“Surviving Mental Illness Through Humor,” by Alyson Herzig, Jessica Azar

BOOK DESCRIPTION

If you’re living with a mental illness, you’re in good company. Disease doesn’t discriminate; One in four people suffer from mental illness, and yet the stigma still remains. “Surviving Mental Illness Through Humor” contains stories of hope, despair, and hilarity by writers who are walking the mental health journey, as they discuss their experiences with Depression, Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder, Anorexia, Agoraphobia, Panic Disorder and more. While the lows of living with mental illness can be devastating, the disease doesn’t define the lives of these contributors, and it doesn’t have to define yours, either. Some of these essays will make your heart ache, some will make you cry with laughter, but in reading this Anthology you will see that living with mental illness doesn’t equal a life of endless misery. Join us as we ‘laugh stigma into submission’ by growing attitudes of acceptance and compassion.

To purchase “Surviving Mental Illness Through Humor,” click here.

THE AUTHORS

Alyson Herzig

A former Jersey Girl, Alyson has moved to the Midwest but has kept her cynical sarcastic ways. She shares the many disasters and epic fails in her life on her personal blog, TheShitastrophy.com. She helps all her readers realize they could have it a lot worse, they could be her. From family debacles to observational wit she bares it all. Alyson has an essay in the anthology My Other Ex, Women's True Stories of Leaving and Losing Friendships, as well as in the anthology Not Your Mothers Book On Working for a Living. Alyson is also the co-creator of a soon-to-be released anthology titled Surviving Mental Illness with Humor.

Jessica Azar

Jessica Azar, writes while raising four stair-step kids, known affectionately as The Herd, with her husband and college sweetheart in her Alabama hometown. She blogs at Herd Management and humorously details the adventures and mishaps of being a homeschooling, work-at-home-mom. She also happens to like running and Single Malt Scotch a whole lot. Jessica co-edited a mental health anthology entitled Surviving Mental Illness Through Humor, and has had essays published in humor anthologies like Clash of the Couples. She is a Huffington Post Blogger, POPSUGAR Select Blogger, a NickMom Ambassador/Writer and does marketing work for various prominent brands. Her published work can be read on POPSUGAR, Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, NickMom.Com, Venn Magazine, BluntMoms and other online locations.

MY THOUGHTS
Okay, I am a little biased towards this book, because a short story of mine entitled, “The Attack,” was included in this anthology. With that aside, as someone who has suffered from anxiety attacks, depression and at times agoraphobia, I really felt in good company with the other contributors. Ten years ago, I viewed myself as some kind of a freak of nature, unable to break out of the prison I was in. While I am not “cured,” I am taking part in the world again. “Surviving Mental Illness Through Humor,” reminded me that I am not alone in the world. While mental illness is nothing to joke about, those of us who have one form of it or another have learned that laughter is the best medicine. We have shed enough tears, it is time to let out a few laughs.

Not only do I thank Alyson and Jessica for including me, I appreciate their efforts to bring further awareness to the subject.

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The last month has been a whirlwind. We got through Thanksgiving pretty well. Our aunties came to share the holiday with us. The five of us went to the graveyard to pay one last visit to Dad and Aunt Della before next spring, and to see their new monuments. Very nice and in some ways an eye opener. Seeing my Dad’s name on a headstone seems unnatural. At times his absence is very real to me and other times not so much. So we have Christmas, a birthday and New Year’s to get through and then we’ll be in the clear until Easter and then will come the first anniversary of his death. The holidays are always the hardest, especially at the very first. I have to admit, I was dreading Thanksgiving and it went better than I expected. So I have that to be grateful for.

With the help of an anxiety/depression program and a new exercise routine, I am doing quite a bit better. Still have a ways to go, but I think I’m on the right track. It helps that my sister is doing this too; keeps me dedicated.

Sent off around sixty some queries to the agents. Most have yet to respond, though a couple have requested to see the full manuscript. One agent in particular seems right for the story and she has had my novel for over a month. I want to ask how she likes it but am too afraid that she’ll reject it then and there. In the meantime I am polishing my WIP #2, which is even better than the first. I have more confidence in it than this current one. Hopefully it will be whipped into shape by the first of the year. Trying to get going on a third project. Do I start on another story based in this little town? I do have plans for one, but it is not appealing to me just yet, Believe it or not I am reworking my old Epic Novel that I set aside almost three years ago. I don’t know why, but the characters are speaking to me again. The tone is very different, so much so I’ll have to change the title if I go to send it off. It will be interesting to see what happens with that. Most of the research is already done and most of it is still floating around in my memory. So, we’ll see what happens.

The little Shih-Tzu we adopted has made himself at home. Checkers is a total stinkpot, eager to tease and start fights. We call him the “Little Hobbit” because he is so naughty. He has easily worked his way into our hearts. 

So Are The Days of My Life

I’ve been so busy it’s not funny. We’ve had work done around our house; new garage built, windows replaced, doors installed, back porch enclosed, trees taken out and parts of our fence torn down. The guys are super nice and I have nothing but praise for them, but we’ll be glad when things go back to normal around here.

My anxiety attacks/depression have made a return. It’s not easy because for about four years I felt pretty good. Not perfect but I made a lot of headway in that part of my life. And now I’m starting all over again. I’m taking a new medicine so hopefully in a few months I’ll feel better. The doctors always say it takes a couple of months to get regulated, but for me it generally takes a bit longer.

The agent I was corresponding with about WIP #1 decided not to represent me after all, so that’s set me back quite a bit anxiety-wise. I had really believed that my life was falling into place and now it’s all topsy-turvy again. What irks me is that for five months I remained loyal and followed all of her instructions. In August I started to suspect that something was up because I hadn’t heard much from her and asked her if she was still interested in my novel. Yes, she was but for her to represent me I had to wait until she made contacts at the AFCW conference. If I had another other offers, she encouraged me to go ahead with them. But since we had an agreement, and I consider myself a woman of my word, I assured her that I could wait. Fast-forward to last week. The conference was over so I e-mail her asking how it went and she responded that she was sorry but did not think herself right for my novel because she wasn’t as familiar with the Christian market.

So, I’m back at square one and down in the dumps. I am trying to prepare myself for the endless querying that I must get started on. At least the story has changed enough that it may appeal to other agents. It flows better. When I’m feeling better, I will resume my work on WIP #2 which only needs some polishing. I am actually more confident that this story will be accepted. It is a bit more unique and dynamic.

We’re going to have a new addition to our family. My Mom heard of a puppy mill that PETA is closing down and thought we could take in one of the dogs and give it a home. The dog is a male Shi-Tzu named Checkers who is in need of love. I was hesitant at first, because we already have two dogs and two cats. But maybe we need Checkers as much as he needs us. Our family needs healing and maybe he will be our bright spot of this year.