Book Review: Reasons to Stay Alive

Title: Reasons to Stay Alive
Author: Matt Haig
Genre: Self-Help, Non-Fiction
Pages: 266
Rating: ★★★★

I want life. I want to read it and write it and feel it and live it. I want, for as much of the time as possible in this blink-of-an-eye existence we have, to feel all that can be felt. I hate depression. I am scared of it. Terrified, in fact. But at the same time, it has made me who I am. And if – for me – it is the price of feeling life, it’s a price always worth paying.

Reasons to Stay Alive is about making the most of your time on earth. In the western world the suicide rate is highest amongst men under the age of 35. Matt Haig could have added to that statistic when, aged 24, he found himself staring at a cliff-edge about to jump off. This is the story of why he didn’t, how he recovered and learned to live with anxiety and depression. It’s also an upbeat, joyous and very funny exploration of how live better, love better, read better and feel more.

My Thoughts:

Reasons to Stay Alive has been a book I’ve wanted to read since its release. A lot of people I follow on bookstagram loved it and after reading Matt Haig’s The Humans and loving that, I was excited to read more by him.

I also chose this book for September’s Colour Me Read Challenge which encouraged readers to read a book from Self-Help or Informational genres.

Reasons to Stay Alive is about Matt Haig’s personal experience with anxiety and depression. In it he describes what it was like for him to suffer from panic attacks, pain, hopelessness, and other physical symptoms associated with his mental illness.

But that’s not all.

Reasons to Stay Alive is also about hope and seeing the light through the cracks in the darkness. It’s about appreciating the life we have and learning not to take it for granted. It’s about looking at the small and big things that give us joy and cherishing the people in our lives who show us how to love and be loved.

Reasons to Stay Alive is also a very helpful book for people who don’t deal with depression/anxiety but have loved ones who do. I’m one of these people and while I may not fully walk in the shoes of someone who experiences it first hand, Matt Haig was so real and honest about his life that it gave me a better understanding.

Read this book. There is so much here that you can take away no matter what you’re going through. You don’t have to have depression to read it, you don’t have to have anxiety, you only need to be willing. You will hurt, you will smile, and you will hope.