Depression is no joke—until it is: art as balm
Understatement alert
2020 was rough. It was at-times frightening and always confusing. Unifying and divisive. For far too many, it meant tragedy for entire families. For the lucky rest of us, it was annoying and inconvenient. As divisive as it was at times, the entire human race was on the same page with one thing: we could crumble or we could choose to practice beefing up our distress tolerance muscles.
How’d you get through 2020? Did you master sourdough? Air-frying? TikTok dancing?
I worked puzzles and soaked in precious extra time with my then-college-aged kids forced home from their spring breaks. We listened to music—so much music. We danced on the screened-in porch. We took more walks together. We binged shows till our eyes bled. I bought a food processor and tried out Tabitha Brown’s vegan recipe for ground pecan “meat” tacos. (Surprisingly tasty but OOF, nuts hurt my guts.)
And I delved into comedy.
Not just during lockdown but during life’s setbacks and my own bouts with depression. Falling asleep to comedy podcasts and consuming memoirs written by humorists, comedians, and comedic actors made for excellent medicine.
The comedic memoir can (and should) be hilarious, but it is also, typically, deeply poignant. It is said (though attribution varies) that “Comedy is tragedy plus time.” If you want to understand mental illness better and laugh while you learn, or if you experience any kind of mental illness and need to feel less alone and could use a serotonin boost, I recommend the following humorous media as balm:
Gary Gulman’s comedy special “The Great Depresh”: If you don’t have Max, maybe try a free trial or ask to watch with a friend who does have the streamer. It’s also an album, on Spotify and Apple Music! The Great Depresh is a sweet, funny, insightful, and poignant personal account of treatment-resistant depression. You might also check out Gary’s laugh-riot memoir, “Misfit.” I loved it on audio.
Maria Bamford’s memoir, “Sure I’ll Join Your Cult”: Famed for her vulnerable and hilarious treatment and on-stage/screen delivery mined from a lifetime of intrusive thoughts, OCD, anxiety, ED, and Bipolar II depression, Maria entertains while giving readers a vivid glimpse of her life inside and outside self-help groups and psychiatric hospitals.
The listen (Maria narrates!)
Libby offers it for free—for eyeballs and/or ears (depending on your library’s collection)
Anne Lamott’s “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts On Faith”: A book I re-read every few years and hand out to friends dealing with any kind of life pain or transition. Though more of a wry inspirational writer than humorist, Anne penned this highly entertaining and poignant story of her faith journey through struggles with and triumphs over addiction, a dysfunctional family of origin, and the death of her beloved father in her twenties. I recommend any and all of her irreverent, heart-touching nonfiction works.
Chris Gethard’s comedy special and album Career Suicide and book Lose Well: Chris’s gentle, self-effacing and sarcastic vibe welcomes his audience into a cozy comedic tour of pain and victories through failure, anxiety, mania, and suicidal ideation-level depression. A good pal of Mike Birbiglia, Chris also has a podcast—Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People (Spotify and Apple). He’s just so gosh-darned nice and lovable.
“God, If You’re Not Up There, I’m F**ked: Tales of Stand-up, Saturday Night Live, and Other Mind-Altering Mayhem” by Darrell Hammond: This one is hard. While he was splitting the sides of millions of SNL viewers, Darrell was in agony. Somehow in this book he makes us laugh while unraveling a horrifying tangle of PTSD and self-harm from extreme childhood abuse; severe depression; and misdiagnoses of and treatment for Bipolar and Schizophrenia. Not for the faint of heart, but inspiring nonetheless.
This is just one little list of truly enlightening, validating, and LOL art made from pain. Here’s another list: Comedy as Advocacy. And another: Hilarious Memoirs About Mental Illness.
Oh! One more recommendation
The Hilarious World of Depression, a podcast. I started with the Gary Gulman episode, but if you scroll through the list you’ll find the least likely guests—or maybe the most likely, if it’s true that tragedy + time = comedy.
I was told there would be no math.