Book Review| Furiously Happy

Hey you guys! Hope everyone is doing good! This is my first book review and I’m not promising to do this often but I just had to do it because I love this book so much. I just love how real she is. Furiously happy is a non-fiction book about how Jenny Lawson (the author) deals with her mental health issues. Humor is definitely her defence mechanism and I love it.

‘A funny book about Horrible things’

She suffers from depression and anxiety and is not afraid or embarrassed to talk about them. ‘For most of my life I’ve battled depression, anxiety and a host of other disorders, but I wrote this book less as a manual on how-to-survive-mental-illness and more of a compendium on how-to-thrive-in-spite-of-your-brain-being-a-real-bastard.’

I knew I’d love the book after reading the series of disclaimer she wrote.

‘This is a funny book about living with mental illness. It sounds like a terrible combination, but personally, I’m mentally ill and some of the most hysterical people I know are as well. So if you don’t like the book then maybe you’re just not crazy enough to enjoy it. Either way, you win.’

Here are some of my favourite quotes from the book.
‘I write this mantra on myself every single time I have to get on stage or do a book reading. “Pretend you’re good at it.”

‘Surely the people naming anti-psychotics could have come up with something less hurtful. After all, we don’t call viagra the ‘floppy-dick pill’ and hardly any of us refer to anger-management therapy as ‘maybe-just-stop-being-such-an-asshole class’

‘Be happy in front of people who hate you. That way they know they haven’t gotten to you. Plus it pisses them off like crazy.’

‘Don’t sabotage yourself. There are plenty of other people willing to do that for free.’

I just love how open she is about it all and how she put herself out there talking about her embarrassing moments knowing the stigma associated with mental illness. I laughed a lot while reading this book. My sister had to ask a couple of times if everything was okay. Oh! and I love that she has a supportive husband! Thumbs up for great supportive partners!

P.S – She is a blogger! Check out her blog here!

You should definitely read this book. I was familiar with the mental illnesses because of my Psychiatry rotation in med school. Shout out to Dr. Benjamin.

I hope you enjoyed the review and feel free to let me know if you want the ebook.  🙂

• TOSIN