchingly honest about what it feels like to live inside a depressed mind.
Brampton doesn’t romanticize mental illness or offer false hope. She writes about depression like someone clawing at the walls of their existence.
Brampton died by suicide years after publication. I was in the bath when I heard the news and cried like a baby. I reread her book to remind me why I’d connected with her words. Her brutal honesty about the fight for her life continues to help people feel less alone in theirs.
Why to pack: Perfect for anyone drowning in their own mind.
‘Man’s Search for Meaning’
This book is on every therapist’s bookshelf for good reason. For me, it was my mom who recommended it, but she’s a therapist. Double whammy. Frankl’s central insight is that we cannot choose what happens to us, but we can choose how to respond. This might sound like greeting card philosophy, but Frankl earned the right to say it through unthinkably hard experiences. There’s a reason this slim book has sold over 16 million copies and been named one of the most influential books in America.
Frankl’s therapy focuses on finding meaning rather than pursuing happiness. In our culture of toxic positivity, this feels revolutionary. Sometimes the question isn’t “How can I be happy?” but “How can I make this suffering worthwhile?”
Why to pack: When life feels unbearably cruel, Frankl shows the way forward.
‘A Million Little Pieces’
The world was sold on this book being a memoir until it turned out to have fictional elements. The addiction narrative hits like a freight train regardless of what’s “true.” Frey’s account of rock-bottom addiction and treatment is visceral in ways that stay with you. He doesn’t glorify addiction or make recovery read easy. This is about the daily grind of choosing sobriety when every cell screams for relief.
Frey refuses to make himself sympathetic. He’s often unlikeable, sometimes cruel, frequently self-pitying. But that honesty makes his recovery feel real. The controversy misses the point: Frey captured something essential about addiction that resonates regardless of embellishment.
Why to pack: The unvarnished truth about rock bottom and climbing back.
‘Tuesdays with Morrie’
Words from a dying man that are neither morbid nor manipulative. Albom reconnects with his former professor Morrie Schwartz, who is dying from a motor neurone disease. What begins as a courtesy visit becomes Tuesday conversations about love, work, death and what makes life worth living.
I must have bought 10 copies of this book because I’ve given it away to at least nine friends. Each one has fallen in love with Morrie. I challenge you not to.
Albom arrives as a successful but spiritually empty workaholic and leaves understanding something fundamental about human connection. The conversations are grounded in the reality of a deteriorating body and a sharp mind grappling with mortality.
Why to pack: A gentle reminder of what matters.
‘Hunger’
I hate my body. If you’ve ever been at war with yours, this is the most honest thing you’ll read about that particular hell. Gay’s memoir chronicles how childhood sexual trauma led to extreme weight gain and what it’s like to live in a larger body.
This isn’t just for people who’ve suffered similar trauma. I live with a severe eating disorder and find this book incredibly powerful. Gay writes brutally, with short, devastating sentences that tell it like it is.
Gay doesn’t apologize for her size or promise transformation. Instead, she offers something harder: the truth about surviving in a body that feels like both protection and a prison.
Why to pack: Essential reading for anyone carrying trauma in a body of any size.
These books don’t offer easy answers or quick fixes. What they provide is more valuable: proof that others have walked through similar darkness. While you’ve got sand between your toes and a pina colada in one hand, hold one of these books in the other.
Sometimes choosing deeper reading over our usual romance or spy thriller gives us something extra. The knowledge we’re not alone in whatever else we’re packing.
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