Want to learn the ideas in Furiously Happy better than ever? Read the world’s #1 book summary of Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson here.
Read a brief 1-Page Summary or watch video summaries curated by our expert team. Note: this book guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher or author, and we always encourage you to purchase and read the full book.
Video Summaries of Furiously Happy
We’ve scoured the Internet for the very best videos on Furiously Happy, from high-quality videos summaries to interviews or commentary by Jenny Lawson.
1-Page Summary of Furiously Happy
Overview
Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things is a series of essays that are hysterically funny and poignant at the same time. The author, Jenny Lawson, suffers from clinical depression, an anxiety disorder, an impulse control disorder, avoidant personality disorder, insomnia and rheumatoid arthritis among other illnesses. As a result of her illnesses she has serious lows where she can’t get out of bed or even leave the house for days on end. She also has thoughts about committing suicide because life feels so unbearable sometimes. However after one particularly bad period in which she was unable to work for several months due to illness she decided to be furiously happy instead because it would help with her moods swings and suicidal urges. Within a few hours of using #FuriouslyHappy Larson’s many Twitter followers got behind her idea and it began trending as people started tweeting their own examples of being furiously happy in response to Jenny’s tweets about how it helped make her feel better by making everything seem more manageable when you’re feeling low
Lawson wants to reclaim her life with mental illness by living it to the fullest. She counters the deep wells of sadness and immobility in her life by attempting to live a crazy, zany lifestyle that can bring joy into people’s lives. Most importantly, she celebrates herself and everything that makes her unique.
Key Takeaways
Being happy can help you fight depression.
Everyone should be proud of their quirks and oddities. Depression isn’t honest, so people shouldn’t let others make them feel bad about taking drugs to treat it. Every person’s mental illness is different, so there’s no one-size-fits-all treatment for it.
Jenny’s daughter Hailey is nothing like her. However, animals both dead and alive make life more enjoyable.
The internet makes life easier for people who can’t leave the house. Mental illness is an interesting phenomenon that causes us to do strange things, which may lead to funny stories we tell others. People should not measure their happiness against others’.
Key Takeaway 1: Furious happiness is a strong tool against depression.
Once, while in New York City, Lawson left her hotel room despite having one injured foot and one good foot. She had mixed feelings about the pain she felt from leaving her room—pleasure that she was able to move around with a bad leg or two and pain from moving around with a bad leg or two. This is similar to how she feels about life itself: pleasure in some moments and pain in others.
Recent research has shown that being furiously happy can help you become resilient to stress and depression. A study at MIT showed that having positive memories, in which male mice were able to spend time with female mice, helped the mice deal with stressful conditions. The scientists tagged neurons associated with those positive memories so they could be activated again later on. When the stressed-out mice were exposed to a negative stimulus (a lack of interest in eating and a lack of struggle when picked up), their behaviors improved dramatically. They became interested in eating again, and struggled against researchers who tried to pick them up. This illustrates Furiously Happy’s point: Happiness is powerful weapon against sadness.
Key Takeaway 2: All people should wear their quirks and oddities as a badge of honor.
In modern times, it’s possible to be proud of one’s odd traits and celebrate them. This is seen in the mad pride movement, which aims to remove the stigma around mental illness through public sharing and a confessional tone on blogs. People like Lawson (author) are a part of this movement because they want people to feel comfortable with their differences. They want people to take their talk about mental illness out from behind closed doors and make it more public. That way, they can help people who are suffering from mental illnesses find support groups or get treatment. According to an article by The New York Times, activists have been able “to take the talk about mental illness out from behind closed doors” so that today college students openly discuss these topics on campuses. By not divorcing oneself from madness, books like Furiously Happy allow readers to wear their differences with honor.
