It is a reminder that we share a common humanity.Įditorial note: Matt Haig’s Reasons To Stay Alive can be borrowed from the National Library (NLB) at īeyond A Maze runs book club sessions that discuss mental health related books. RTSA is not just a narrative about depression and anxiety. His lessons, for the lack of a better word, have a universal and enduring appeal. You don’t have to have a mental illness to “be transparent to yourself” or “let do what it does without judging it”. Not to mention, in that particular chapter, the advice he offers is applicable to practically anyone. Haig even confesses that he doesn’t always follow the 40 pieces of advice he feels to be helpful in the chapter “How to live…” Haig’s candidness makes him even more endearing to his readers. Unlike most self-help authors, Haig doesn’t promise that you will achieve a particular outcome by reading his work and practising his advice, thereby (in part) causing you to feel guilty if you don’t follow through. There is no one-size-fits-all solution mentioned in the entire book. He seeks to help those wrestling with the illness by sharing his experience and tips.

I t’s wonderful that Haig doesn’t just aim to raise awareness of depression or anxiety. In capturing these emotions with such powerful imagery, he helps readers to better empathise with people who go through depression or anxiety. However, you may argue, don’t we feel this way from time to time? Well, the difference is, as Haig explains, in the intensity of the experience.

You could feel a sense of inevitability, solitude, and lack of hope just by reading the book. At least no one died.” He goes on to paint a vivid picture of the struggles people with depression and anxiety face. For example, you don’t tell someone with tuberculosis “it could be worse.

In his dry humour, Haig draws several parallels between depression and other “life-threatening situations”. Haig rightly points out that depression is difficult to comprehend. The universality of human experience (and how to enhance it) rings through the book, making it a relevant read for anyone breathing on this planet. It’s more than a self-help journal for people struggling with depression and anxiety. But RTSA is more than a memoir that raises awareness about mental illness.

Depressed at 24, Matt Haig wanted to jump off a cliff.Ī few years later, Haig penned his experiences and thoughts in Reasons to Stay Alive (RTSA).

A reason to stay alive