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Books

Top 5 audiobooks to boost your mental health

Psycho-Logical author Dean Burnett picked the best listens for when your brain needs some TLC

How to Survive the End of the World (When It’s in Your Own Head) by Aaron Gillies

Gillies is becoming the go-to for frank and honest discussions about mental health. His self-narrated audiobook highlights the realities of living with chronic anxiety with disarming charm and rapid-fire humour.

Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore 

Late childhood and adolescence are periods when our mental health is particularly vulnerable. Professor Blakemore is a leading expert in adolescent brain development, and is the perfect guide for what’s going on in the teen mind. 

Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall by Spike Milligan

A lot of stigma about mental health comes from people insisting there was ‘no such thing’ in the old days. This is completely wrong, and nowhere better proven than in Milligan’s war diaries. Detailing his time at the front, and subsequent mental collapse, it’s a must-listen.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

All in Your Head by Suzanne O’Sullivan

So many people draw clear distinctions between physical and mental health, but the reality is far more uncertain. Expert neurologist O’Sullivan reveals the extremes of what can occur in psychosomatic illness, where for no obvious reason the brain overrules the body.

The Idiot Brain by Dean Burnett

Perhaps its not the done thing to recommend your own book, but I always felt the mental health discussion lacked awareness and acknowledgement of how just how normal it is for the brain to go wrong. 

Psycho-Logical by Dean Burnett is out now in audio, available on Audible UK

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