WORDS LAURA POTTER
Photographs iStockphoto
How do you manage anxious thoughts, deal with depression or navigate grief? Professor Philip Davis, director of the Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society at the University of Liverpool, says that reading – both alone, and as part of a group – can be a useful strategy. ‘I’m glad of anything that helps with mental health, be it medication or therapies,’ he says, ‘but sometimes we can over-medicalise things.’ He argues that by reading another person’s experience, real or imagined, we are able to confront our feelings in a safe environment. Here’s how reading can help…