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00:00:01
Mental Health and Mysteries
0 Playsin 10 hours
Brook and Sarah discuss why reading, and reading mysteries in particular, is good for you.
Discussed and mentioned
Sam Goldstein, "Why We Love a Good Mystery" (14 March 2025) Psychology Today
Everybody Loves Raymond (American TV Sitcom 1996-2005)
Related Episodes
Mysteries Without Murder (released September 27, 2022)
Craft and Hobby Mysteries (released March 3, 2026)
For more information
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Music: Signs To Nowhere by Shane Ivers – www.silvermansound.com
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Order Life or Delft by Brook and Sarah
For a full episode transcript, visit https://cluedinmystery.com/mental-health-and-mysteries/
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Transcript
Link Between Reading and Mental Health
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Brooke. Hi, Sarah. How are you doing? I'm doing pretty well. How about you I'm great, and I'm really excited about today's topic because it is kind of about how we're doing. Yeah, we're going to talk a little bit about reading and mental health and mystery and mental health, and I will just start with a little introduction.
00:00:42
Speaker
Research suggests that reading fiction can positively impact mood and emotion. And there are examples dating back to the 5th century BCE e linking reading and health. In clinical settings, creative bibliotherapists use works of fiction and ask their patients to identify similarities between themselves and the character. to recognize parallels between their emotional journeys and asking the reader to gain insight into their situation by considering how the character resolves conflict.
00:01:14
Speaker
If you have children, you might have taken them through a similar sequence while reading together. And Brooke, you and I do something similar with our What Would You Do episodes. That's right. Informally, your library might offer prescriptions or book recommendations tailored to a situation or an emotion.
00:01:33
Speaker
But we don't need research to know that reading is good for us. It brings us to another world and it brings us together. Think of all the book clubs that gather around a book, but also share life's moments.
00:01:45
Speaker
The act of reading, snuggling up with a warm beverage and a blanket or heading to the park with a book, is caring for yourself. It is relaxing and it is healing.
Personal Stories of Reading as Comfort
00:01:55
Speaker
We have discussed previously how a mystery is satisfying because we usually see the good guy win and the bad guy caught. And so today we are going to be talking about mystery and mental health and reading.
00:02:07
Speaker
So Brooke, what do you turn to when you need a mood boost? Yeah, that is a great question. And I just want to preface this by saying that when I was young, I can remember being a pretty small child. And maybe when I was having a particularly stressful week, or maybe I was just tired. And my dad would always ask me, what do you have to look forward to?
00:02:29
Speaker
Like, you know, we're eating breakfast. Well, what do you have to look forward to? And that is a question that I think I've carried through my life with. So if I have a really, so I know like, well, by four o'clock, that really stressful thing is going to be over with. And I will tell you many, many times the thought that would come to me, the thing that I looked forward to was this great book that I had waiting for me. ah Or you're sitting in a long meeting at work And just, you know, biding your time and you think, oh, but when this workday is over, I'm going to go home and I have this fantastic book that I'm in the middle of. And that they've always been um kind of a high point for me, like this kind of hope, I guess, or happy anticipation.
00:03:13
Speaker
Yeah, I love that, Brooke. And I've had similar experiences, you know, almost every morning I wake up and I think, okay, what am I looking forward to today? Yeah, I'm looking forward to picking up my book at the end of the day. Often it's in the bathtub and it's 10 or 15 minutes of just absolute heaven.
00:03:34
Speaker
Yes. Well, and there again, so much of that is, is definitely self-care. Having something to look forward to is very healthy, but yet then the act of it too is of actually taking that time and like, no, I'm going to do this for myself. it's It's really important. And these days it's maybe not a physical book, but I've gotten through a lot of long, boring drives or commutes listening to audio books. And it just makes the whole process so much happier because you're getting to find out what happens to your characters while you kind of do this mundane thing.
00:04:11
Speaker
Yeah, I made a note when I was thinking about this episode that um I often listen to an audiobook while I'm doing chores. So I'm cleaning the bathroom and, you know, listening to some, um often it's ah it's a mystery, right? So there's something happening to someone else while I'm scrubbing the toilet. Yes. I just met a lovely woman yesterday who said, my garden has never been more weed-free now that I discovered audiobooks.
00:04:47
Speaker
And I said, yes, my house gets clean or cleaner when I ah have a book that I'm listening to. Time just flies. But then she was very cute. She said, The only chore I can't do with my audio book is vacuuming. And we agreed that there needs to be some sort of invention so that we can vacuum and continue listening.
00:05:08
Speaker
I love it. But you mentioned it was oftentimes mysteries.
The Science of Mystery Stories
00:05:14
Speaker
And um I found a really interesting Psychology Today article that I'll just read a quote from. Mystery stories, whether classic whodunits or thrilling crime novels, tap into this neurological reward system.
00:05:29
Speaker
When we finally reach the aha moment, the brain experiences a surge of satisfaction and dopamine, reinforcing our love for unraveling mysteries. And it goes on to explain that our brains were really designed for detecting hidden threats and like watching out for problems. Obviously, the problems aren't the tiger in the ah you know, on the safari any longer. However, we are wired to want to look out and watch for problems or, or put clues together. And so reading mysteries gives our brain kind of this little ah hit that it craves.
00:06:11
Speaker
Oh, that's such a great observation. And, you know, I hadn't made that connection before that this is just instinctual, the way that people respond to mystery, that kind of, you know, looking for danger, but in a very safe way. Yeah, I had never thought of that either the actual way that our our brains are wired for it, but it makes perfect sense. And it was um it it kind of explained because you and I have discussed before, like, why are these so satisfying to us? And I think that there's something here. Our brains reward us because of of our um of our genetic makeup, basically.
Mood and Genre Preference
00:06:58
Speaker
That said, i do find that there are different genres that I tend to lean into or stay away from depending on my mood. If I'm feeling particularly anxious or just like heightened stress,
00:07:20
Speaker
I don't typically respond well to watching a show that is stressful, right? um We were watching the other night.
00:07:31
Speaker
something that was, it was very intense. And my husband looked over at me and I think I must've been just this like tight ball. And he's like, ah we can't watch this anymore because this is not helping you. Right.
00:07:47
Speaker
And so, you know, I know that particularly if things externally you Yeah, just a little bit more stressful, a little bit um unpredictable than I want to be watching or reading something that is just a little gentler. What about you, Brooke?
00:08:08
Speaker
Yeah, I would completely agree with that. Or you know situations, like for instance, when my daughter went off to college, it became really difficult for me to watch any um mysteries where or read mysteries where the you know young woman was abducted, or right? Because we're already dealing mentally with these worries, um you know and it it doesn't have to be your children. It might be like maybe you can never read anything where ah a pet is threatened, right?
00:08:41
Speaker
I think that that is very true, and especially if you're going through a big life change or stress. i mean, we heard that so clearly from Frances with Chronicles of Crime, when she came on the show way back in some of our earliest seasons, and she talked about during the pandemic, she had a huge rise in her bookshop of sales of very gentle, cozy mysteries because people weren't able mentally to handle anything too violent or scary.
00:09:14
Speaker
So if someone came up to you and said, you know I'm really struggling to focus on you know anything or or read anything, what would you recommend? if we If you were a bibliotherapist, Brooke, what would you recommend? OK, if that's a real job, I might need to go back and go to school. A bibliotherapist, that's a great opportunity.
00:09:41
Speaker
I would probably, and i I'm terrible ah about naming titles off the top of my head, but I'm thinking back to our show that we did about mysteries without murder. And I very much might say, you know, why don't you look at something that has the puzzle, that has this crime being solved, but isn't quite such so high stakes. And one of those options were um some traditional YA titles, like some Nancy Drew, maybe something that you loved when you were 10, 12, something that is just really low stakes, pretty gentle, but still gets you back into reading. And then I do think that that
00:10:23
Speaker
can, can then gain momentum. Cause I've had some periods in my life where I just couldn't read, but it feels like once you kind of break that seal and start, um, indulging again, then you can find your pace.
00:10:36
Speaker
Yeah. I, I think that's a terrific recommendation, Brooke, particularly the idea of returning to something that you enjoyed when you were younger.
00:10:47
Speaker
right to just kind of bring you back to that um to that time and yeah during the pandemic um I didn't read for it was probably at least a year and I remember I I think I've talked about this before like feeling distraught that I would never enjoy another book uh and what got me out of it wasn't was an audiobook mm-hmm Oh, and that's really when you found your love of audiobooks, isn't it?
Rediscovering Reading During the Pandemic
00:11:16
Speaker
It is. I hadn't previously listened to an audiobook. And um I can just very clearly remember standing in my kitchen, looking at my phone, looking at the library's um app, and scrolling through and seeing a Dan Brown book that I hadn't i hadn't previously read. And you know I thought, okay, he's it's very popcorn-y.
00:11:37
Speaker
fiction, right? Like it's not going to be mentally taxing, but I know he writes entertaining stories. I'm going to give this a try. And um I did. And that is, was what it took to, to get me out. So I would recommend to someone if they, particularly if they were having a hard time physically reading, that they try audio book or um try a show, right? I had a friend the other day who said something very similar to me, like, nothing's been able to keep my my attention.
00:12:13
Speaker
would you recommend i watch? And I very happily produced a list of several different shows. i was like, if you have this streaming service, you could watch this. If you have this streaming service, you could watch this.
00:12:24
Speaker
um And if you've liked this, then you might like this. And it was so much fun to put that together and say, you know, in here, I'm sure there is something that you will enjoy. You know, sometimes that's that's all it is is is, just a change from whatever it is that they've been reading before.
00:12:41
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah. And we want these because it's at the end of the day, it's entertainment and we don't want it to become another stressor.
00:12:52
Speaker
And for you who'd been a lifetime reader, you probably felt a certain degree of stress. Like you said, like, oh my gosh, I've lost this thing that I loved. And it it added another layer of discomfort to the whole situation. And so if you can just break away from that and remember, this is my fun I went through a period of time where all I could watch on television because I needed a distraction from what was happening in my own head was everybody loves Raymond. And of course, this is definitely not in the mystery, but it does touch on something you said, which is something that was familiar, something that maybe you watched during a very happy time in your life. And if that's what it takes to kind of just block out the world for a moment, I think it's just really good for us.
00:13:40
Speaker
What about Brooke? i mean, we've kind of touched on this. Like, can you think of anything that you wouldn't recommend to someone if they said like, I'm struggling with what, with either something to distract me or, or, uh, you know, I'm not able to read.
00:13:58
Speaker
you think you would tell them to stick away or stay away from anything? Yeah. That's a tough one. I think it really depends on the person. I think if you know the person well enough to know, like this is something that like they can't do dark because they really aren't somebody who likes dark stuff to begin with. So maybe the hot new title that's out there is something that's pretty dark and you you go, you know what, maybe that's not for you right now because you know them well enough. Yeah, I think it really depends on the person.
00:14:29
Speaker
Can you think of something in general that isn't good for those moments? ah Like you say, it's kind of a ah a ah situational thing, right? Because i know you don't really like reading horror and I don't, I certainly don't watch it. I'm okay to read something that is a little, um a little more gory or a little bit more suspenseful.
00:14:57
Speaker
And sometimes sometimes It's nice to read something like that, that, you know, is so far fetched. It's never going to happen. Right. And then you can take a step back and be like, well, at least my life isn't like, you know, at least I'm not running away from some madman. With a chainsaw. Exactly.
00:15:19
Speaker
So I think it really is. situational. um But like i said, I know for me personally, if I'm in a period of heightened stress, I probably wouldn't be turning to something that is going to just amp that up.
00:15:35
Speaker
I think it's fascinating how much it influences us. I think we take that for granted in a in a way that our psyche and our physical body really does get influenced by what we're consuming.
00:15:52
Speaker
But I found the same thing. I'll be watching a show and realize, oh, you know, I'm like really clenched up right now. And it it does affect us. We interact with it that closely, which is a fantastic and wonderful thing about fiction. But we kind of just need to keep an eye on that for our own for our own self-care.
Why Mysteries Resonate
00:16:10
Speaker
ha aha Recently, we talked about craft mysteries. And I mentioned that we have this trend with especially some of the younger ah adults in in the world that this grandma hobbies have become... very popular. And I think that this is a demonstration of people wanting to kind of do that self-care, do some screen-free activities. It's mentally soothing. And it goes along with some of the other tactile hobbies that have really gained popularity again, like knitting, puzzles, cooking, coloring. So I'm happy to see this resurgence of reading and this acknowledgement that it is really good for our for our well-being.
00:16:55
Speaker
Well, and that's interesting because I recently read a commentary um just about kind of pop culture generally right now. And the quote was something like, it's really hard to get anything greenlit if it isn't a mystery. And I wonder if that doesn't kind of speak to this collective desire to see good prevail.
00:17:17
Speaker
Oh, yes. I think that's a really great observation. And I think another wonderful thing that mysteries in particular do for our mental health is keeping our minds active. We discussed how it's ah innate that we want to go look for the clues, but it's also wonderful for us. like Maybe you've left full-time employment and you don't have those job duties that are kind of keeping you sharp and pushing you to learn and things like that. But when you read a mystery, you're tracking those clues and you're forming theories. It's a really great way to keep our minds sharp. I think it's sort of like playing a puzzle. So it's good in many ways.
00:18:02
Speaker
You know, you and I, Brooke, we're not licensed therapists, but I think we would prescribe mystery to anybody. Absolutely. And so I will make this offer that if anyone needs a clued in mystery recommendation, we would be happy to provide one.
00:18:21
Speaker
Yes, I love that idea, Sarah. And then it's, as I said before, we can kind of learn about what you enjoy and give you some great recommendations to to fit the stage of reading that you're in right now or watching.
00:18:38
Speaker
Absolutely. Thank you, Brooke, for chatting with me this morning about mystery and reading and mental health. It has been great, Sarah, as usual. And thank you, everyone, for joining us today on Clued in Mystery.
00:18:54
Speaker
Until next time, I'm Brooke. And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery. Clued in Mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen.
00:19:06
Speaker
Music is by Shane Ivers. If you liked what you heard, please consider telling a friend, leaving a review, or subscribing with your favorite podcast listening app. Visit our website to sign up for our newsletter, The Clued in Chronicle, and get mystery news, podcast updates, and bonus episodes.
00:19:22
Speaker
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