Ned Vizzini wrote Its Kind of a Funny Story in 2006 written shortly after he left an adult psychiatric hospital.

Ned Vizzini wrote it based on his own experiences after he spent some time in an adult psychiatric hospital. He said it was based on his own life and is 85% true. Vizzini spent 5 days in a hospital when he was in his early 20's. The main character, Craig, was only 15 in the book.

The main character, Craig, attended a party thrown by his best friend Aaron. He ends up drinking some scotch and walking towards the Brooklyn Bridge with Aaron and they decide to climb up it. Craig contemplates killing himself by jumping off the bridge but decides to get help from a doctor instead. This quote was taken from his first conservation with the doctor. The doctor prescribed him Zoloft which he took for awhile but stopped taking when he started to feel better.

I think this quote shows how appropriate death seems like when faced with the pressures of high school, friends, and other factors of life,

After Craig is admitted to the psych ward, he is visited by Dr. Mahmoud. They are discussing why Craig thinks he does not need to be at the hospital because everyone has stuff to deal with and depression is just one way of coping. Dr. Mahmoud thinks that that opinion is one of the reasons Craig needs to stay longer and talk about things.

I think this quote shows how everyone deals with depression in their own way. Some ways are better than others but everyone needs a way to cope.

On his last day in Ward 4, Craig's friend Aaron comes to visit. At the beginning of the book, Craig felt so much pressure to study for his school entrance exam that he lost the few friends that he did have. Aaron became his friend after that and Craig almost felt like he had to talk to Aaron or else he wouldn't have any other friends. His stay at the center showed him that he can make friends and he has no obligations to his friends to be the person he was before he went to the center.

I think this quote is significant because it shows that Craig has finally come to terms with himself. This can be related to real life in that no one has to do anything they don't want to.

The life lessons found in It's Kind of a Funny Story are being true to oneself and peer pressure. Craig felt pressured by his friends and his school to be the best possible because his school was the best school to go to academic wise. His friends peer pressured him to drink and smoke pot. This pressure helped lead to Craig becoming depressed and his subsequent breakdown. When he realized that school and some of his friends didn't make him as happy as art did, he had to make the choice if he should focus more on art or stay at the prep school. By choosing to go to a different school for art, he was staying true to himself. The message I take away from this book is to not give in to peer pressure to drink or do drugs.

The book ended on a hopeful note for Craig and Noelle. They both ended up leaving the treatment at around the same time and promised to stay in contact with each other. I feel like the ended stayed in theme with the book of Craig relying too much on other people like how he was relying on Noelle at the end but he knows he needs to work on that. He realizes that he doesn't need to do anything that he doesn't want to do and that he has the ability to control the choices he makes in his life. By having Craig leave his high-pressure school, Vizzini had a complete turn around of how at first Craig was obsessed with school but realized that his school wasn't the best fit for him.