Rester en vie

At twenty-four, Matt Haig stood on a cliff edge in Ibiza, contemplating suicide after a sudden, total psychological breakdown. This memoir details his subsequent years living with clinical depression and panic disorder. Haig lists the specific physical symptoms he experienced, such as a constant tightening in the chest and the sensation of being trapped in a burning building. He analyzes how reading and writing served as tools for recovery, using short chapters, lists of things that made him feel better, and imagined dialogues between his past and present selves.

Readers struggling with chronic anxiety or low mood find a candid inventory of the internal experience of mental illness here. It functions as a guidebook for those who need reassurance that their physical and mental sensations are common patterns rather than unique failures. By the end, the reader retains a list of small, daily anchors—like sunsets, exercise, and literature—that provide a framework for enduring periods of heavy psychological distress without relying on clinical jargon.