1. Reading Books Can Help You Manage Stress
Reading can help reduce stress levels when you’re managing a mental health condition, and such benefits can also extend to everyday stress management for all people.
“In a busy world filled with screen time and social media, being able to read and escape into a book is definitely a way that we can lower stress both for ourselves and for our children,” says Danielle Curitore, MD, a pediatrician at St. Joseph Heritage Medical Group in Irvine, California. “As important as it is for children to interact and play, the benefits of reading and quiet time have been shown to also be important.”
Reducing stress is an effective strategy for boosting overall health. “Stress reduction can improve a person’s overall wellness, as it decreases cortisol levels that affect your physical wellness,” says Dr. Curitore. “For example, [reducing stress helps with] stabilizing blood pressure, improving mental health, and also reducing risk for [some] chronic diseases.”
Reading also supports the nervous system says, Kelly Gonderman, PsyD, a California-based licensed clinical psychologist and the clinical director at mental health treatment center We Conquer Together. “Reading is one of the few activities that genuinely slows the nervous system down without requiring you to do anything that feels like work,” she says. “What I observe clinically is that sustained reading — particularly fiction — creates a kind of focused attention that interrupts the rumination loops that drive anxiety and depression.”
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