That's Mental: Painfully Funny Things That Drive Me Crazy About Being Mentally Ill

by Amanda Rosenberg

Overview

"Incredible!"—Samantha Irby, New York Times bestselling author of We Are Never Meeting in Real Life and Meaty

Raw, witty, and unapologetic, That’s Mental is a collection of laugh-out-loud funny, confessional essays about the inappropriate, devastating, and strangely amusing side to being mentally ill.

 

In her book, British comedy writer Amanda Rosenberg breaks down myths and misconceptions about what it means to live, laugh, love with bipolar II in a darkly funny, but familiar way. That’s Mental dives head-first into the overlooked and offbeat issues of mental illness, it shines a harsh, fitting room light on thoughts and ideas that are often avoided, because they’re uncomfortable or just downright embarrassing.

 

These pages move through the everyday realities of mental illness, covering everything from, how reaching out for help is a fucking nightmare, to dealing with people who suggest “cures” for your depression, to making up excuses to miss work just so you can take a mental health day. That’s Mental is an uproarious and brutally honest collection of confessions from someone who’s been there, done that, and still has no idea what she’s doing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684422890
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	11/06/2019
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	1,108,549
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Amanda Rosenberg is a British comedy writer whose work has been featured in McSweeney’s, Vox, Anxy Magazine, The Establishment, Funny Or Die, The Hairpin, The Lily, GOOD, and The Mighty. Rosenberg is also a screenwriter and no, nothing you may have seen. When she’s not writing she can be found indoors watching tv and movies while scrolling through her phone.

Table of Contents

Introduction: I'm Not Good at Being Mental xi

Part 1 BC (Before Crazy)

How I Felt about Mental Illness Before I Went Mental 3

Reaching Out for Help, a.k.a. a Fucking Nightmare 25

Trying to Make the Shit Stop 33

Part 2 AD (After Diagnosis)

Safety in Numbness 45

Quietly Freaking Out 51

Trauma, Trauma, Trauma 61

Good Will Hunting Your Therapist 67

Part 3 Medication

Medication, Medication, Medication 81

Side Effects: Label vs. Life 89

Your Friends' Quick and Easy Cures 95

Medication Vacations 103

Part 4 Denial

All-Natural Depression Face Masks 111

Lights, Camera, Depression 115

You Can Be Either Mentally Ill or an Asshole or Both 123

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses 131

The Manic Mirage 139

Part 5 Relationships

"Hello, I'm Mental": Too Much? 147

You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Work Here 155

What's It Like to Date a Mentally 111 Person? 165

Love in the Time of Wanting to Kill Yourself 177

Part 6 Not Ok but Ok

A Meeting with My Mental Illness 185

Small Things I Do When I Want to Die 191

Being Ok in the Grey 199

Whatever Gets You Through This Life 205

Appendix

Mental Health Organizations 209

Acknowledgments 211

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“There aren’t a lot of spaces to dive deep and process the emotions of our complex and multi-layered journeys through mental health. We all need it and Amanda brings us into that space with humor, wit, and truth. What’s most refreshing is that her story is unfiltered but gentle. During a time where our culture is shifting, I recommend this book be a part of our shift with my whole heart.” – Natasha Vianna, mental health advocate and advisor to Anxy Magazine

"In her book, “That’s Mental” Amanda cements her place as one of the most honest and entertaining voices we’ve heard open up about mental illness. With her, we walk the devastating, but sometimes comfortingly absurd, path of trying to stay alive and thrive in a world we’d much rather avoid." – Julie Ann Horvath, Board Director of Nat. Brut Magazine

Interviews

"Incredible!"—Samantha Irby, New York Times bestselling author of We Are Never Meeting in Real Life and Meaty

Editorial Reviews

"For those of us with a diagnosis or two we'd rather not have, That's Mental is like a hug from a friend you were too shy to confide in, but understands anyway. Also that friend is funnier than you." —Maggie Tokuda-Hall, bestselling children's author

“unputdownable… a gloriously hilarious book”—Medium

"Incredible!"—Samantha Irby, New York Times bestselling author of We Are Never Meeting in Real Life and Meaty

From the Publisher