Mental illness is no joke, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be funny. To prove it, we’ve rounded up a series of hilarious, irreverent and relatable memoirs about living with depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions. While laughter may not be the so-called “best medicine” in every situation, studies show that a good belly laugh can reduce stress, boost the immune system, and release mood-lifting endorphins, among other benefits. With rates of anxiety and depression skyrocketing in the U.S., we could all use more laughter in our lives.
Broken – Jenny Lawson (2021)
Jenny Lawson, the hugely popular blogger behind The Bloggess, chronicles her ongoing struggles with mental illness online and in her memoirs. Her latest book, Broken (In the Best Possible Way), documents Lawson’s use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to treat the unrelenting depression that no medication could help. While she doesn’t make light of the misery she endures, Lawson’s sense of humor remains intact. “A lot of people read my books because they love to laugh about all the terrible things you maybe shouldn’t laugh at,” she writes. “I hope you find this book just as funny, but there’s some really serious and raw stuff in here too, mostly related to my battles with mental illness.” Lawson is also the author of prior bestselling memoirs Furiously Happy (2015) and Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (2012), and recently opened Nowhere Bookshop, an independent bookstore in San Antonio, Texas.
Easy Crafts for the Insane: A Mostly Funny Memoir of Mental Illness and Making Things – Kelly Williams Brown (2021)
After a divorce, a series of injuries and her father’s cancer diagnosis, Kelly Williams Brown fell into a deep depression that resulted in her being admitted to an in-patient unit for treatment. In Easy Crafts for the Insane, she humorously details how simple craft projects became the small joys and achievements that helped her glue her life back together. Brown is also the author of Adulting (2018) and Gracious (2017).
Wow, No Thank You – Samantha Irby (2020)
Samantha Irby’s latest bestselling collection of essays, Wow, No Thank You, is dedicated to Wellbutrin, and follows the former Chicagoan’s adjustment to cohabitation with her wife in suburban Michigan. Despite living with depression, anxiety, degenerative arthritis and Crohn’s disease, she manages to be wildly funny (and sometimes unapologetically gross) when discussing her various indignities. Irby initially built her audience via her blog, Bitches Gotta Eat, and published two prior bestselling essay collections, Meaty and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. She is currently a writer and co-producer for the upcoming Sex and the City reboot.
The Hilarious World of Depression – John Moe (2020)
John Moe was formerly the host of The Hilarious World of Depression podcast, on which he interviewed top comedians and artists about their struggles with mental illness. In his book by the same name, he details his own experiences with clinical depression, or “Clinny D,” as he calls it, and his aversion to seeking help. “Instead of attempting to actually improve the health of my mind, I had always looked for ways to just hold on for a while longer. Essentially, it was as if I were living in a house that kept catching on fire but all I had ever tried to do was douse the flames,” he writes. By speaking frankly about and finding humor in his own mental illness, Moe aims to help others do the same. He recently launched a new podcast, Depresh Mode, featuring “[h]onest, humane conversations with top artists, entertainers, and experts about what it’s like to live with an interesting mind.”
Hyperbole and a Half – Allie Brosh (2013)
Allie Brosh first gained a massive following through Hyperbole and a Half, the blog she started in 2009 to house the viral autobiographical webcomics that earned her several million monthly visitors. While grappling with severe depression, she published a pair of posts about her experiences that earned her wide acclaim from fellow sufferers and psychology experts alike. Her first book, Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened, a combination of blog posts and new stories, was published in 2013 and became an instant New York Times bestseller. Brosh subsequently struggled with ongoing mental and physical health problems, as well as personal tragedy, and went silent for several years before reemerging to release her second book, Solutions and Other Problems, in 2020.
Monkey Mind – Daniel Smith (2012)
In Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety, Daniel Smith pulls back the curtain on what it’s like to live with debilitating anxiety. He candidly offers an entertaining first-person perspective on how quickly the anxious brain can catastrophize a situation. “Anxiety compels a person, but it is the type of thinking that gives thinking a bad name: solipsistic, self-eviscerating, unremitting, vicious,” he writes. Though Smith states the book is “not a recovery memoir,” he shares some of the strategies that help him cope with his anxiety, from using maxi pads in his armpits to soak up excessive sweat to cognitive behavior therapy and meditation.
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