Insurance, time, frustration with therapeutic experiences, inability to tell parents, etc, can make seeing a therapist either impossible or unappealing. Here’s a (totally incomplete) list. Please please please add other suggestions in the comments! I’ll keep updating.
Relevant disclaimer: I’m not a therapist. Most of the linked blog posts are not written by therapists. (Though most of the books are written by someone with a psych degree.)
The below are first general resources, then sorted specifically by disorder, followed by some resources if you do decide to seek therapy. If I could pick three I endorse the most, I’d say Boggle, How To Keep Moving Forward, and Don’t Tell Me To Love My Body. All three are italicized in the list.
Miscellaneous/Multi-Disorder Help & Information
DBT Workbook
This is one of many, but it’s received very positive reception from the psych community and did get an award for being evidence based. DBT is an evidence-based therapy that focuses on mindfulness and combines many principles of Zen with therapeutic techniques.
Mindfulness Course
8-week course on mindfulness, suggested by commenter kabarett.
CBT Workbook
Again, one of many, but I’ve looked through this one, and liked the formatting and set up. I’ll amend this with critiques or other suggestions if you have them. CBT is an evidence-based therapy and works for many people, but not all.
What It’s Like in a Mental Hospital
Breakup Girl
Advice and relationships. Suggested by Keith David Smeltz
Dr. Nerdlove
“dispenser of valuable love and relationship advice to nerds, geeks and neo-maxie-zoom-dweebies.” [Note: heterosexual-oriented]
How To Keep Moving Forward Even When Your Brain Hates You
Books Which Received the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Seal of Merit
The Bounce Back Book
Recommended by Miri–I’ve not had a chance to take a look at it.
Depression and Anxiety
#450: How to tighten up your game at work when you’re depressed.
Boggle the Owl.
Boggle is an owl. And he is worried about you. Seriously, the best resource on this list.
The Secret Strength of Depression
A general self-help book, highly recommended to me.
Depression Subreddit, r/depression
Because nobody should be alone in a dark place.
I Don’t Want To Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression Have a close friend or partner who is a man with depression–or are one yourself? I’ve heard good reviews from friends who read this, though I’ve not investigated myself. And we really don’t examine depression in men nearly as well as we should. For instance, it often manifests in feelings of numbness, or unexplained rage–not things we normally associate with depression.
The Take This Project
It’s dangerous to go alone. Designed by videogame developers, suggested by commenter michaeld.
Self-help Anxiety Management for iOS and Android
A university-developed app to aid in coping with clinical and subclinical levels of anxiety.
When Panic Attacks
The title is somewhat gimmicky, and I was not terribly impressed by the chapter on medications, BUT this is a really great book for teaching good coping and reality-checking mechanisms. If you’re looking to reduce the amount or damage of anxiety, I’d strongly suggest starting here. Dr. Burns has also written Feeling Good (for depression) and Feeling Good Together (for relationships), for which I’ve heard good things but not checked out myself.
Happify
I played with this a bit; it’s an interactive happiness-booster. It appears to be making good use of what we know about the science of mood–you can even take a look at their citations and research basis for each activity. I also was pleased to find that they have an app–I don’t have to remember to login in at my computer. Downside: I found that their frequent check-ins about my mood were frustrating.
Substance Abuse/Addiction
Suicidal Feelings
What to Expect When You Call a Hotline
I really like knowing how things go before I try them. This lovely little guest post from someone on the other and of those phone lines tells you what to expect in terms of conversation (you don’t have to know what to say!) confidentiality, and experience.
IMAlive
Fabulous IM styled chat where all volunteers you work with are trained in suicide prevention. Strongly recommend for people who don’t do phonecalls well or find dialing for help hard.
Befrienders Worldwide Directory of Hotlines/Help Web-Chats
Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws
Written by Kate Borenstein, this book is not teen-specific, though it’s friendly to all ages. It operates on harm reduction, which is the philosophy that less-dangerous-but-still-risky behavior is always better than more-dangerous-and-risky behavior. I really like it, and do subscribe to harm reduction (it’s supported by evidence!). You also don’t have to read Hello Cruel World from end to end–it’s very easy to just open to a page and go from there.
Eating Disorders
Beyond Body Acceptance: This blog by Pervocracy is…therapeutic. Lovely. Beautiful.
Elyse at Skepchick: Don’t Tell Me To Love My Body
Science of Eating Disorders
In my pre-therapy days (also the worst times in terms of mental health, and when I did the most work to unlearn disordered habits) I often taught myself what not to do by learning all about my disorder. For instance, if most patients with anorexia ate Small Number X calories per day, I decided I was going to eat more than that every single day. To this day, I unlearn behaviors by starting from a research perspective. Also, lots of research focuses on what treatments work and which don’t do as well, which can give you some ideas for coping strategies.
Weightless
Not my flavor of help, maybe yours? I might just be picky.
If You Do Look For Therapy
Green Flags: What You Want in a Therapist
Braaaains! Being a Skeptical Mental Health Services Consumer
[shameless plug]