Cheer Up Love

Funny and honest memoir of a life lived with depression. Some of the advice isn't stuff I'd recommend, and her aversion to medicine and counselling bothered me (particularly the drawing therapy where she blamed the therapist rather unfairly, I felt) - but she's clear that what works for her isn't what might work for others, and vice versa.

There's an early diversion in to being gay which seems like it might belong to another book - it was interesting and revealing, but stuck out a bit given that it wasn't hinted at in the title. Perhaps it sticks out because it gets a bit like you're being told off for other people's attitudes, and if it isn't what you came to the book for, you might find it jarring. Having said that, there are also diversions in to being Glaswegian, short, a comedian, and a cat owner, only the latter of which I can identify with so perhaps I'm being unfair.

It's a book that made me laugh about a subject that doesn't normally have a lot to laugh about. If your understanding of depression isn't great, it's well worth buying with the caveat that her experience is not everyone's experience - as she takes great pains to remind us.