I stumbled across the lovely Fiona Thomas on Instagram back a few months ago, with a post that particular made me laugh. I love her honesty and almost immediately warmed to her attitude. Then when I discovered her book and I was intrigued. As I started to read it I hadn’t realised exactly what she had been through. She had suffered with depression, like myself having a different way of looking at it. When I went through depression I read self help books. I then took part in a CBT workshop which gave me an insight into dealing with it. Putting practical things into place, but this was the first time I’d read a personal story. So here is my book review of Depression in the Digital Age, by Fiona Thomas.

It took me a while to read this book because I don’t get much spare time to read. However when I did read it I found myself making myself notes. She also talks about her blog which was an insight for me for my own blog. Reading about her attempts at rebranding and marketing and how she would wake in the middle of the night writing posts.  For me getting up in the middle of the night writing doesn’t quite work. I can stay up late blogging and writing but once I’m in bed that’s it. I’m out for the count.

The highs and lows of perfectionism

This book gives an insight into what Fiona has been going through and how she dealt with her depression and anxiety using the power of social media. I never thought Instagram would be a help tool for depression. I guess in a way it actually makes sense to some degree.

She talks about making acquaintances on twitter I always thought was possible as I have already done so. But I love the idea of meeting fellow bloggers like she had in Birmingham and the fact that they’re close friends and can share ideas really appealed to me.

She shared an insight into blogging. In my six years of blogging I’ve never had any training or advice and just made it up as I went along. It was more like a diary of events for me sometimes ranting about day to day problems. Book reviews for anyone who wanted to know, sewing projects and short stories that I’d written. After reading this book though it made me realise that my blog is a therapy for myself. 

She also talked about podcasts I knew they existed but I wasn’t really into them as I’d prefer to listen to music. However when I cannot sleep or my tinnitus is particularly bad podcasts have been a great relief. I now love listening to people because it’s amazing what you can learn from others.

My review

I hadn’t realised that listicles were a thing and now I use them in my everyday life. This book really was informative and not just for someone suffering with depression but for someone who also likes to write.

Fiona talked about ‘Imposter Syndrome’. When I first read it, in complete honesty I thought it was a made up term, but apparently not.

That really opened my eyes to another world, I hadn’t realised that sometimes I’d felt like an imposter at work in a previous role and had no idea it was a real thing. I had just put it down to me having ‘off’ days, so thanks Fiona, nice to know it’s a normal thing!

In a nutshell

This book has a great content for anyone who suffers with any mental health issues, as well as fellow bloggers. Anyone who wants to learn and if you want a storyline this book is a story of how she got through to the other side of life.  I would recommend it, especially if you can totally switch off from everything else in life (technology, work and family) for a few moments.