Book Recommendation: laughing with mental health

Hey AFS Family!

I wanted to send out a humorous book recommendation, partly because we could all use a little humor in our day-to-day but also because this book contains one of the most enjoyable explorations on depression! Yeah, you read that correctly 😅 Author Allie Brosh tells stories in this book, Hyperbole and a Half, about her life. It's written like a blog (which is how it began), with little comics she's drawn to accompany the story-telling. Some of them are straight humor, like her sweet-but-dumb dog, but there's a section in the book where she really opens herself up to some personal vulnerabilities. You can find it on Amazon here, your local library, potentially your local bookstore, or I'm happy to lend my copy :)

I read this book years ago and to date have not read something that describes the ridiculousness that is depression quite so well, and some psychologists agree! As seriously as I take mental health, I think we also need to be able to look at it with a degree of humor. If we forever see it as this monster we must overcome, it will always seem a little bit stronger than us, a little bit more clever, a little (or a lot) intimidating. Allie perfectly characterizes the apathetic source-less sadness that accompanies depression, the inspiring-and-then-very-quickly-frustrating lack of emotions, and then the sudden surge of feelings that overwhelm. I laughed, and then cried, and then laughed again like Allie was an old friend. If you have depression, this will resonate with you in an "ah, finally, someone gave it words" kind of way. If you don't have depression, but know someone who does, I'd argue that is an even bigger reason to read! You'll come to see that person in a new light with new understanding.

Here's a small excerpt from the beginning of her depression chapter (this section is less funny, but I promise you it quickly gets hilarious):

And here's a review from one of those psychologists I mentioned earlier:

Anytime someone close to me wants to learn more about the wildness inside my brain, I go to this book. The depression section is two chapters out of the whole, but genuinely the whole is so enjoyable that I actually read the whole thing at least once a year. If you're really only into the two chapters of depression, the blog doesn't exist anymore and the old links have been replaced by malware, so I'll see if I can find an old internet copy of the page and comment them below. It won't be quite the same, but you'll still get the picture!

content warning: there's strong language and mention of self-harm in the book, but not explicit or NSFW--it is by way of asking for help