Deftly blending self-help manual with memoir, Baek Sehee's wryly witty and perceptive book documents her psychiatric sessions over a twelve-week period and how disentangling the causes of depression and anxiety can be such a complex, contradictory process.
PSYCHIATRIST: So how can I help you?
ME: I don't know, I'm - what's the word - depressed? Do I have to go into detail?
Baek Se-Hee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiatrist about her - what to call it? - depression?
She feels persistently low, anxious, endlessly self-doubting, but also highly judgemental of others. She hides her feelings well at work and with friends; adept at performing the calmness, even ease, her lifestyle demands. The effort is exhausting, overwhelming, and keeps her from forming deep relationships. This can't be normal. But if she's so hopeless, why can she always summon a yen for her favourite street food, the hot, spicy rice cake, tteokbokki? Is this just what life is like?
Recording her dialogues with her psychiatrist over a 12-week period, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions and harmful behaviours that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse. Part memoir, part self-help book, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki is a book to keep close and to reach for in times of darkness.
I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki comes in three different colours; the colour you receive will be chosen at random
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN: 9781526648099
Number of pages: 208
Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm
An eye-opening view into a person's most vulnerable moments in a new way. - Cosmopolitan
I Want to Die... has been a huge bestseller in Korea and will strike a chord with anyone who feels that their public life is at odds with how they really feel inside. Baek Sehee transcribes the sessions with her psychiatrist as she uncovers the root causes of her anxiety and harmful behaviours, despite the perfect picture she presents to the world. - Red
At once personal and universal, this book is about finding a path to awareness, understanding, and wisdom. - Kirkus Reviews
Candid … heartfelt … Sehee’s mission to normalize conversation about mental illness is an admirable one. - Publishers Weekly
Sehee is honest and authentic throughout … [I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki] will resonate with young people who suffer from similar forms of depression and anxiety. - Library Journal
A testament to the gradual nature of therapy’s cumulative healing effects, I Want to Die should resonate with anyone who eagerly transcribes every nugget of advice they get. - Buzzfeed
Earnest … clever … [Baek Sehee] uses months of (real) transcripts from her therapy sessions to explore her own depression and anxiety, always tiptoeing toward something like self-awareness. - Chicago Tribune
With candor and humor, Baek offers readers and herself resonant moments of empathy … [I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki] arrives in the U.S. sensitively English-enabled by favored translator Hur. - Booklist
Candid, brutal and gentle all at once, Sehee captures the unspoken internal battles of the average person and the difficulty of improving even the smallest aspects that taint the joy of daily life. Often we see... More
A really fascinating insight into mental health, the little things in life that keep us going and the journey to and from the therapist's office. I really enjoyed this sometimes-macabre look into the... More
The cover and the title made me buy this book! This is a very honest and open look into someone’s mental health through transcripts taken from conversations with their psychiatrist. I was expecting more from it tbh... More
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