But rather than leave the mind entirely, world help us leave a mind, and give us the building blocks to build another one, similar but better, nearby to old one but with firmer foundations, and very often a better view.

Reasons to Stay Alive is a difficult book to review based on the subject matter and ones own personal experience. What I would say is that I think the nature of this book, the openness with which Matt Haig talks about his experience, especially as a man is so so important. A statistic he mentioned in his book was that 1 million people a year kill themselves but between 10-20 million people try to kill themselves. Depression and mental health issues are endemic but frequently misunderstood; they are brushed under the carpet or not acknowledged because they're not seen.

I think it is difficult to understand if you've never experienced, never seen anybody suffer. However, Matt Haig offers an insight into his world when he suffered most severely with depression and anxiety. It's a very brave thing to do, as society considers that men opening up about mental a weakness and a fault in masculinity. This is a problem with society and one that Matt Haig challenges.

I liked that he talked about how he dealt with his anxiety and depression. He spoke openly about the problems of medication. He spoke about how he took to reading, running, yoga, sleeping etc to help. He offers people a path of hope, and at the back of the book he has a tonne of information about services people can get in touch with.

The book itself is easy to read, it's made up of lots of short chapters, of lists, of conversations with himself and I liked the style. I think the book is an important conversation starter and a glimmer of hope for those that really need it.
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"The key is to accepting your thoughts, all of them, even the bad ones. Accept thoughts, don't become them."

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