Reviews for Hide & Seek: How I Laughed at Depression, Conquered My Fears and Found Happiness (Kunati 2008):
From School Library Journal:
In her efforts to subdue raging depression, TV and stage writer Aron tried to no avail virtually every mainstream and alternative remedy. Her adventures among the lunatic fringe are laugh-out-loud funny. In the end, Aron gets her life together by dismissing all of the "miracle cures" and discovering herself. Anyone who has overcome recurring bouts with the blues will relish this comic self-help tale.
From Bookist:
*Starred Review* Aron draws on her training as a screenwriter and her experience as a television sitcom writer to tell a hysterically funny account of one woman’s quest for happiness. Having battled depression in her twenties, Aron finds that being forced to do the same in her forties is downright, well . . . depressing—even to the point of longing for the good ol’ days when psychological problems forced her to be hospitalized. But this time she realizes that she can’t rely totally on her beloved therapist but must devise a method to improve herself. Her “master plan” for fixing everything from her relationships with her mother and with men to her weight and health goes awry in multiple ways, all of which she recounts with endearing self-deprecating humor. Among the missteps are a self-help class (in which the instructor preaches that posture is the key to happiness) and a try at speed dating (where one date wept for his dead wife). In the end, Aron finds a “new plan,” one that involves acceptance, forgiveness, and gratitude. This engrossing, thoroughly entertaining memoir offers both a delightfully ironic view of the self-help industry and, at the same time, an inspiring personal story of recovery that will resonate with women of all ages and situations.
From Hadassah Magazine:
Sitcom writer Wendy Aron has written a hysterically funny book about a very unfunny subject: being paralyzed by depression. Perhaps more neurotic than Woody Allen and just as funny, Aron survives a year of self-help groups and therapy by homing in on the scariness and inanities of the meetings. This Jewish New Yorker's sharp, self-deprecating humor can dissolve suffering into laughter.
From Body + Soul:
The Laughing Cure
A woman's offbeat solution to escaping her own malaise
Reading Wendy Aron's Hide & Seek (Kunati) is like spending time with an exasperating friend who discloses way too much but also makes you laugh like crazy. In recounting her journey to conquer her depression, Aron includes childhood grievances, adult embarrassments, and self-criticisms galore, all spike with witty observations and a keen eye for life's absurdities. Surprisingly for its genre, the book avoids a touchy-feely "aha" moment in the end; instead, Aron's epiphany involves realizing that she enjoys making jokes out of the sometimes awfulness of life. The result is a book less an instructive guide to surviving depression than a colorful character study of someone who did just that. It's the outcome, not the advice, that inspires.--
From ForeWord:
There's no lack of self-help books aimed at people who suffer from depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, or neuroses. Nor do we face a dearth of memoirs by people who have been through the excruciating hoops of misery and treatment. So why does the world need Wendy Aron's Hide & Seek, which combines her personal story with advice from various professionals she meets during her year of discovery? The answer’s simply good medicine: she makes her readers laugh—at the world of self-improvement education, at spiritual gurus, and at ourselves. Learning how to cope with hopelessness has never been so fun.
Endorsements:
"For anyone who’s ever been depressed, who’s ever been in (and out of) therapy, or who may one day contemplate the arduous path of what we loosely refer to as mental health, this is a wonderfully intimate, honest, witty, and inspiring book."
--Joseph J. Luciani, Ph.D., author of Self-Coaching: The Powerful Program to Beat Anxiety & Depression
"Sparing no one — especially herself — Aron delivers a no-holds-barred tour through the depressive’s circles of hell, from childhood mortifications to self-esteem workshops. Writing with warmth, candor, and a quick wit, Aron reminds readers that we can survive anything, even ourselves."
—Jennifer Traig, author of Well Enough Alone and Devil in the Details.