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

by Amanda Rosenberg

"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.

• ISBN10: 1684422906
• ISBN13: 9781684422906
• Publish Date: 19 December 2019 (first published 6 November 2019)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Turner Publishing Company
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 240
• Language: English

Reviews

[Joséphine]

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

Initial thgouths: When I came across That's Mental on the Libby app, I had no idea who Amanda Rosenberg was. Had I known, I probably wouldn't have checked out this audiobook. I'm glad that I though. This book was really well-written and provided a lot of insight into what it's like to live with bipolar II disorder, anxiety, PTSD. Her fight with depression sounded uncomfortably familiar in some of her experiences but her humorous tone made it possible for me to continue anyway. Her brand of humour isn't the kind that I laugh at or that even makes me chuckle but that wit still challenged me to loosen up a little despite myself. She was real about the good days, the mundane days and the tough days, which I appreciated.

The parts I especially liked were the sections where she offered suggestions on how to relate to other with mental health struggles, and the section where her husband offered insight alongside her on how they navigated the early days of their relationship when she had attempted to take her own life to making their marriage work.