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Fez
Here's the authors note in English:
MENTAL HEALTH isn’t as simple as a suicide-prevention number in the back of a book and an author you don’t know telling you things will get better.
So I’m going to do a little more than that.
I’m going to tell you that I have friends and family who have suffered alone and in silence, people who only told me years after the fact that they were in incredible pain. That they had considered ending or even attempted to end their own lives.
It breaks my heart to think that people I love and couldn’t imagine the world without—brave, smart, resilient people—didn’t seek help. Didn’t speak up. Drowned quietly, in full view of everyone who knew them, without ever asking to be saved.
I know their struggle, because there are times I’ve found it difficult to speak out, too.
To that end, I beseech you to read Adam Silvera’s article “Happiness Isn’t Just An Outside Thing”—you can find it on his Tumblr. It is frank, it is terrifying, and it changed my outlook on mental health forever. It is completely essential. Read it, read it, read it.
My hope is that this book becomes a conversation starter to speak openly and honestly about mental health issues with those around you. Ask your friends and family how they are. Tell them how you are. Don’t be ashamed of seeking professional help. Be part of the movement to normalize talking about this stuff. Because it is normal.
Mental illness doesn’t make you weak; it makes you human.
And, in case of an emergency, I implore you to contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. There will be someone on the other end of the line who can help you see the value of your life, even when you’re blind to it yourself.
Whether your problems are small or large (or even if you have none at all—you may be able to support somebody else), I will leave you with this mantra. I would like you to say it out loud, right now, until you take it to heart:
There is no shame in seeking help.
There is no shame in seeking help.
There is no shame in seeking help.
“I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy—I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.”
—Art Williams
NOTESDURING THE WRITING OF THIS BOOK, I watched many online resources about dealing with anxiety and fear. None was more useful and inspiring than Dawn Huebner’s “Rethinking anxiety: Learning to face fear” from TEDxAmoskeagMillyardWomen in 2015. Huebner’s talk formed the basis of Esther’s therapist’s advice, and has also been invaluable to me personally (I can now sleep in the dark after watching horror movies).
For my depiction of Saigon during the Vietnam War, I looked to photographs and firsthand accounts, but I’m indebted to Sara Mansfield Taber’s July 6, 2015, Literary Hub article, “My Saigon Summer, Before the Fall,” for truly setting the scene in my imagination. Any inaccuracies are entirely my own.
Jonah’s Shakespearean insults came from pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/—an endlessly hilarious insult generator that I highly suggest we all start using on a daily basis. You mewling flap-mouthed flax-wenches.
MENTAL HEALTH isn’t as simple as a suicide-prevention number in the back of a book and an author you don’t know telling you things will get better.
So I’m going to do a little more than that.
I’m going to tell you that I have friends and family who have suffered alone and in silence, people who only told me years after the fact that they were in incredible pain. That they had considered ending or even attempted to end their own lives.
It breaks my heart to think that people I love and couldn’t imagine the world without—brave, smart, resilient people—didn’t seek help. Didn’t speak up. Drowned quietly, in full view of everyone who knew them, without ever asking to be saved.
I know their struggle, because there are times I’ve found it difficult to speak out, too.
To that end, I beseech you to read Adam Silvera’s article “Happiness Isn’t Just An Outside Thing”—you can find it on his Tumblr. It is frank, it is terrifying, and it changed my outlook on mental health forever. It is completely essential. Read it, read it, read it.
My hope is that this book becomes a conversation starter to speak openly and honestly about mental health issues with those around you. Ask your friends and family how they are. Tell them how you are. Don’t be ashamed of seeking professional help. Be part of the movement to normalize talking about this stuff. Because it is normal.
Mental illness doesn’t make you weak; it makes you human.
And, in case of an emergency, I implore you to contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. There will be someone on the other end of the line who can help you see the value of your life, even when you’re blind to it yourself.
Whether your problems are small or large (or even if you have none at all—you may be able to support somebody else), I will leave you with this mantra. I would like you to say it out loud, right now, until you take it to heart:
There is no shame in seeking help.
There is no shame in seeking help.
There is no shame in seeking help.
“I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy—I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.”
—Art Williams
NOTESDURING THE WRITING OF THIS BOOK, I watched many online resources about dealing with anxiety and fear. None was more useful and inspiring than Dawn Huebner’s “Rethinking anxiety: Learning to face fear” from TEDxAmoskeagMillyardWomen in 2015. Huebner’s talk formed the basis of Esther’s therapist’s advice, and has also been invaluable to me personally (I can now sleep in the dark after watching horror movies).
For my depiction of Saigon during the Vietnam War, I looked to photographs and firsthand accounts, but I’m indebted to Sara Mansfield Taber’s July 6, 2015, Literary Hub article, “My Saigon Summer, Before the Fall,” for truly setting the scene in my imagination. Any inaccuracies are entirely my own.
Jonah’s Shakespearean insults came from pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/—an endlessly hilarious insult generator that I highly suggest we all start using on a daily basis. You mewling flap-mouthed flax-wenches.
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