#5 Cathy Rentzenbrink

How To Be Sad with Helen Russell

Cathy Rentzenbrink is a bestselling author, former editor at The Bookseller magazine and head of Quick Reads – short books to encourage adults who may not be readers. Because as Cathy believes: ‘After the wheel, the book must be one of the great inventions' since books are ‘a life raft’ - something Cathy has needed, more than once.

When she was 17, her younger brother was hit by a car. After the accident, he was in a so-called permanent vegetative state and the family had to endure eight years before they could have a funeral and fully grieve.

In this episode, Cathy talks to Helen about:

• Growing up with grief
• Sibling survivors
• The experience of panic attacks, anxiety and depression
• How therapy and EMDR can help
• Divorce and doing things differently in relationships
• Parenting and how to do it (neither of us have quite figured this out yet)
• Keeping going
• Practical advice for sad times
• …and ways to make life meaningful.

Trigger: bereavement, assisted dying

Find out more about Cathy’s work at https://cathyreadsbooks.com/ and follow Cathy on Twitter and Instagram @CatRentzenbrink or Facebook. Cathy’s debut novel, Everyone Is Still Alive, is out in July.

Follow Helen on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook @MsHelenRussell Read more about Helen’s new book, How To Be Sad at Waterstones, Amazon or Apple. Get in touch with the show at [e-mail] Thanks to Joel Grove for production and to Matt Clacher at HarperCollins for making this podcast happen.