Breaking Badly

At twenty-four, Georgie Dent seemed to have it all: top marks at university, a coveted job at a prestigious Sydney law firm, and a relationship she adored. Within a year she was unemployed, back living with her parents, and so consumed by anxiety that she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

Breaking Badly is Dent's frank account of a breakdown that arrived in slow motion. She traces the perfectionism and relentless self-pressure that drove her toward a career she never wanted, the way chronic worry compounded her physical health — including a diagnosis of Crohn's disease — and the long, unglamorous work of putting a life back together.

Written with humour and hard-won honesty, this Australian memoir is a story about the cost of trying to appear fine, the reality of living with anxiety and chronic illness, and the tools — including therapy and cognitive behavioural strategies — that finally helped. It speaks directly to anyone who has felt they must hold everything together at any price.