I've labelled this as a review mainly because I like to be organised and categorise things, but the truth is I'm not really sure that a review is the best way to go about this when all I'd really like to do is talk about it. So that's what I'm going to do.
My housemate Katie picked up this book in Waterstones one day. She read it all in one sitting, then preceded to order us all to borrow it/buy it and read it ourselves. I'm a bit of a book lover (I say 'a bit of' because Katie may well read this blog, and I am nothing in comparison to her level of book-loving, so I've got to keep it real here), so I'll always take a good recommendation, and I am, like many others, extremely interested in the topic of mental illness. It's something that pretty much everybody has either experienced themselves or knows of someone who has, so it's a universal topic, but one that is still surrounded by a lot of stigma and misunderstanding. Honestly, I was just intrigued to learn more.
Matt draws on his personal experience of depression and anxiety to share thoughts and advice about life with mental illness. It's an easy read, split into five chapters 'Falling', 'Landing', 'Rising', 'Living' and 'Being'. Each chapter is divided into short titled sections, such as 'Why depression is hard to understand', 'Things you think during your first panic attack', 'How to be there for someone with depression or anxiety' and 'Things that (sometimes) make me better'. He has such complex, interesting thoughts, but presents them in such a way that makes the book accessible to absolutely anybody. For somebody suffering from mental illness, I imagine the book to provide a level of comfort in the realisation that they are not alone. For those with family members or friends who are affected, it provides an insight into a world that is difficult to understand. The book has really made me step back and think about mental illness in much greater detail - how people can be affected, what it may feel like for them and what I can do to better understand and help. I'm by no means close to being an expert, I'm just grateful to Matt for opening my eyes and helping me to understand that little bit more. I'll leave you with a few of my favourite quotes from the book.
'It turns out that we are not only made of the universe, of 'star-stuff' to borrow Carl Sagan's phrase, but we are as vast and complicated as it too. The evolutionary psychologists might be right. We humans might have evolved too far. The price for being intelligent enough to be the first species to be fully aware of the cosmos might just be a capacity to feel a whole universe's worth of darkness'
'Life is hard. It may be beautiful and wonderful but it is also hard. The way people seem to cope is by not thinking about it too much. But some people are not going to be able to do that. And besides, it is the human condition. We think therefore we are'
'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'
And finally...
'I am you and you are me. We are alone, but not alone. We are trapped by time, but also infinite. Made of flesh, but also stars'
Thanks for reading.
Matt's website: www.matthaig.com
