The Complete Guide to Mental Health: The Comprehensive Guide to Choosing Therapy, Counselling and Psychiatric Care Elaine Farrell, 1997, ISBN 009181520-7 This handbook is an essential guide for everyone concerned with mental health - as sufferers or carers. There is comprehensive information on therapy and treatment, and up-to-date information on community care and mental health and human rights.

Diamonds Behind My Eyes Nicola Pagett and Graham Swannell. ISBN 0-575-06500-1 Nicola Pagett was acting in a Joe Orton play when manic depression took over and she had a breakdown. In this book she spares herself nothing in her determination to explain, openly and in a manner that mirrors her condition, what happened to her and how she recovered.

The Depression Workbook: A Guide for Living with Depression and Manic Depression, Second Edition Copeland, M.E. and McKay, M, 2002, ISBN-10: 157224268X Based on extensive research, this book contains interactive exercises that provide guidance on essential coping skills.  Learn to practise the latest research-based self-help strategies to relieve depression and address other mental health issues.  

I Had a Black Dog Matthew Johnstone, 2007, ISBN 1845295897 There are many different breeds of Black Dog affecting millions of people from all walks of life. The Black Dog is an equal opportunity mongrel. It was Winston Churchill who popularized the phrase Black Dog to describe the bouts of depression he experienced for much of his life. Matthew Johnstone, a sufferer himself, has written and illustrated this moving and uplifting insight into what it is like to have a Black Dog as a companion and how he learned to tame it and bring it to heel.

Living with Schizophrenia John Watkins, 1996, ISBN 085572272-X This text provides a sophisticated and critical account of theory regarding the “negative” symptoms of schizophrenia. It offers practical information and strategies for dealing creatively with these problems. 

Mad in American: Bad Science, Bad Medicine and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill Robert Whitaker, 2011, ISBN 073820799-3 Mad in America raises important questions about our obligations to the people who experience severe mental illness, the meaning of “insanity” and what we value most about the human mind.

Making Us Crazy - The Psychiatric Bible and the Creation of Mental Disorders Herb Kutchins and Stuart A. Kirk, 1999, ISBN-10: 0094797102 Making us Crazy is a book for those who want to look at the politics of how certain psychiatric diagnoses have been included or excluded from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association (APA).  Making Us Crazy is a powerful and challenging book which forces us to question the labels which are now commonly imposed on us by the American bible of mental syndromes.
Phone at Nine Just to Say You’re Alive Linda Hart, 1997, ISBN 0330 35180-X A personal account of someone who suffers with schizophrenia, of her experiences whilst in hospital. The author examines "madness" in this book and describes her own feelings, together with descriptions of the ward, its inmates and staff.

The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness Lori Schiller, 1996, ISBN-10: 0446671339 Lori Schiller describes her experience of schizophrenia and how she began an ordeal of hospitalisations, halfway houses, relapses, more suicide attempts, and constant, withering despair. But against all odds, she survived. Now in this personal account, she tells how she did it, taking us not only into her own shattered world, but drawing on the words of the doctors who treated her and family members who suffered with her.

Sunbathing in the Rain: A Cheerful Book About Depression Gwyneth Lewis, 2006, ISBN 0007232802 This title tackles the subject of depression, an illness that seems to be the defining malaise of the early 21st century. The overall structure of the book moves from dark to light, telling the story of the author's recovery. Its different strands allow a variety of tones and subjects to be explored, from the profound to the frivolous. Part memoir - drawing on her own experiences, both adverse and encouraging, as a depressive and an alcoholic - and part guide or companion, the author unpacks her dark memories, and re-embarks on a journey that nearly killed her first time round. She survives and shows how others might too.

Understanding Paranoia (Thorsons Health Series) Dr. Peter Chadwick, 1995, ISBN 072253023-4 This is a complete guide to paranoia - what it is, how it feels and what to do about it. Understanding Paranoia gives a clear account of the experience of paranoia and the distortions of thinking it involves.

Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma Peter A. Levine and Ann Frederick, 1997, ISBN 155643233-X Waking the Tiger normalizes the symptoms of trauma and the steps needed to heal them. People are often traumatized by seemingly ordinary experiences. The reader is taken on a guided tour of the subtle, yet powerful impulses that govern our responses to overwhelming life events. To do this, it employs a series of exercises that help us focus on bodily sensations.