Reasons to Stay Alive | 
pickHaig has writtten a short, powerful memoir of his time with severe depression. It is honest and hard and ultimately hopeful although his attitude towards medication might not be helpful to someone suffering. Full review at https://booknaround.blogspot.com/2019/09/review-reasons-to-stay-alive-by-matt.ht...
pickWhat an insightful, hopeful, loving book. This is a must-read for anyone with depression and/or anxiety. Highly recommend the audiobook. #depression #anxiety #mentalillness #memoir #selfhelp #nonfiction
@BookNAround Thank you so much for this #randomactofkindness ! You are so kind to think of me. Your timing is perfect. *hugs*
A stormy night, a book, and a magazine about books. As long as the power stays on, I‘m all set.
pickRecommended to me when I was going through an incredibly hard time. I wasn‘t optimistic and felt it would be a chore to read. Oh, how wrong I was. Sometimes it‘s easy to think that you‘re the only one who can feel this bad but it‘s a relief to know that someone else has felt the same way. You‘re entitled to feel how you do and the hardest step is reaching out. Highly recommended for anyone who is suffering from low mood, depression and/or anxiety.
pickIf you suffer from depression and anxiety or want to understand someone who does, this honest book explains the true grit of it. There is the sadness and hope of his personal story, but also so many collected reasons to stay alive. This isn't self help but the reality of what mental health issues look like.
Hope everyone is having a good Easter weekend.
I am loving this sunny Scottish weather, spending today in my garden reading this gem.
#currentlyreading #mentalhealth
pickA perspective on personal struggles so relevant today. The ending of all of the things he has taken joy in after a time that he thought he would feel joy again is so moving and a constant reminder to me to be thankful and take in so much each day
pickPost 3 of 3. Just finished this one and I loved it. It was just what I needed. Definitely need the print version because there were so many good lines I wanted to underline. This was a personal look at his struggle with depression and anxiety that offered a lot of facts, statistics and quotes. It was helpful withou reading like a cheesy self help book. Very insightful. Thanks again @TrishB and @JanuarieTimewalker13 for the reccomendation!
This book is important. Haig shares his personal experience with depression, his insights about the disease, historical/scientific context, and his strategies for coping. His honesty and willingness to put his experiences in the public view provide a view of depressions and anxiety that is very real. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Books are possibilities. They are escape routes. They give you options when you have none.
I hope it is okay to "cross pollinate" a post from my Instagram (aka promote it too). I'm hosting a giveaway over there with my sister's ( @biblio_ginger ) business for one of my favorite 2018 reads and one of her BEAUTIFUL one-of-a-kind bookmarks. Check out the post and see how to win ?. My Instagram is @LitDrivenGirl too!
pickReading this was like a balm to the soul.
It is a very quick read and I highly recommend it.
Literally in my hands: my most recent Goodreads giveaway win! 🤗 Has solid reviews; I‘m looking forward to hearing his story.
Happy New Year to me. Looking forward to reading this memoir in 2019.
pickAfter I posted 9 quotes from this book you might‘ve guessed it - I loved it 😄. It was actually a reread and I still think Haig has so many important things to say. The book give a great insight in how a person suffering from depression might feel. It also makes a good point about the unjust stigma against mental health issues that is still very present in our society. And, most importantly, it shows you that you‘re not alone ❤️.
”@ AlRedboots
The hole you‘d leave is bigger than the pain you suffer by being #reasonstostayalive”
Can‘t decide if this is encouraging or really sad 🤔
pickI feel like I can only review this through adjectives and feelings and that feels right so here are a few:
Brave. Honest. Insightful. Wise. Consoling. Relatable. Helpful. Funny. Compassionate. Kind. Openhearted. Heartbreaking. Heart-healing (why isn't this a word?)
Depression is also...
smaller than you.
Always, it is smaller than you, even when it feels vast. It operates within you, you do not operate within it. It may be a dark cloud passing across the sky, but - if that is the metaphor - you are the sky.
You were there before it. And the cloud can‘t exist without the sky but the sky can exist without the cloud. (p. 175)
I‘m not talking about all that What Doesn‘t Kill You Makes You Stronger stuff. No. That‘s simply not true. What doesn‘t kill you very often makes you weaker. What doesn‘t kill you can leave you limping for the rest of your days. What doesn‘t kill you can make you scared to leave your house, or even your bedroom, and have you trembling, or mumbling incoherently, [...] wishing you could return to the time before the thing that didn‘t kill you. (126)
Where possible, don‘t make the depressive feel weirder than they already feel. Three days on the sofa? Haven‘t opened the curtains? Crying over difficult decisions like which pair of socks to wear? So what. No biggie. There is no standard normal. Normal is subjective. There are seven billion versions of normal on this planet. (p. 121)
If, as Schopenhauer said, “we forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people”, then love - at its best - is a way to reclaim those lost parts of ourselves. That freedom we lost somewhere quite early in childhood. Maybe love is just about finding the person you can be your weird self with. (p. 116)
Minds have their own weather system. You are in a hurricane. Hurricanes run out of energy eventually. Hold on. [...]
Nothing lasts for ever. This pain won‘t last. The pain tells you it will last. Pain lies. Ignore it. Pain is a debt paid off with time.
Things you think during your first panic attack
1. I am going to die. [...]
8. No one has felt his way before. Ever. In the whole of human history. [...]
10. I will never get over this.
Things you think during your 1000th panic attack [...]
2. I‘ve been here before. [...]
5. I‘m not going to die. [...]
10. I will get over this.
A brain is not a toaster. It is complex. It may only weigh a little over a kilo, but it is a kilo that contains a whole lifetime of memories.
[...] It is - like all else - made out of atoms which themselves came into being in stars millions of years ago. Yet more is known about those faraway stars than the processes of our brain, the one item in the whole universe that can think about, well, the universe. [S. 73]
pickExcellent book that I appreciated tremendously with Matt Haig's open discussion of his struggles with depression and anxiety. Definitely recommend!
"I stared at myself in the mirror. I stared at my face until it was not my face."
"There is this idea that you either read to escape or you read to find yourself. I don't really see the difference. We find ourselves through the process of escaping. It is not where we are, but where we want to go"
"To be calm becomes a kind of revolutionary act. To me happy with our own nonupgraded existence. To be comfortable with our messy, human selves, would not be good for business."
pickMatt Haig lays it all bare as far as the depressive breakdown he suffered 14 years ago, and the depression and anxiety he has suffered from ever since.
I could relate because I also have an anxiety and panic disorder. Currently one of my medications is on backorder, which means I had to stop taking it cold turkey. Im doing pretty well and I‘m taking joy in the little things, like Starbucks holiday drinks!
#booked2018 #mcwithinvisibleillness
To everyone having this human experience ❤️
#WorldMentalHealthDay
pickThis was definitely a brilliant book to read. Coping with depression and anxiety has been part of my life for the last two years and it‘s great to finally read a book that describes how it feels to have these thoughts and fears running through ones head. It‘s an honest account of someone who masterfully describes what it‘s like for depression suffers. And excellent, heartfelt, read.
pickI absolutely loved this. I‘ve struggled with mental health since I was 16, and I completely connected with this book. Thank you, Matt.
"Read Emily Dickinson. Read Graham Greene. Read Italo Calvino. Read Maya Angelou. Read anything you want. Just read. Books are possibilities. They are Escape Routes. They give you options when you have none. Each one can be a home for an uprooted mind."
I'm home from seeing the newest Purge movie with my sister & decided I couldn't wait another minute to show off the bag I designed for our #24in48 retreat. Inspired by Matt Haig's brilliant book!?
I hate depression. I am scared of it. Terrified, in fact. But at the same time, it has made me who I am. And if – for me – it is the price of feeling life, it‘s a price always worth paying. I am satisfied just to be.
My embarrassingly precious cat next to the two books I‘ve finished during my sick week. #catsoflitsy
“So, as was so often the case, a big fear was beaten by a bigger fear.”
I often feel this is the only way I‘m able to meander through life and trick people into thinking I‘m a semi-normal, reasonably functional adult.
Matt Haig‘s memoir was my introduction to his work, and I love this book. It‘s an honest and warming account of living with depression. If you liked “Furiously Happy” and/or “Hyperbole and a Half”, check this one out too! I gave my copy away to a friend in need, so I check it out from the library when I need a reread. Recommending to @julesG @Trashcanman @Rachellynnwright and all other littens here who know the struggle.
@Tiffy_Reads Congrats on your insane milestone...wow....and thank you for this wonderful giveaway.
1. For me the best thing about Litsy is the kind and wonderful people...of which you are one. I feel like I have found my “book friends” as I call all of you. You have widened my reading horizons and for that I am so grateful.
1. I‘d love to read the tagged book.
#TiffysMilestoneGiveaway
This entire book needs a major Trigger Warning label. I tried to read it slowly. Instead it is triggering depression and anxiety to worsening degrees. I don‘t want to quit reading but I should to preserve my mental health.
⚠️ BEWARE: MAY TRIGGER DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY ⚠️
