When feelings of intense fear and distress are overwhelming and prevent us from doing everyday things, an anxiety disorder may be the cause. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health concern in the United States. An estimated 40 million adults in the U.S., or 18%, have an anxiety disorder.


All That I Can Fix

Crystal Chan
(Young Adult Fiction – Y Chan)

In Makersville, Indiana, people know all about fifteen-year-old Ronney--he's from that mixed-race family with the dad who tried to kill himself, the pill-popping mom, and the genius kid sister. Can Ronney figure out a way to hold it together as all his worlds fall apart?


All the Bright Places

Jennifer Niven
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Niven)

Told in alternating voices, when Theodore Finch and Violet Markey meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school—both teetering on the edge—it's the beginning of an unlikely relationship, a journey to discover the "natural wonders" of the state of Indiana, and two teens' desperate desire to heal and save one another.


The Astonishing Color of After

Emily Pan
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Pan)

After her mother's suicide, grief-stricken Leigh Sanders travels to Taiwan to stay with grandparents she never met, determined to find her mother who she believes turned into a bird.


Challenger Deep

Neal Shusterman
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Shuster)

A teenage boy struggles with schizophrenia.


Darius the Great is Not Okay

Adib Khorram
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Khorram)

Clinically-depressed Darius Kellner, a high school sophomore, travels to Iran to meet his grandparents, but it is their next-door neighbor, Sohrab, who changes his life.


Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets

Evan Roskos
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Roskos)

A sixteen-year-old boy wrestling with depression and anxiety tries to cope by writing poems, reciting Walt Whitman, hugging trees, and figuring out why his sister has been kicked out of the house.


Dreaming of Antigone

Robin Bridges
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Bridges)

Andria's twin sister, Iris, had adoring friends, a cool boyfriend, a wicked car, and a shelf full of soccer trophies. She had everything, in fact--including a drug problem. Six months after Iris's death, Andria is trying to keep her grades, her friends, and her family from falling apart. But stargazing and books aren't enough to ward off her guilt that she--the freak with the scary illness and all-black wardrobe--is still here when Iris isn't. 


Finding Audrey

Sophie Kinsella
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Kinsell)

Fourteen-year-old Audrey is making slow but steady progress dealing with her anxiety disorder when Linus comes into the picture and her recovery gains momentum.


Goodbye Days

Jeff Zentner
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Zentner)

Looks at a teen's life after the death of his best friend and how he navigates through the guilt and pain by celebrating their lives--and ultimately learning to forgive himself.


History is All You Left Me

Adam Silvera
(Young Adult Fiction – Y Silvera)

Secrets are revealed as OCD-afflicted Griffin grieves for his first love, Theo, who died in a drowning accident. Even though Theo had moved to California for college and started seeing Jackson, Griffin never doubted Theo would come back to him when the time was right. To make things worse, the only person who truly understands his heartache is Jackson. As Griffin loses himself in his obsessive compulsions and destructive choices, the secrets he's been keeping are tearing him apart.


It’s Kind of a Funny Story

Ned Vizzini
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Vizzini)

A humorous account of a New York City teenager's battle with depression and his time spent in a psychiatric hospital.


The Memory of Light

Francisco Stork
(Young Adult Fiction – Y Stork)

When Victoria Cruz wakes up in the psychiatric ward of a Texas hospital after her failed suicide attempt, she still has no desire to live, but as the weeks pass, and she meets Dr. Desai and three of the other patients, she begins to reflect on the reasons why she feels like a loser compared with the rest of her family, and to see a path ahead where she can make a life of her own.


My Heart and Other Black Holes

Jasmine Warga
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Warga)

"Seventeen-year-old Aysel's hobby—planning her own death—take a new path when she meets a boy who has similar plan of his own."—Provided by publisher.


A Quiet Kind of Thunder

Sara Barnard
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Barnard)

Steffi has been a selective mute for most of her life - she's been silent for so long that she feels completely invisible. But Rhys, the new boy at school, sees her. He's deaf, and her knowledge of basic sign language means that she's assigned to look after him. To Rhys it doesn't matter that Steffi doesn't talk and, as they find ways to communicate, Steffi finds that she does have a voice, and that she's falling in love with the one person who makes her feel brave enough to use it.


Sorry to Disrupt the Peace

Patty Cottrell
(Adult Fiction Fiction - Cottrel)

Helen Moran is thirty-two years old, single, childless, college-educated, and partially employed as a guardian of troubled young people in New York. Shes accepting a delivery from IKEA in her shared studio apartment when her uncle calls to break the news: Helen's adoptive brother is dead. According to the internet, there are six possible reasons why her brother might have killed himself. But Helen knows better: she knows that six reasons is only shorthand for the abyss. 


Standard Deviation

Katherine Heiny
(Adult Fiction - Heiny)

Divorcing his wife to marry his girlfriend, Audra, is the one impulsive thing Graham Cavanaugh has ever done. Audra is charming and spontaneous and fun, but life with her can be exhausting. As Graham and Audra struggle to define their marriage and raise a child with Asperger's, they decide to establish a friendship with his first wife, Elspeth. But former spouses are hard to categorize--are they friends, enemies, old flames, or just people who know you really, really well?


Stupid Fast

Geoff Herbach
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Herbach)

Just before his sixteenth birthday, Felton Reinstein has a sudden growth spurt that turns him from a small, jumpy, picked-on boy with the nickname of "Squirrel Nut" to a powerful athlete, leading to new friends, his first love, and the courage to confront his family's past and current problems.


Symptoms of Being Human

Jeff Garvin
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Garvin)

A gender-fluid teenager who struggles with identity creates a blog on the topic that goes viral, and faces ridicule at the hands of fellow students.


That's Not What Happened

Kody Keplinger
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Kepling)

In the three years since the Virgil County High School Massacre, a story has grown up around one of the victims, Sarah McHale, that says she died proclaiming her Christian faith--but Leanne Bauer was there, and knows what happened, and she has a choice: stay silent and let people believe in Sarah's martyrdom, or tell the truth.


This Song Will Save Your Life

Leila Sales
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Sales)

Nearly a year after a failed suicide attempt, sixteen-year-old Elise discovers that she has the passion, and the talent, to be a disc jockey.


Turtles All the Way Down

John Green
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Green)

Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate.  Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.


When I Cast Your Shadow

Sarah Porter
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Porter)

Haunted by her dead brother, unable to let him go, Ruby must figure out whether his nightly appearances in her dreams are the answer to her prayers―or a nightmare come true…Everett always been jealous of his dashing older brother. Now he must do everything he can to save his twin sister Ruby from his clutches...Charming, handsome, and manipulative, Dash has run afoul of some very powerful forces in the Land of the Dead. His only bargaining chips are Ruby and Everett. At stake is the very survival of the Bohnacker family, bodies and souls.


When We Collided

Emery Lord
(Young Adult Fiction - Y Lord)

Can seventeen-year-old Jonah save his family restaurant from ruin, his mother from her sadness, and his danger-seeking girlfriend Vivi from herself?


Nonfiction Resources
8 Keys to Practicing Mindfulness: Practical Strategies for Emotional Health and Well-being

Manuela Mischke Reeds
(Adult Nonfiction - 158.1 Ree)

Reeds offers clear, gentle guidance in engaging with mind and body, coping with struggles, and working toward an inner peace. Based in clinical practice, this resource moves the reader from passive text instruction into action.


50 things you can do today to manage anxiety

Wendy Green
(Adult Nonfiction - 616.8522 Gre)

Green informs readers how they can take charge of anxiety and turn negative thoughts into positive thoughts. Her book provides tips on how to manage anxiety through diet, activity, stress management, and therapy.


The Anxiety Survival Guide for Teens: CBT Skills to Overcome Fear, Worry, & Panic

Jennifer Shannon
(Adult Nonfiction - 155.5124 Sha)

The Anxious Teen Survival Guide is a much-needed, go-to guide to help you finally break free from the worry and ruminations that can get in the way of reaching your goals.


Anxiety: a very short introduction

Daniel Freeman
(Adult Nonfiction - 152.46 Fre)

A Very Short Introduction combines insights from a variety of sciences—psychology, neuroscience, epidemiology and genetics—to provide a full picture of what anxiety is, what causes it, and why anxiety is so important.


Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8: A Young Man's Voice From the Silence of Autism

Naoki Higashida
(Adult Nonfiction - 616.8588 Hig)

Naoki Higashida wrote The Reason I Jump as a 13-year-old boy. Now, he shares his thoughts and experiences as a 24-year old young man with severe autism. In short, powerful chapters, he explores education, identity, family, society and personal growth. He also allows readers to experience profound moments we take for granted, like the thought-steps necessary for him to register that it's raining outside. Introduced by award-winning author David Mitchell (co-translator with his wife, KA Yoshida), this book is part memoir, part critique of a world that sees disabilities ahead of disabled people. It is a self-portrait-in-progress of a young man who happens to have autism, and who wants to help us understand it better


Fear and Anxiety

Kim Etingoff
(Adult Nonfiction - 152.46 Eti)

This resource provides teens with a general understanding of anxiety, its impact in teens’ lives, and uses fictional stories to humanize tough emotions.


Stay: A History of Suicide and Philosophies Against It

Jennifer Michael Hecht
(Adult Nonfiction - 179.7 Hec)

Worldwide, more people die by suicide than by murder, and many more are left behind to grieve. Despite distressing statistics that show suicide rates rising, the subject, long a taboo, is infrequently talked about. In this sweeping intellectual and cultural history, poet andhistorian Jennifer Michael Hecht channels her grief for two friends lost to suicide into a search for history's most persuasive arguments against the irretrievable act, arguments she hopes to bring back into public consciousness.


Yoga for your mind and body: a teenage practice for a healthy, balanced life

Rebecca Rissman
(Adult Nonfiction - 613.7046 Ris)

"Presents yoga techniques and poses to promote brain power, stress relief, strength, and fitness"—Provided by publisher.