He tried to gather up the courage to end everything once and for all, but he was too afraid, thinking that if he survived he might remain paralyzed, trapped in his body forever. Standing on the edge of the cliff, he thought of all the people who loved him, and he thought of death. He got to the edge of a cliff, and was one step away from ending all his pain and suffering. He felt that living brought too much pain, and the only way not to feel the pain was to end his life.

Everything he felt, everything he saw only made him more and more depressed. He was scared because he did not know what was going on inside his mind.Īfter three days with no sleep and food, he could no longer withstand the pain he was feeling. The impression of a dark cloud that poured endless rain over him made him feel 'caved in', with no way of escaping. He was 24 at the time, and with little or no understanding of depression, or awareness of it. One day, in September of 1999, Matt Haig felt that his old self had died. The novel was reviewed by The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, the Star Tribune, and the Toronto Star. It is Matt Haig’s first nonfiction piece and the first time he wrote about his illness publicly. It is based on his experiences of living with depression and anxiety disorder, which he suffered from the age of 24. I would give Reasons to Stay Alive 5 out of 5 stars.Reasons to Stay Alive is a novel and memoir written by novelist Matt Haig, published on 5 March 2015. I would recommend this book to anyone, whether you’ve ever experienced depression yourself, you know someone close with depression or whether you have no experience of it at all… you never know when something could happen or when you may be able to use the experiences in the book to help someone in daily life. Having previously read The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, I was so excited to read Reasons to Stay Alive.ĭid it live up to all the expectations I had after reading The Midnight Library? Yes, and more! Such a well written book about the truths and horrors of mental health problems, and I particularly like that throughout the book, there are numbers of helplines and websites included throughout. WARNING! ⚠️ There may be spoilers in this review!

It is a book about making the most of your time on earth. Moving, funny and joyous, Reasons to Stay Alive is more than a memoir. Synopsis: What does it mean to feel truly alive? This is the true story of how Matt Haig came through crisis, triumphed over a mental illness that almost destroyed him and learned to live again. Book review for Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig

Matt haig reasons to stay alive