Reading is Fundamental...to Our Mental Health
by Elizabaeth Solar
Stressed out by the endless scroll of doom, outrage, and fact-free hot takes on your social media feeds? Put the phone down. Seriously. I’ll wait.
Better. Now grab a book. Something light: a romance, an adventure filled with derring-do, Maybe some margical realism or speculative fiction. You could go something profound, existential like Kafka or Dostoevsky. (Show off.)
In a world that often feels like it’s falling apart, reading is a small act of rebellion and a surprisingly effective balm for a nervous system under siege. While commercials pitch SSRIs or beta blockers (both genuinely helpful), books offer if not a cure, a proven way to support, nay improve, mental health. There’s even a name for it: bibliotherapy.
As a deeply right-brained person, I love it when science accidentally sides with writers.
At Baylor College of Medicine, neurologist Dr. Samantha Henry describes reading as “a quiet pursuit”—one that can be “a more adaptive coping strategy than some other hobbies we engage in.” Reading slows the brain down. It asks us to do one thing at a time, encouraging focus, emotional regulation, and presence in a culture built on interruption.
Henry talks about mindful reading, where the point isn’t finishing a book or learning something impressive, but simply attending to the words in front of you. No destination required. Even a short passage can help train attention and settle an overstimulated mind.
Format matters, too. Audiobooks have their place, but listening often happens alongside multitasking—driving, folding laundry, mentally planning dinner. Holding a book (or e-reader) requires more sensory and cognitive engagement, making it easier to stay present.
Reading doesn’t just relax us. It nourishes us. Intellectually, psychological and for those who kneel at the alter of literature, spiritually. The brain likes complexity. It seeks connections, patterns, and ideas. Research consistently shows that reading engages multiple areas of the brain and supports learning, memory, and long-term cognitive health. A working brain, it turns out, is often a calmer, happier one.
Part of the appeal is escape. The daily grind gets stale. And the daily news cycle? Yeah. Let’s not go there. Hence, the escape to another world: One someone else built with care and imagination. A visit to that world can be restorative, not because it avoids reality, but because it gives us perspective.
This matters in a culture dominated by tiny demands on our attention. Notifications, feeds, and algorithms keep us reactive. It’s no wonder anxiety and depression have risen alongside our screen time. Reading pushes back. It favors depth over speed. Even six intentional minutes a day has been shown to significantly reduce stress. Fun fact: read a mere 10 pages a day, and by the end of the year, you’ll have read 12 books!
Even when you finish a book you don’t like, that judgment counts. It’s a chance to form thoughts of your own, slowly, without interruption and more importantly without the ‘influence’ of a noisy social media feed.
Reading offers connection in a quiet, intimate way. Depression can be isolating, and even the people who love us can miss the mark. Once in a while we discover writing that feels uncomfortably accurate, as if someone see our lives and articulate to what we can’t. A great read can make us feel seen, so we don’t feel quite so alone.
For writers, this is part of the work. Reading recharges us. It reminds us how sentences breathe, how voices earn trust, how stories hold attention. Sometimes the best way we can finally write that passage we’re stuck on is to stop wrestling it and read someone else’s.
This isn’t just for writers. Everyone needs stories.
In a culture optimized for speed and distraction, choosing to read is a small, meaningful act of defiance. It doesn’t have to be impressive. Read what you love. Read what absorbs you. Allowing ourselves time to read isn’t indulgent—it’s the lifeline our brains have sought all along.
