This was a tough read for me. Depression is hard. And wow, does this story illustrate that. This is a very candid sharing of one woman's journey and illustrates how depression can happen to anyone, even those of us who seem to have it all together. It's not a simple subject --it's long and complicated and frustrating and exhausting and misunderstood. This story captures that, and also shows the incredible dedication, patience, and love required of partners, family, and friends.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!

Please note this is a 4.5.

The crippling weight of unending perfectionism and the real cost of burning out with dismal mental health is so clear in this book. Beautifully written, and an absolute swan song of trauma, I appreciate everything that the author mentions in this book. Sometimes the weight of the world is just too much to bear, and the expectations that accompany that weight can be sickening.

The emotion in this book pours through the pages, and you can feel the heaviness. From her battle with infertility, to needing to leave her medical studies, to smaller things like the snide comments about her husband leaving her if he were a different man, this book covers so much heartbreak.

I think as well there’s a message about mental illness and how we pathologise and criticise when someone is too self-aware. The weight of life is sometimes a lot, and any effort at staying above water should be commended.

I did think that the end of this book could have been expanded a little more. I didn’t need a glimmer of hope, but I would have appreciated a focus on how things are trekking now. This was a beautiful, raw book, without being a trauma display so much as a dissection, and it was thoroughly enjoyable.

𓂂 ׂ𓆟۪ׄ 𓆞 ۫. thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me this arc in exchange for an honest review!

♡. this book was raw, and so moving. it was the author’s memoir for when she was battling depression and how she recovered through it. some parts felt close to home, and so this book was somewhat comforting. it described the struggles and torments her own mind put her through frequently. if you’re into memoirs and a type of book that will change your perspectives, i recommend it.

3.5 rounded it for the bravery and rawness of the writer in tackling such, unfortunately still taboo-ish and misunderstood topics and themes.
The prose is mostly without undermining the challenges and the seriousness of mental health.

Thank you to publisher and net galley for gifting me this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a memoir of the author herself, going through depression, was sectioned and admitted for a long time in a psychiatric unit, having to go for ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY, psychotherapy, and eventually after a few years of ups and downs, slowly stepped back into society and go back to her old job of a research scientist. The author herself was a junior doctor once, like me, so it was close to heart.

I find myself liking the honest and raw description of depression, and I hope this book is able to give a glimpse of how it feels like to carers of friends who knows anyone with depression. Sometimes our minds can be at its worst and torment us with the most painful experience one can ever have in life, and this book alluded to that, sensitively and succinctly.

I will recommend!!

Raw and authentic voice. A memoir about mental illness. Written so well. A topic that I find brave to explore and write about. Bravo! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

As a country, we don’t talk often enough about mental illness. In her memoir, Helen Murray Taylor does just that. It was a fascinating read.

A raw account of one womans experience with mental health. The devastation and struggles with day to day living and eventually being detained under the mental health act. The extremes helen goes to and eventually the love and friendship that help guide her. Very powerful, very raw, very on edge reading this.

Love Lay Down Beside Me and We Wept by Helen Murray Taylor is an emotional memoir that provides an account of her experience of suffering from mental health difficulties and her recovery process.