The more books written about mental ill-health the better, even more so when they're written by people who've experienced it. For sufferers, for families and friends of sufferers this is a book worth reading, a starting point to gaining deeper knowledge and insight into what depression is, what anxiety is, what it's like to live on the fringes of society.
Being a writer, Matt Haig does an exemplary job of describing his experiences, how he felt and what he did to get better, expressing what, for many people in the fog of depression, is the inexpressible. He was fortunate to have a caring family and a loving partner who, it seems is nothing short of a saint, who took care of him, stood by him and led him through the dark tunnel out into the light of wellness. Many people are not afforded this luxury however and have to suffer in the darkness alone, or in the care of the mental health services, which, in this country at least, is worse than being alone.
I understand that this is Matt’s journey but I found some of what he had to say a bit preachy in places. It’s great he was able to voraciously read his way to wellness, without medication, without therapy etc., but again, for the majority, this is not always the case.
Although the book has a lot of useful information, statistics, self-help techniques, a new vocabulary to help explain symptoms and cognitive hurdles etc., I just found there to be something disingenuous about it, I don’t know why, maybe Haig was holding back, maybe there were a few stones left unturned, but I sensed a smugness that I wasn’t happy about and as a result, didn’t feel as inspired as I possibly should have.