Why Thrillers Can Be Good For Your Mental Health

Today is World Mental Health Day, a day to raise awareness of mental health issues and make mental health and well-being a global priority. I’m going to talk about how thrillers helped me through the pandemic and how they can be surprisingly good for your mental health.

Why Thrillers Can Be Good For Your Mental Health

I have social anxiety and OCD. Some days (and weeks and months) are good, others not so much.

Whether you have diagnosed mental health issues or not, the past two years have been tough. During the height of the pandemic, I was struggling to find things to read.

Some books seemed too light to keep my attention, others seemed so dense I couldn’t concentrate.

Fortunately, I was in the process of expanding my reading, and I found my way back to mysteries and thrillers.

I’ve been a mystery reader since I read Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew as a kid.

I have found that there are two kinds of books that help me battle anxiety:

One: the right kind of mysteries and thrillers

Two: books where I know what is going to happen

Let’s look at them one by one:

Why Reading The Right Mysteries and Thrillers Helps Anxiety

The anxious mind is a restless mind, one that looks for things to worry and obsess about. People with anxiety are told to “just relax” and do relaxing things, but relaxing can give your mind a perfect opportunity to obsess.

Why did everyone do puzzles during the pandemic?

Puzzles were the perfect low-stakes hobby that kept the mind occupied. Mysteries and thrillers can serve the same function.

Yes, thrillers might give you new things to worry about, things you hadn’t thought of. But by avoiding your particular anxiety triggers and finding the right kind of thrillers, you can find a new peace of mind.

My advice: figure out in advance things that upset you. Maybe it’s kidnapped children, maybe it’s being trapped in a small space, flying in planes, whatever.

Exposure therapy IS a recommended method for dealing with anxiety, OCD, and phobias, but you want to expose yourself willingly, not accidentally.

Another thing thing that worked for me: reading books that had nothing to do with my daily life. Thrillers set at weddings, thrillers set in old spooky houses, Gothic thrillers and mysteries, and Dark Academia worked well for me. But everyone is different.

But how do you know what anxiety triggers a book might contain? Here’s where we come to my second point:

Why Re-Reads and Spoilers Help Anxiety

Uncertainty is one of the main underlying issues in both anxiety and OCD. If only we could predict and control everything! Re-reads are great for anxiety because you can relax and enjoy the story.

But I’d argue that spoilers can also serve the same purpose. If you want to read an anxiety inducing book and be prepared, you need spoilers. I do this often for reality TV shows where I feel very invested in the outcome.

I have many Spoiler Posts with full plot summaries – you can find an alphabetical list here.

I was on the website of a favorite author, Alex Michalides, and he’s also discussed how reading – and writing – thrillers lets you be scared in a contained and safe way.

What are your thoughts? What do you like to read when your mental health isn’t great? Talk to me in the comments!