Table of Contents
Is fiction good for mental health?
Reading fiction can help you feel more connected and can help people who may be dealing with depression or anxiety. It allows your imagination to become more engaged and you connect emotionally to characters and reflect your own feelings, problems and desires as you read. Recent research in neuroscience suggests that you might look to the library for solutions; reading literary fiction helps people develop empathy, theory of mind, and critical thinking. When we read, we hone and strengthen several different cognitive muscles, so to speak, that are the root of the EQ. Fiction books are better for improving your creativity, imagination, prosocial behavior, and empathy. Nonfiction books, on the other hand, give you fact-based information for expanding your knowledge. That said, reading both genres yields better results. Disadvantages of Reading Fiction Books On the disadvantage level, fiction books exist in a completely different universe; some of the disadvantages of reading fiction books are: Fiction causes your mind to sag. Stories can make you unhappy with reality. Novels arouse the reader’s emotions. The experience of gaining access to the interiority of the characters’ minds can broaden our perspective and more accepting of diversity. Sometimes, people get so engrossed with the characters that their own personalities get affected. The extent may vary, but fiction creeps into the daily existence for many of us. Results indicate that people enjoy sad movies through two mediators: realism, and involvement. According to the authors, ‘sadness enhances perceived reality and increases a sense of involvement, leading viewers to enjoy the sad film’.
Is fiction good for mental health?
Reading fiction can help you feel more connected and can help people who may be dealing with depression or anxiety. It allows your imagination to become more engaged and you connect emotionally to characters and reflect your own feelings, problems and desires as you read. Recent research in neuroscience suggests that you might look to the library for solutions; reading literary fiction helps people develop empathy, theory of mind, and critical thinking. When we read, we hone and strengthen several different cognitive muscles, so to speak, that are the root of the EQ. Similar psychological processes are used to navigate fiction and real-world relationships; reading fiction helps you identify others’ emotions better. The act of reading itself boosts brain activity, so whatever you read will work towards increasing your IQ. To put yourself in the shoes of others and grow your capacity for empathy, you can hardly do better than reading fiction. Multiple studies have shown that imagining stories helps activate the regions of your brain responsible for better understanding others and seeing the world from a new perspective. Stanford University researchers have found that close literary reading in particular gives your brain a workout in multiple complex cognitive functions, while pleasure reading increases blood flow to different areas of the brain.
Is reading fiction good for anxiety?
Reading is proven to reduce stress and increase relaxation. Reading books, particularly fiction, fully engages the mind and imagination. Any activity that possesses meditative qualities in which the brain is fully focused on a single task is proven to reduce stress and enhance relaxation. Reading fiction can help you feel more connected and can help people who may be dealing with depression or anxiety. It allows your imagination to become more engaged and you connect emotionally to characters and reflect your own feelings, problems and desires as you read. One of the major benefits of reading fiction is that it broadens our imagination and thinking process. By taking us into another world, it opens our minds to new ideas and possibilities that definitely help us experience and analyze the world through others’ lives. Reading is an essential life skill, but most people fail to realize the power of deep reading. Deep reading has brain benefits. Studies show that reading can actually help keep your brain healthy. The more you read, the more blood flows to the parts of your brain that control language and comprehension. It increases intelligence. Exposure to vocabulary through reading (particularly reading children’s books) not only leads to higher score on reading tests, but also higher scores on general tests of intelligence for children. Plus, stronger early reading skills may mean higher intelligence later in life. Reading for a long time or “too much” reading can actually be harmful to you. There are several health damages- both mental and physical that can happen if you read a lot. When you read too much, you become lazy, slow, drained, and exhausted both physically and mentally.