A review by okiecozyreader
Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
I read this book and her first book really close together (one day after the other), so it’s harder to distinguish between the two. I feel like this one deals more with mental illness. She mixes a bunch of random thoughts throughout so it doesn’t get bogged down in it, but it is the fabric weaved through the book. I like one part where she compares getting medication for anxiety/depression to that of cancer medications. How some drugs work one time but they don’t the next. Or you have to try different combinations for different people. I thought it was very relatable. It also is an illness that can be life threatening for people.
Some of my favorite thoughts:
Author’s note
I’m f* done with sadness, and I don’t know what’s up the ass of the universe lately but I’ve HAD IT. I AM GOING TO BE FURIOUSLY HAPPY, OUT OF SHEER SPITE.
…
And I could remind myself that as soon as I had the strength to get up out of bed I would again turn my hand to being furiously happy. Not just to save my life, but to make my life.
Furiously Happy Dangerously Sad
“According to the many shrinks I’ve seen in the last two decades I am a high-functioning depressive with severe anxiety disorder, moderate clinical depression, and mild self-harm issues that stem from an impulse-control disorder. I have avoidant personality disorder (which is like social anxiety disorder on speed) and occasional depersonalization disorder (which makes me feel utterly detached from reality, but in less of a “this LSD is awesome” kind of a way and more of a “I wonder what my face is doing right now” and “It sure would be nice to feel emotions again” sort of thing). I have rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmune issues. And, sprinkled in like paprika over a mentally unbalanced deviled egg, are things like mild OCD and trichotillomania—the urge to pull one’s hair out…”
…
“When I was little I “fixed it” by hiding from the world in my empty toy box whenever my undiagnosed anxiety got too unbearable. In high school I fixed it by isolating myself from other people. In college I fixed it with eating disorders, controlling what I ate to compensate for the lack of control I felt with my emotions… I control it by being painfully honest about just how crazy I am.”
…
“Aaaaah! You’re not crazy,” my mom says again, waving a wet plate at me. “Stop saying you’re crazy. People will think you’re a lunatic.”
And it’s true. They will. I Google the word “lunatic” on my phone and read her one of the definitions.
Lunatic: (noun) Wildly or giddily foolish.
My mom pauses, stares at me, and finally sighs in resignation, recognizing way too much of me in that definition. “Huh,” she says, shrugging thoughtfully as she turns back to the sink. “So maybe ‘crazy’ isn’t so bad after all.”
I agree.
Sometimes crazy is just right.”
Pretend You’re Good at It
when she was recording her first audiobook, she really wanted her voice to tell her own story but recording it but she felt her voice sounds like “Minnie mouse spent too much time in Texas” and this advice from Neil Gaiman got her through it, “to pretend she was good at it” - which she wrote on her arms
The Fear
“This is where I’d put a mild trigger warning for self-harm, but frankly, this whole d* book deserves a trigger warning.”
We’re Better than Galileo
“It’s hard to understand anyone’s being depressed or anxious, when they’ve been given a gift it seems that anyone would kill for. At best it seems ungrateful; at worst it seems disgraceful. But still, it happens. Some of the moments, from a normal person’s perspective, seem like they should have been the greatest moments of my life were actually some of the worst moments. And no one ever tells you that. Probably because it sounds crazy. But that doesn’t make it any less true. I wish someone would have told me this simple but confusing truth: even when everything’s going your way, you can still be sad or anxious or uncomfortably numb, because you can’t always control your brain or your emotions…. The really scary thing is that sometimes that makes it worse. You’re supposed to be sad when things are s*ty. But if you’re sad and you have everything you’re supposed to want, it’s utterly terrifying.” … “if everything is so perfect and I’m miserable, is this as good as it gets? No, it gets better. You get better.”
…
To try to enjoy life while teetering on the edge of terror and fatigue.”
It Might be Easier, but it Wouldn’t be Better
(Loved this phrase when she mentioned life would be easier without her to her husband - and this was his reply)
“I don’t understand your illness but I know the world is better with you in it.”
Some of my favorite thoughts:
Author’s note
I’m f* done with sadness, and I don’t know what’s up the ass of the universe lately but I’ve HAD IT. I AM GOING TO BE FURIOUSLY HAPPY, OUT OF SHEER SPITE.
…
And I could remind myself that as soon as I had the strength to get up out of bed I would again turn my hand to being furiously happy. Not just to save my life, but to make my life.
Furiously Happy Dangerously Sad
“According to the many shrinks I’ve seen in the last two decades I am a high-functioning depressive with severe anxiety disorder, moderate clinical depression, and mild self-harm issues that stem from an impulse-control disorder. I have avoidant personality disorder (which is like social anxiety disorder on speed) and occasional depersonalization disorder (which makes me feel utterly detached from reality, but in less of a “this LSD is awesome” kind of a way and more of a “I wonder what my face is doing right now” and “It sure would be nice to feel emotions again” sort of thing). I have rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmune issues. And, sprinkled in like paprika over a mentally unbalanced deviled egg, are things like mild OCD and trichotillomania—the urge to pull one’s hair out…”
…
“When I was little I “fixed it” by hiding from the world in my empty toy box whenever my undiagnosed anxiety got too unbearable. In high school I fixed it by isolating myself from other people. In college I fixed it with eating disorders, controlling what I ate to compensate for the lack of control I felt with my emotions… I control it by being painfully honest about just how crazy I am.”
…
“Aaaaah! You’re not crazy,” my mom says again, waving a wet plate at me. “Stop saying you’re crazy. People will think you’re a lunatic.”
And it’s true. They will. I Google the word “lunatic” on my phone and read her one of the definitions.
Lunatic: (noun) Wildly or giddily foolish.
My mom pauses, stares at me, and finally sighs in resignation, recognizing way too much of me in that definition. “Huh,” she says, shrugging thoughtfully as she turns back to the sink. “So maybe ‘crazy’ isn’t so bad after all.”
I agree.
Sometimes crazy is just right.”
Pretend You’re Good at It
when she was recording her first audiobook, she really wanted her voice to tell her own story but recording it but she felt her voice sounds like “Minnie mouse spent too much time in Texas” and this advice from Neil Gaiman got her through it, “to pretend she was good at it” - which she wrote on her arms
The Fear
“This is where I’d put a mild trigger warning for self-harm, but frankly, this whole d* book deserves a trigger warning.”
We’re Better than Galileo
“It’s hard to understand anyone’s being depressed or anxious, when they’ve been given a gift it seems that anyone would kill for. At best it seems ungrateful; at worst it seems disgraceful. But still, it happens. Some of the moments, from a normal person’s perspective, seem like they should have been the greatest moments of my life were actually some of the worst moments. And no one ever tells you that. Probably because it sounds crazy. But that doesn’t make it any less true. I wish someone would have told me this simple but confusing truth: even when everything’s going your way, you can still be sad or anxious or uncomfortably numb, because you can’t always control your brain or your emotions…. The really scary thing is that sometimes that makes it worse. You’re supposed to be sad when things are s*ty. But if you’re sad and you have everything you’re supposed to want, it’s utterly terrifying.” … “if everything is so perfect and I’m miserable, is this as good as it gets? No, it gets better. You get better.”
…
To try to enjoy life while teetering on the edge of terror and fatigue.”
It Might be Easier, but it Wouldn’t be Better
(Loved this phrase when she mentioned life would be easier without her to her husband - and this was his reply)
“I don’t understand your illness but I know the world is better with you in it.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm and Panic attacks/disorders