Mental health memoirs help humanize psychiatric conditions and provide their readers with a realistic account of what it is like to live with dysthymia (PPD) and other disorders. Sehee’s stated goal is both to affirm the experiences of readers living with dysthymia and to help demystify the condition for those who are unfamiliar with it. She notes early in the memoir that Bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses with more “extreme” symptoms and greater emotional volatility are easier to identify, diagnose, and recognize. She hopes that her memoir will show her readers that long-term depression, even when not characterized by outsized symptoms, can still have a devastating impact on a person’s professional and personal lives.

Sehee’s depression impacts her romantic relationships. She does not initially understand why, in spite of having had many partners, she struggles to maintain romances and is often deeply unhappy when she is in a relationship. The psychiatrist helps her to understand that she hyper-attaches to her partners when what she really needs is a relationship in which she, an introvert, is able to maintain healthy boundaries and have time to herself to recharge, process, and rest. Sehee’s unhealthy attachment patterns are part of her low self-esteem and fear of judgment and abandonment. Since her condition went so long undiagnosed, Sehee developed relationship patterns rooted in depressive symptoms that were emotionally damaging and failed to meet her needs.

Sehee also struggles in friendships as a result of her dysthymia. She does not have a stable self-concept, meaning she lacks a fixed understanding of her own personality. She looks to others for validation of her interests. When she meets her new friend, she describes the way that she begins to read the books they like, watch the films they enjoy, and adopt their other likes and dislikes. When she recommends a book that her new friend does not find as compelling as Sehee does, she interprets her friend’s lack of interest as criticism. She feels rejected and lashes out. This experience represents the pattern that characterizes many of Sehee’s friendships: She seeks validation in the form of interests that are entirely aligned, and then becomes angry when she does not receive it. She realizes that she is perceived as hostile. She and the psychiatrist work together to help Sehee rely less on other people for validation and to be more confident in her own identity and interests.

Sehee also struggles at work because of her depression. She is hyper-attuned to potential criticism, and often judges herself for faults that she assumes others find in her, with little evidence to suggest that anyone else actually shares her criticism. When another group at her office assumes a leadership role in the social media management Sehee had been in charge of, she worries excessively that the new team’s work is superior to hers. Although no one compares the new team’s posts unfavorably to hers, she is still sure that her coworkers are secretly judging her. She admits to her psychiatrist that “Nothing frightens me more than the thought of someone mocking me,” but she cannot see that no one is as critical of her as she is (38). In these ways, her depression distorts her perception and impacts her life both socially and at work.