How Not to Fall Apart : Lessons Learned on the Road from Self-Harm to Self-Care

"She’s [Maggy is] really funny . . . If I had a self-destructive young adult in my life . . . this is probably the book I’d get her.” —The New York Times Book Review 

“How Not to Fall Apart is the book that finally understands mental health, and it'll make you feel infinitely less alone.” —HelloGiggles

Featured in The New York Post, Lenny Letter, BuzzFeed, and more.

What no one tells you about living with anxiety and depression—learned the hard way
 
Maggy van Eijk knows the best place to cry in public. She also knows that eating super salty licorice or swimming in icy cold water are things that make you feel alive but, unlike self-harm, aren't bad for you.

These are the things to remember when you're sad.

Turning 27, Maggy had the worst mental health experience of her life so far. She ended a three-year relationship. She lost friends and made bad decisions. She drank too much and went to ER over twelve times. She saw three different therapists and had three different diagnoses. She went to two burn units for self-inflicted wounds and was escorted in an ambulance to a mental health crisis center. But that's not the end of her story.

Punctuated with illustrated lists reminiscent of Maggy's popular BuzzFeed posts, How Not to Fall Apart shares the author's hard-won lessons about what helps and what hurts on the road to self-awareness and better mental health. This is a book about what it's like to live with anxiety and depression, panic attacks, self-harm and self-loathing--and it's also a hopeful roadmap written by someone who's been there and is still finding her way.

MAGGY VAN EIJK has written numerous popular articles about mental health for BuzzFeed and elsewhere. Currently the social media manager for the BBC, she lives in London.