Susan Stewart

She made a career out of laughter. Then life stopped being funny.

A candid, darkly funny account of what happens when a comedian is forced to take her own mental health seriously.

"2023 was the hardest year of my life. It took me to the darkest place I'd ever been — and then it nearly took my life. So, naturally, once I was properly medicated, I thought to myself: this would make a really great show." — Susan Stewart, from the Introduction

Join Susan live for the book launch, or be the first to know when it hits shelves.

The hardest year of her life nearly ended it. Instead, it gave her new material.

She survived a suicide attempt. Then she did what any comedian would do: she wrote a show about it.

Comedian and mental health speaker Susan Stewart thought she knew a thing or two about resilience. She had survived depression before, built a career helping people see the lighter side of life, and spent years believing she had beaten it.

Then 2023 happened.

When depression and anxiety came roaring back, Susan was convinced she could handle them. She exercised. She meditated. She read the books. She self-helped the hell out of herself. And as things got worse, she resisted the very help she would have encouraged anyone else to get. What she dismissed as a rough patch eventually became a mental health crisis that culminated in a suicide attempt — and forced her to confront the trauma, shame, stigma, and patterns she could no longer outrun.

A Bit More Than a Rough Patch is Susan's sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, always true account of what happened next — from psychiatric care and "therapy camp" to learning how to accept help, trust treatment, and find her way back to herself. With the wit of a comedian and the perspective of someone who has been to the darkest edge and returned, Susan reminds us that taking mental health seriously doesn't mean we have to stop laughing.

You don't have to have lived through a crisis to see yourself in these pages.

— Overthinking every text message

— Catastrophizing about the future

— People-pleasing to avoid conflict

— Rumination at 3 a.m.

— Panic at the self-checkout

— Spiraling through airport security

— Comparing your life to everyone else's highlight reel

— Shame and self-criticism that never lets up

What audiences are saying

"Susan shared about a subject that many find very difficult to talk about and she did so with humour. Her natural storytelling ability and the ease with which she connected to the audience by being vulnerable and real was truly amazing."

— Erin Christopher, Town of Newmarket

"Susan was hilarious, engaging, and most importantly relatable. In a time of uncertainty we really have to make it a choice to be happy and Susan really made it easy that day."

— Natasha Thompson, PepsiCo Foods Canada

"A first-class presenter who made us all laugh our heads off while allowing us to learn how not to take ourselves too seriously. Susan is the perfect package!"

— Mena Kelly, Ottawa Catholic School Board

"There are very few individuals who can capture an audience, entertain, motivate and offer hope."

— Pam Boniferro, Peel District Catholic School Board

"Susan's presentation was just perfect, hilarious, and such a great stress relief. We received amazing comments from participants!"

— Marie-Pierre Hamel, IRCC

"Susan is an incredibly thought-provoking and hilarious speaker whose ideas and messages are incredibly easy to relate to."

— Kyle Armstrong, McMaster University

Susan Stewart taking a selfie with a cheering audience

Susan Stewart on stage taking a selfie with a clapping crowd

Susan Stewart with a packed comedy show crowd

What happens when the person who knows all the advice discovers the advice isn't enough?

Susan tried exercise, meditation, self-help books, and sheer determination. Then she learned the hardest lesson of her life: sometimes you cannot self-help your way out of mental illness.

The Act

Two decades of turning stress, anxiety, and burnout into laughs for a living — and believing she'd already beaten her own mental illness.

The Crash

A major depressive episode returns, and self-help, positive thinking, and being "the funny one" are no match for an illness she wasn't taking seriously enough.

Rock Bottom

Denial, medication, psychiatric hospitalization, and an attempt to end her life. Turns out rock bottom has a basement.

The Climb Back

Nine weeks of inpatient trauma treatment, a return to the stage, and the comedy show — then the book — that became her way through.