Mental health memoirs offer a window into the experience of those living with a mental health condition. Listed below are mental health memoirs I have read that I would recommend to others. If you are struggling with a mental health difficulty yourself, memoirs can be a great way to realize you are not alone and that other people are going through similar difficulties. If you have a loved one struggling with a mental health difficulty, memoirs can be a great way to better understand what they are going through and how hard life can be for them at times.

Marsha Linehan is a clinical psychologist who has struggled with depression throughout her life, including self-harm and suicidal behaviors. She shares her experience with the largely ineffective mental health treatment of long-term psychiatric hospitalization that was common in the 1960s. Drawing on her personal experience, Marsha created a more effective treatment for suicidal behavior called Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). She weaves her professional life into the memoir so readers can see how she developed DBT over the course of her career. The title is a reference to the goal of DBT: helping clients build “a life worth living”. Marsha is a wonderful writer and walks you through her personal and professional growth. Her life is an inspiration for how to harness one’s mental health difficulties to help others “get out of hell”. For more information about DBT, check out this educational video (It is technically about DBT for adolescents, but it is one of the best overviews of DBT I have found).

John Moe is a comedy writer who has struggled with depression throughout his life, including times with suicidal thoughts. He shared his experience with depression at each stage of his life from childhood, to young adulthood, to middle age, and the present day. As a writer with a knack for comedy, he weaves in humor and jokes about depression that are welcoming and relatable. John assigns numbers to the different therapists he has seen throughout his life (e.g., therapist #4) and talks about the process of understanding the same old tropes that his depression uses again and again. His memoir is wonderfully genuine and authentic as it does not end with a cured case of “happy ever after”, but rather a man who continues to live a rich and meaningful life despite struggling with ongoing depression. John also has a podcast by the same name - The Hilarious World of Depression - where he interviews people with various mental health difficulties. It has been described as “one part stand-up comedy and one part therapy session”.

Johann Hari is a journalist who has struggled with depression throughout his life, including bouts of anxiety. He shared his experience with various treatments for depression, including anti-depressant medications. This book is probably the least “memoir-like” on the list as it follows Johann interviewing people from all over the world about the causes of depression and solutions to recovery. It contains information about the social science of depression and describes various research studies. Based on his own dissatisfaction, Johann critiques the chemical imbalance narrative about depression and proposes a more psychosocial understanding. A great book for those not only looking for a mental health memoir but also some non-medical ideas about how to recover from depression.

Alan Downs is a clinical psychologist who has struggled with depression and substance use related to being a gay man in the United States. He talks about the shame and internalized homophobia he experienced through adolescence and young adulthood as he grappled with his gay identity. Although Alan more so describes the experience of older generations of gay men (e.g., baby boomers), he does a great job showcasing how culturally-driven shame about one’s sexual identity can lead to a variety of mental health difficulties. As a clinical psychologist himself, Alan draws on his experience working with gay psychotherapy clients and identifies shared themes across clients, friends, and himself. This book is nice because it shows how mental health difficulties are not only shaped by biological processes but also cultural factors such as “growing up gay in a straight man’s world”.