Your body isn’t made to deal with that much fear for that long so when when I travel a lot I get sick, mentally and emotionally.” I’m afraid of getting stuck, or lost, and paralyzed every single step of the way from my house to the plane. : “Some people are afraid of flying and I am too, but not in the way you think. I even find myself hiding in my own home, my panicked heartbeat in my ears when someone comes to the door.” : “When I’m having a bad spell I can’t make myself interact with the outside world. … The first-worst way to wake up is to find bears eating you because your body thought it’s safest defense was to sleep in front of bears.” The second-worst way to wake up is at the gynecologist’s without a speculum inside of you because the gynecologist took it out when you were passed out and now you have to start all over again. : “The really bad part about passing out at the gynecologist’s is that you occasionally regain consciousness with an unexpected speculum inside your vagina, which is essentially the third-worst way to wake up. …Then my head started bleeding and the doctor cracked open an ammonia capsule under my nose, which is a lot like being punched in the face by an invisible fist of stink.”

My earliest school memory is of a field trip to a hospital, when a doctor pulled out some blood samples and I immediately passed out right into a wall of (thankfully empty) bedpans. : “I’ve always been naturally anxious, to ridiculous degrees.

“Forced narcolepsy is pretty much the worst defense ever.”

On Her Tendency to Pass Out in Semi-Scary Situations: If you’re sensitive, be forewarned: The following will probably make you clutch your pearls. This time we’ll just give you excerpts from the funny parts, and highlight some of the points Jenny makes when addressing how we understand and treat mental illness. We usually do a chapter-by-chapter guide to our book club picks. In the author’s own words: “Some of it is very serious and some of it is very funny, but I hope you’ll find that all of it is honest, baffling and relatable in ways that may make you question your own sanity.” Because this book is an extension of Jenny’s blog, The Blogess, it reads less like a novel and more like a collection of ridiculously funny stories - interspersed with some real-af moments as she battles her depression and associated illnesses.

Furiously happy author