It's Kind of a Funny Story- Ned Vizzini post #2

I am in the middle of this book "It's Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini. So far the depressed high school kid, Craig (the main character), has planned to commit suicide. He plans to, but he doesn't actually. He ends up calling a suicide hot line and then he admits himself to a hospital. He has just gotten to the hospital and I am at the part where he is getting a tour of it. I am really enjoying this book, but there are a few things I'm confused about.

One thing I am confused about is how the book just jumping to Craig making this quick decision to commit suicide. I mean I understand that he is depressed and everything, but I feel like there was not enough build up in the story. In the story, Craig is depressed about school and everything, but he doesn't seem to have a depression like "I want to make the decision to kill myself in five seconds". It might not be the way the story is written by the author, but it may just be reflecting the kind of depression we have today. I just might not be educate on depression enough to know why he made such a quick decision.

Another thing I am confused about is what the underlying cause to Craig's depression is. They talk a lot about it, but I have a feeling that they are not saying the real reason why he is depressed. I think that it might be that he's depressed because of something happening to him earlier in life. Craig explained that he knows the depression started when he got to high school, but maybe it was always there and that just "activated" it.

I might not know the answer to these confusions now, but maybe later in the story they will explain these things. I look forward to finishing the book.

It's Kind of a Funny Story- Ned Vizzini

        I have recently began reading the book It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini. I find the book quite interesting. It is all about this teenager Craig and the depression he is going through. I like books like these because they make me think about what it would be like if I were in the position of a depressed teenager, not that i want to be, but it is just interesting to hear about the experience. The character I would like to analyze in this post is Craig.

        Craig seems to be a nice kid, he has nice friends, he has a nice family, and he got into a nice high school, but under all that nice stuff, there is something wrong. Craig is extremely depressed. Craig, his friend Aaron's girlfriend,his doctors, and his family are the only ones that are aware of his depression. Craig seems like a person who would lead a perfectly normal social life, but he doesn't. In fact, he pretty much shuts himself off to socializing. Craig is the narrator so he doesn't just come out and say "I'm not social!", but he sure does show it. For example, his friend Aaron had a party and Craig just sat in the corner looking at records. Craig is not only shut off to socializing, but he is also shut off to other ideas than his own. For example, Nia (Aaron's girlfriend) was talking to Craig about how he should tell Aaron about his depression, but Craig was totally against the idea, and he had to come up with a million reasons why not to tell Aaron. Nia has really been the only one who has confronted him about how he puts walls up ("walls" to block off socializing and new ideas).

        I believe that if Craig did not block himself off to the world then it would help out a lot with his depression. But on the other hand the depression might be what is causing him to block himself off. In my opinion, that is what is really awful about depression. It is kind of like a cycle, you want to do good things things that will help you get out of depression but depression is holding you back from doing that.