She also reminds us that we’re not always the best judge of who we are, because our minds play horrible tricks on us sometimes. Lawson isn’t giving us permission to hide or to give in, but to accept the physical and mental limitations we may have been handed.
I think of all the people that are truly suffering, and how good my life is, and it doesn’t help. I do, and it’s all the worse because I can’t justify and explain it, it just is. Maybe I don’t suffer from depression or anxiety, but that doesn’t mean I don’t experience irrational fear and worry and sadness. I want Lawson to know (on the off-off-chance she reads this) that her book really made me think about my own life. Not just to save my life, but to make my life. And I could remind myself that as soon as I had the strength to get up out of bed I would again turn my hand to being furiously happy. The difference was that I had a storeroom in the back of my mind filled with moments of tightrope walking, snorkeling in long-forgotten caves, and running barefoot through cemeteries with a red ball gown trailing behind me. I still hid under my office desk whenever the anxiety got too heavy to battle standing up. I still spent my share of weeks in bed when I simply couldn’t get up. This didn’t mean that I wasn’t still depressed or anxious or mentally ill. She describes it as pushing herself to say yes to anything ridiculous, and as a movement for people to “take back their lives from the monster of depression.” So what is Furiously Happy, besides a read that is both laugh-out-loud-on-the-Metro funny and also full of thoughtful insights about life?įuriously Happy is Lawson’s determination to accept the days when she’s down, but to make the most of the days she isn’t.
So she makes a point of using the term “mental illness” frequently.
Lawson’s book shines a light on mental illness, something so stigmatized that Lawson explains that it’s one of the few disorders where we completely blame the victim and really don’t want to hear about it. And the roar became an anthem tot carried me through some of my darkest moments. I thought it was just me.” And the whispers became a roar. She’s discovered that telling her own story means people don’t feel like they’re struggling alone, which is how most people with depression and anxiety feel.Īnd louder than all of that were the whispers that became stronger every day from thousands and thousands of people creeping to the edge and quietly admitting, “Me too. In recent years Lawson has discovered that it’s not just her humor that moves people, it’s being honest about her difficulties with depression and anxiety. Lawson’s writing is really unique it’s humor combined with memoir, but that description doesn’t really cut it. You’ve probably heard of Jenny Lawson by now, but if you haven’t, she writes a blog as The Blogess and a couple of years ago published her first book, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened.
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