Therapy Book Club is Totally a Thing: "Furiously Happy" by Jenny Lawson

Not long ago, my friend/professional colleague and I went to dinner and the topic of mental health came up over chips, salsa, too much Diet Coke and one beautiful margarita.  We shared our stories with each other and found that, while we had a lot of different events, our similar events were much too similar and no coincidence that we related well to each other in the professional world. Her professional realm is on the therapy side of things and I shared how challenging it has been to find a new therapist who even begins to compare to my amazing therapist in Utah.  I also shared that sometimes I just need to have a solid night of laughs, snacks and girl talk then I'm fine. Generally, that is cheaper than therapy, but just as hard to come by in the sticks of eastern Montana. And then my friend had a brilliant idea......we should start a book club.....and not just any book club, but it should be THERAPY book club.  The announcement I made on Facebook said, "As it is with therapy chips and salsa, the universe has called for a therapy book club as well. The requirements are simple: nonfiction that inspires and makes us laugh and is likely off-color." And that, my friends, is what we did and it is a gift from the laughter gods on high. Each month I will add a review on le blog to share what book we are reading so you can follow along as well....if you need some therapy book club in your life.....ha, ha Raylynn....who said anything about "if".....how about WHEN.

The inaugural book for our club is "Furiously Happy" by Jenny Lawson.  For those of you who may not be familiar with Jenny, she is hysterical! She is also certifiably crazy and has embraced it while she sits comfortably on the New York Times bestseller VIP list.  "Furiously Happy"  is her second book and is a collection of short stories about her life in the fast lane of mental health battles.  The sub-title of the book is "A funny book about horrible things." She presents a wide-range of experiences from her life about the roller coaster that is living with serious mental health conditions.

Even before I got to the actual meat of the book, I had already worn down my coloring pencil from highlighting.  The author's notes were absolutely fabulous and hooked me because I knew I'd be reading a book written by someone who actually gets it.  Here is an example that really resonated with me. "When you come out of the grips of depression there is an incredible relief, but not one you feel allowed to celebrate. Instead, the feeling of victory is replace with anxiety that it will happen again, and with shame and vulnerability when you see how your illness affected your family, your work, everything left untouched while you struggled to survive. We come back to life thinner, paler, weaker....but as survivors. Survivors who don't get pats on the back from coworkers who congratulate them on making it.  Survivors who wake up to more work than before because their friends and family are exhausted from helping them fight a battle they may not even understand."

One of my greatest challenges from living with my bestie named depression is finding people who get it. There is nothing WORSE than some insensitive dip shit who says to me (in late January or in month 4 of yet another bout of unnecessary unemployment) "oh you can just get over it."  Mmmmmm hmmmmm, here's your sign and get the hell out of my life.  It's incredibly hard to function at times and this book is a cool glass of lemonade on a hot summer's day because it helps me feel like I'm not alone in my adventure.  A few pages after the quote above the author concluded her notes with this, "I celebrate every one of you reading this. I celebrate the fact that you've fought your battle and continue to win. I celebrate the fact that you may not understand the battle, but you pick up the baton dropped by someone you love until they can carry it again. I survived and I remind myself that each time we go through this, we get a little stronger. We don't struggle in vain. We win. We are alive."

The level of gratitude I have for this newfound group of women in my life is infinite. We have laughed like the crazies that we are sharing our stories and finding joy in our mental health battles.  I've made new friends that I never imagined which I've been praying for since I move back to my Podunk home town.  No matter what, having a group of people in you life who GET IT is the best type of self care a person could ever give themselves.  I'm so blessed to have weekly chips and salsa, girl talk and unfiltered therapy on my own red couch every week.

My recommended reading group would be age 18 and above.  It's straight-up Rated R and talks about a lot of life experiences, sprinkled with the F-bomb, that accompany mental health roller coaster rides.

The moral of the story: We are all crazy....some of us just embrace it better than others. Find your group of crazies and start a therapy book club. You'll thank the laughter gods too.  I promise.

Happy reading, my amazing, geeky lovelies!
-R

Missed last week's book review? Click here to read it!

More Books by Jenny Lawson

Like what you read above - purchase this book by clicking the Amazon link below! Thank you for reading The Thrifting Ginger.  

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