Reasons to Stay Alive (Matt Haig)

When purchasing a book I very often look on Amazon’s bestsellers tab to see what is popular. It soon became apparent there was a common theme. Essentially books on how to be “happy” were selling like hotcakes and this shouldn’t be surprising. I feel like the average Joe thirty years ago might not require a book on how to be happy but in today's society, it has certainly become the norm. It is almost guaranteed that an Average Joe in the year 2020 will have had an encounter with mental health, whether it is their own,a friends or a family members. Mental health is everywhere and can affect anyone including myself, which is why I decided to give this a read. It is very sad that anxiety and depression now seem to be full-time residents in the heads of many Average Joe’s which is why I see the number of what I describe as “mental health self-help” books selling as a positive action.  

I don’t really know what I was expecting to feel after reading this book and I can’t say I was optimistic or pessimistic about it. You might imagine that people who read these kinds of books may expect to be “cured” but I suppose all you can really hope for is clarity? A feeling that it's ok to have these feelings, that it's not just you and maybe even receive a bit of advice on coping mechanisms that might work.

From the first page of this book, I struggled to connect with what was being said and I imagine this is how a lot of people who read this book might feel. The issue for me was that his experiences weren’t the same as mine (to be honest they were considerably worse) and with mental health covering such a wide variety of issues this is a feeling I expect a lot of readers to have. In fact, you could say that it even made me feel a little guilty, which is the total opposite of what you want from this type of book.

The book of course had some good points and one of these was the author's way of describing his feelings and emotions in a way which was easy to visualise. For example, he said “Thoughts are like swallows” which leaves you with a very vivid image in your head.  He also made many practical recommendations on things which helped him feel better that included; Sleep, running, yoga and “to appreciate happiness when it is there” which is simple advice that some may find helpful although it left me thinking “well no shit”.

To me, these types of books need to be relatable to be effective and for me, it wasn’t. That being said, despite the term “Average Joe” implying normality, every Average Joe has lived a different life and to some this book will be relatable and transformational. Sadly, for this Average Joe it wasn’t.

 

5.5/10