Whatever your problem and whatever the peak of your crisis, you must search for hope that motivates you to resist and complete your journey and your life .. You are a doctor yourself, do not forget
Before we know who “Matt Haig” is the author of today's book “ Reasons to Stay Alive ” and what he does, we must know that this book is a recounting of a difficult experience he has gone through. This book is not a novel and not a comprehensive autobiography, rather it is an account of the suffering of a person with A frightening disease . It's an inspiring experience and a book that shows us the many hidden aspects of a depressed patient's life. Depression is a mysterious disease, the symptoms of which are similar to deep sadness, fatigue, or even fleeting anxiety.
Many suffer from this mysterious disease without knowing, just as many suffer without the attention of family and friends, and there are close people who deny depression, so he deals with the patient as a lazy, ineffective and productive person in society, and the patient can be accused of worse accusations. .
As for the brave patient, it is Matt Haig, a 45-year-old writer, British, who writes for children and adults, and whose books are bestsellers. He translated another book for him under the title “ Notes on a Tense Planet ”. His books on similar topics that concern people and help change lives for the better.
The book, which is located in (5) chapters divided by headings, under which the points the book talks about, begins with an introduction in which Haig explains that when he fell prey to depression, writing was impossible, and he lost all he knew about depression was the injury of one of his family members. She is his grandmother, and he did not deal with him directly or indirectly until he was injured.
The writer lists his struggles along with symptoms: Such as sweating and increased heartbeat, panic in crowded places, fear of being alone, panic attacks and terror with which the patient thinks - at the beginning - that his heart will stop beating and will die, and he remembers that lack of hope was one of the worst of these symptoms, so without hope he could not have overcome All the fights going on in his mind.
The writer reviews on two parallel lines - which support every depressed - how the symptoms were increasing or decreasing, how he noticed them with his internal warfare that he was suffering between himself and himself, as two people found him, one of them throwing him in the fire, asking him to get rid of the pain by suicide, and the other asking him Wait, be patient and try, for life is beautiful, or it was and happiness will be seen again only with perseverance and patience.
“I was trapped in a prison, I didn’t know that a person could be imprisoned in his mind.”
Heigh explains that depression is a journey that has many curves. It is not a straight line, and you will rise and improve sometimes, and you will feel that you are at the bottom sometimes. The most important thing to know at that stage is that the stages of your treatment have not failed, and that you are not in a battle with others, but rather that they are in your mind. “Nevertheless, I sometimes felt like collecting days and accumulating them as we do chopping wood in Jenga Days, imagining that I am achieving some result, then suddenly I have a panic attack for five hours or a day and then I go through a state of deathly darkness, so all the woodblocks fall and I lose All the days I collected. ”
He also explains that he refused treatment, refused alcohol or drugs, refused to lose consciousness even for a moment. Giving all the disturbing and encouraging details as well, it was truly an honest experience in which moments of weakness and despair were not omitted.
"Although I did not take medication for depression, but there may come a time in the future and I take it. Exercise helped me a lot, yoga, and everything that makes me self-absorb in something or someone I love."
Haig's continuous attempts to get out of the dark tunnel included many solutions that he continued to practice until he noticed their positive effects on him. Jogging was one of those correct solutions that were immediately recognized as useful. Jogging simulated anxiety attacks but without anxiety. Running makes you sweat, your heart beats faster, but at the same time it distracts you from terrifying thoughts, makes you focus on the road, and it was an achievement that grows day by day.
Reading also, he used to read everything that his eyes fell upon, especially those related to depression, he used to read, notice and also communicate with those suffering from depression, so before he was a depressed patient, he was a writer who communicates with people to know what they feel, how to overcome or fight it, how they noticed it and everything Attached to that beast crouching in their minds, so that they could scare him; He runs away.
Throughout that journey, Haig used to say it explicitly through his experience, that we will always need someone to understand what we are going through, someone who will endure all these fluctuations, panic attacks, fear and those abnormal circumstances, and he attributed all this appreciation, patience and love to Andrea, his sweetheart.
“Andrea closed all the holes that anxiety and darkness was seeping into my life. It was my second mind, my babysitter, my second half when my half left me. She covered up my lost self, and I waited patiently for my return to myself as if she were a soldier's wife.”
