You can tell a lot about Kelly Williams Brown’s life by looking at her multiple bowls of tiny origami. Her “lucky stars” are folded in a pattern that Kelly learned and then repeated over and over and over to help her get through the moments of her life when all seemed lost, when death felt preferable. There are many bowls filled with these stars and they are all very large bowls. There must be tens of thousands of these stars and she keeps the bowls in easy reach in her Salem, Ore. home, reminders of how horrible her depression got and how she got through the worst of it. The title of her memoir, which is not a craft book but a memoir, reflects the sense of humor that was with her all along.

Watch Kelly Williams Brown teach John how to make a yarn ball friend.

Get your copy of Kelly Williams Brown's Easy Crafts for the Insane: A Mostly Funny Memoir of Mental Illness and Making Things here or wherever books are sold. Visit Kelly's website here. Follow her on Twitter @KWilliamsBrown and on Instagram @kellywilliamsbrown.

Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. 

Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected].

Help is available right away.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.

International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

The Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/

John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.

Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.

John is on Twitter @johnmoe.