Like many in our mental health workforce, I am a lover of language and of words, the stories we tell each other and ourselves. But for many years, I found my reading occupied by necessity: I was writing a doctoral thesis. Any energy to absorb new information was taken up by academic articles, textbooks, news stories. The goal was always to learn more, digest information, move on. With little time for reflection, reading felt more about the end goal than the journey.
At the time, I barely noticed how reading had become a task of need rather than of joy. It wasn’t until 6 months after finishing my studies, when I realised I hadn’t read a book for pleasure in years, that I knew I needed to reawaken my passion for stories.
And so, I began the process of reclaiming reading.
Two years into this journey, I feel my life and professional work have infinitely enrichened through the stories – both fiction and non-fiction – I have woven into my mind. Through fiction, like Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive, I have been able to connect with works that have changed my client’s lives and guided them through their most challenging days. Through Jessie Greengrass’s The High House I got in touch with my own climate anxiety and connected with the feelings of uncertainty so many of our rangatahi face in their communities.
Kerry Gibson’s What Young People Want from Mental Health Services, my most referenced and loved non-fiction work on youth mental health, effortlessly articulated so many of my thoughts, offering much-needed language. Equally treasured, too, are the non-fiction works that challenged me: books offer a much-needed opportunity to explore how others understand the world differently, immerse in their perspectives, and enrichen my understanding of what is meaningful to those around me. While much of the commentary around Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation stirred frustration in me, I can’t deny how reading it, and the media associated with it, pushed me to pause, reflect, and articulate my reactions.
For me, to treasure stories of all kinds is to be human. Every story we have the privilege to hear, to read, to watch has the potential to change something: our minds and our moods. It’s an honour to hold these stories, in all their forms, and a privilege to have again unlocked the joy of reading.
About Jess
Dr Jess Stubbing is a clinical psychologist and youth mental health researcher. You can learn more about her work at https://informedfutures.org/theme/youth-mental-health/
Book details
Sanderson, B. (2021). The way of kings: The Stormlight Archive book one. Gollancz, London, UK.
Greengrass, J. (2021). The high house. Swift Press, UK.
Gibson, K. (2022). What young people want from mental health services. Routledge, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon.
Haidt, J. (2024). The Anxious Generation: How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books.