I’m looking to read more books from authors who write well about mental health.
Either as fictional non-fiction.
I need it to be quite intense as I have borderline personality disorder and I just want to feel less alone in the pain of it. I want to read about how people get through it. I want to read about the places where they felt alone so that I can feel less lonely in there.
Some books that have felt like that to me were:
What I’d Rather not think about – Jente Posthuma
Migrations – Charlotte McConaghy
My Year of Rest and Relaxation – Ottessa Moshfegh
by ethereallemons
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{{The Bell Jar}} comes to mind, by Sylvia Plath.
This was how I’m glad my mom died by Jeanette McCurdy made me feel. I honestly don’t remember if she said she has BPD, I just remember her talking about a lot of things that I also struggled with (granted, with a lot less money)
TW for ED though.
There aren’t many literary representations of BPD (I struggle with it too, and that frustrates me.) Girl, Interrupted was written by Susanna Kaysen, who was treated for BPD, but it’s not really about BPD, more about hospitalization in the 1960s. It’s good, though.
The Collected Schizophrenias by Esme Weijun Wang is an excellent essay collection about another stigmatized mental health disorder.
For novels about mental health, I liked All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews and Dora by Lidia Yuknavitch.
10 things I hate about me by Joe Tracini is a memoir about his journey with BPD. I don’t have a BPD diagnosis but I related to the book a lot and it made me feel less alone with some of the things I struggle with xx
*Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance* by Robert Pirsig. People seem to either love it or hate it, but it was exactly what I needed to read, when I read it. It’s a blend of fiction, autobiography, and philosophy, but the autobiographical side of it addresses the mental health of both the author and his son. Here’s a [brief summary/review.](https://www.mic.com/articles/74727/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance-is-the-book-that-changed-my-life) Best wishes.
John Greene writes mental health really well. I know he’s YA, but I feel like it’s elevated