Table of Contents
The Big Sexy Celebrity Laser Fight: A Preface xi
1 In Which I Finally Get Better 1
2 Junior High School and Depression Being Somehow Connected 9
According to THWoD: Junior High Is a Time People Get Ka-whompoed 25
3 Carol Burnett as Coping Mechanism 29
According to THWoD: Comedy Is a Helpful Tool 41
4 Imagined Snapshots of Key Moments 47
5 My Dot-Com Bubble Bursts 59
According to THWoD: You Can't Solve Mental Illness by Not Dealing with It 85
6 Bridges, Troubles, Waters 90
According to THWoD: The Worst Idea Is Always Nearby 95
7 In Which I Am Told That Yeah, There's Something Wrong 101
According to THWoD: Other People Already Know You Are Depressed 119
8 Seeing the World with Clear Eyes 124
According to THWoD: Pills May or May Not Help, but Let's Not Get All Spooky About Them 136
9 In Which Everything Changes 140
10 Trying to Move On Without a Clear Idea How 155
According to THWoD: Some Pain Doesn't Go Away, It Evolves 163
11 I Choose Noise over Silence 167
According to THWoD: Good Things Happen When You Talk 183
12 The Hell with This, I'm Moving to Minnesota 187
According to THWoD: Therapy Is Neither Good nor Bad, It's an Adventure 199
13 Things That Make Me Stronger 203
14 A Treatment I Still Don't Fully Understand but Do Appreciate 220
15 In Which I Posit That Depression Is, Perhaps, Hilarious 231
16 A Potentially Hilarious World of Potential Depression 242
17 Scouring the Nordic Countryside for Trauma Fossils 254
18 Getting Better Before I Die 260
According to THWoD (the Podcast), THWoD (the Book), and THWoD (the World)-Nine Things I've Learned 268
Acknowledgments 283