Hide and Seek - Wendy Aron

Subtitled: A Neurotic's Hilarious Journey
How I Laughed at Depression, Conquered My Fears and Found Happiness.

You know me - I love a good memoir and with such an interesting cover and lead in I had to pick up Wendy Aron's tale from Kunati Books.

Hide and Seek opens with Aron spending her fortieth birthday at her therapist's office and wishing for the safety she remembered from a stay in a psychiatric hospital 20 years ago.

How did she get to this point? She has explored the reasons behind her ongoing depression and anxiety but believes "that somewhere out there, there was a magical solution to my problems that could put me in a state that I heard a psychologist once call 'invulnerable euphoria.' I knew that it was time to start looking for it."

Wendy begins her journey, exploring different avenues, therapies and workshops. The incomplete list includes; Winning Ways, Weight Watchers, Smokers Anonymous, Self Esteem and the New You, SpeedDating, Aromatherapy, a Creativity Retreat, Humour and Learned Optimism and a few more.

She shares her exploration of these with openness, honesty and an amazing sense of humour. While some of these ideas may not work for everyone, we can all learn something from Wendy's determination and continuing search.

At the end of a year, Aron has found some answers.

" It wasn't what happened to me that was the problem; it was strictly how I viewed these things and what importance I gave them. There was always an opportunity to feel gratitude if I reframed certain events. And feeling gratitude, I had learned, was the first step towards happiness."

I enjoyed following Wendy's journey, but wished she had gone a little further in an epilogue and tied things up. In the author bio it mentions that she has married. As this was part of her search, I would have enjoyed reading how she met and married. Is she off medication? Did she manage to lose the weight, stop the nicotine patches?

You can keep up with Wendy on her blog.