Notes on a nervous Boarding House
Last week, Matt Haig released his book 'Notes on a nervous Planet'. The book offers his personal advice on dealing with anxiety and depression in today's modern world.
Being a huge fan of Matt and his previous books (Humans, How to stop time and Reasons to stay alive) I have quickly devoured this book and wanted to parallel it with my own experiences within teaching teenagers inside a boarding school environment.
Matt's 'Reasons To Stay Alive' was a book that I first read before I had any real serious experience of dealing with depression and anxiety within boys. I had witnessed and helped several girls with panic attacks and anxiety issues but boys were always thought to be exempt from these issues (how wrong could we be).
Matt outlines his story of dealing with his own path of depression, anxiety and ultimately a near suicidal experience in Ibiza. 'Reasons To Stay Alive' is his own personal account whereas 'Notes On A Nervous Planet' is a deliberately mixed up advice book. The fact that the final mini section in the book is called 'Everything you are is enough' quickly sums up the main message of this advice book.
Matt argues that the modern world is tailor made to make us anxious - addictions to social media, Snapchat, twitter, the phone itself and lack of sleep all add to the pressures put upon the modern world. A future blog entry will look at phone use in boarding Houses (it is currently uploaded to the BSA and I don't want to fail on Turnitin by finding my own article online).
In the boarding House this also rings true and, I would argue, to a much more severe extent than those experienced by people in their 30s, 40s and beyond. Teenagers communicate via their phone, they have group conversations, check their 'likes' upload constantly and maintain their streaks all via the phone.
If Matt is right about the modern demands of the world then teenagers are in danger of mental health issues way more than any generation before them. If, as Soren Kierkegaard states, anxiety is the 'dizziness of freedom' then the internet offers an unlimited dizziness inside its world wide web.
Matt argues that we need to do less. We need to simplify, de-clutter our lives and spend less time online in order to gain control of ourselves and be happy to just be us. However, pupils now feel that the phone is an extension of themselves. FOMO is a major worry for teens and anxiety can actually be accentuated when pupils are away from their phones - they may miss a story, they may not like a post from a certain social group, they may lose their streaks. Even as pupils head off to gap years and travel miles to help in shanty towns; they are getting friends to look after their streaks.
Matt says that the whole world wants us to be unhappy with ourselves. Why would we buy new things if we are actually happy with what we already have? is his point. An example of this is the success of the current Forbes cover model. The cover of Forbes has Kylie Jenner as the 'self-made' billionaire. The fact that a lady made famous by 'reality' TV, has filters and photoshop applied to every magazine cover and instagram photo is worth that kind of money must be a worry. She has made her money for two main reasons; 1) instagram & reality TV 2) a make up company. Teen role models are selling make up in order to better look like the star that does not really look like their filtered photo and 'acts' her life out on a reality TV show. How can our modern teens 'keep up' when the thing they are 'keeping up' with is a filtered, faked and fillered version of themselves? That is why it is so important that teenagers are happy with who they are but in a world where this is increasingly impossible to do - how can they even try?
Teenagers do not yet know who they are. They are in a massively vulnerable stage of their life. What music is cool? what app should I have? what picture should I post? Is that T shirt cool this week? None of these are new teen problems but it is the first time that teens can constantly ask these questions online. It is the first time that an uncool thing can have instant feedback and repercussions. Comments are live streamed and 'banter' is permanently written out on peoples' walls and timelines. The worst part is that the same program that makes teens fell bad about themselves (Instagram and Snapchat topped a recent poll) are the same programs that have been made addictive by their designers. Streaks, likes and rewards create mini dopamine highs and mean that pupils constantly check, re-check and re-check again and again.
The advice Matt gives that is even easy for a teen to follow is to take the device out of the bedroom at night, charge it outside the room. This is hard but essential for mental well being and sleep. Sleep is another topic of one of Matt's mini chapters. Go online, buy an alarm clock and use it so that there is no excuse for the phone to be active at night time. This would be the first step on the road to an anxiety free teen path.
This is not to say that all teens are going to have mental health issues or that the modern world is guaranteed to create those issues. However, pupils that are susceptible to the issues have never been more at risk. It is also an issue that comes with wealth and freedom. Developed nations are hugely more at risk of mental health issues as they are more exposed to the dangers of the 'nervous planet'. This is one reason why people often dismiss mental health as a band wagon, a fad, a celebrity trend. This is dangerous thinking and anyone that has read or watched 13 reasons why will come to the conclusion that not taking these issues seriously can suffer the ultimate conclusion to this problem.
Talking is the key to identifying the issue. Talking can't always solve the problem but it is always the first step and means that experts can start to assist and support those with anxiety issues (however big or small).
The other advice that Matt offers that I have talked about previously in my blogs are - don't be afraid to fail and control the controllable. Talking and trying different methods will not always work, medication will not always work - but don't be afraid to fail. Also, think about the small victories, the things that you can change in your life - breaks from being online, a small change in diet, exercise, mindfulness, breathing, yoga etc. All these things can easily fit into even a teens busy day and can start to help the journey to understanding the self and being happy with who you are.
If you can read any of Matt's books you will see parallels between them all. 'Humans' echoes the idea of dangers of losing our humanity that he talks about in 'Notes'. 'How to Stop Time' even has a title that runs alongside the points about time in 'Notes' and it is hard to ignore how a major death in 'How to Stop Time' sends shivers down your spine as you compare it to the cliff top element of 'Reasons to stay alive'.
Matt gives a positive view to the nervous planet and especially to our own species of humans. We are thinkers, we think about ourselves and changes over time. We are dealing with the modern world despite not having particularly evolved as a species since cave man times. There is a wonderful section in the book where he has a conversation with a turtle (trust me its brilliant) and as everybody knows 'It's turtles all the way down' (but that another book about depression that I will leave for another day).
Go any get your copies of some of Matt's books, think about if you agree or disagree with them but, most importantly, switch off your phone whilst you are doing this.
Jonathan Pitt 12.7.18
Being a huge fan of Matt and his previous books (Humans, How to stop time and Reasons to stay alive) I have quickly devoured this book and wanted to parallel it with my own experiences within teaching teenagers inside a boarding school environment.
Matt's 'Reasons To Stay Alive' was a book that I first read before I had any real serious experience of dealing with depression and anxiety within boys. I had witnessed and helped several girls with panic attacks and anxiety issues but boys were always thought to be exempt from these issues (how wrong could we be).
Matt outlines his story of dealing with his own path of depression, anxiety and ultimately a near suicidal experience in Ibiza. 'Reasons To Stay Alive' is his own personal account whereas 'Notes On A Nervous Planet' is a deliberately mixed up advice book. The fact that the final mini section in the book is called 'Everything you are is enough' quickly sums up the main message of this advice book.
Matt argues that the modern world is tailor made to make us anxious - addictions to social media, Snapchat, twitter, the phone itself and lack of sleep all add to the pressures put upon the modern world. A future blog entry will look at phone use in boarding Houses (it is currently uploaded to the BSA and I don't want to fail on Turnitin by finding my own article online).
In the boarding House this also rings true and, I would argue, to a much more severe extent than those experienced by people in their 30s, 40s and beyond. Teenagers communicate via their phone, they have group conversations, check their 'likes' upload constantly and maintain their streaks all via the phone.
If Matt is right about the modern demands of the world then teenagers are in danger of mental health issues way more than any generation before them. If, as Soren Kierkegaard states, anxiety is the 'dizziness of freedom' then the internet offers an unlimited dizziness inside its world wide web.
Matt argues that we need to do less. We need to simplify, de-clutter our lives and spend less time online in order to gain control of ourselves and be happy to just be us. However, pupils now feel that the phone is an extension of themselves. FOMO is a major worry for teens and anxiety can actually be accentuated when pupils are away from their phones - they may miss a story, they may not like a post from a certain social group, they may lose their streaks. Even as pupils head off to gap years and travel miles to help in shanty towns; they are getting friends to look after their streaks.
Matt says that the whole world wants us to be unhappy with ourselves. Why would we buy new things if we are actually happy with what we already have? is his point. An example of this is the success of the current Forbes cover model. The cover of Forbes has Kylie Jenner as the 'self-made' billionaire. The fact that a lady made famous by 'reality' TV, has filters and photoshop applied to every magazine cover and instagram photo is worth that kind of money must be a worry. She has made her money for two main reasons; 1) instagram & reality TV 2) a make up company. Teen role models are selling make up in order to better look like the star that does not really look like their filtered photo and 'acts' her life out on a reality TV show. How can our modern teens 'keep up' when the thing they are 'keeping up' with is a filtered, faked and fillered version of themselves? That is why it is so important that teenagers are happy with who they are but in a world where this is increasingly impossible to do - how can they even try?
Teenagers do not yet know who they are. They are in a massively vulnerable stage of their life. What music is cool? what app should I have? what picture should I post? Is that T shirt cool this week? None of these are new teen problems but it is the first time that teens can constantly ask these questions online. It is the first time that an uncool thing can have instant feedback and repercussions. Comments are live streamed and 'banter' is permanently written out on peoples' walls and timelines. The worst part is that the same program that makes teens fell bad about themselves (Instagram and Snapchat topped a recent poll) are the same programs that have been made addictive by their designers. Streaks, likes and rewards create mini dopamine highs and mean that pupils constantly check, re-check and re-check again and again.
The advice Matt gives that is even easy for a teen to follow is to take the device out of the bedroom at night, charge it outside the room. This is hard but essential for mental well being and sleep. Sleep is another topic of one of Matt's mini chapters. Go online, buy an alarm clock and use it so that there is no excuse for the phone to be active at night time. This would be the first step on the road to an anxiety free teen path.
This is not to say that all teens are going to have mental health issues or that the modern world is guaranteed to create those issues. However, pupils that are susceptible to the issues have never been more at risk. It is also an issue that comes with wealth and freedom. Developed nations are hugely more at risk of mental health issues as they are more exposed to the dangers of the 'nervous planet'. This is one reason why people often dismiss mental health as a band wagon, a fad, a celebrity trend. This is dangerous thinking and anyone that has read or watched 13 reasons why will come to the conclusion that not taking these issues seriously can suffer the ultimate conclusion to this problem.
Talking is the key to identifying the issue. Talking can't always solve the problem but it is always the first step and means that experts can start to assist and support those with anxiety issues (however big or small).
The other advice that Matt offers that I have talked about previously in my blogs are - don't be afraid to fail and control the controllable. Talking and trying different methods will not always work, medication will not always work - but don't be afraid to fail. Also, think about the small victories, the things that you can change in your life - breaks from being online, a small change in diet, exercise, mindfulness, breathing, yoga etc. All these things can easily fit into even a teens busy day and can start to help the journey to understanding the self and being happy with who you are.
If you can read any of Matt's books you will see parallels between them all. 'Humans' echoes the idea of dangers of losing our humanity that he talks about in 'Notes'. 'How to Stop Time' even has a title that runs alongside the points about time in 'Notes' and it is hard to ignore how a major death in 'How to Stop Time' sends shivers down your spine as you compare it to the cliff top element of 'Reasons to stay alive'.
Matt gives a positive view to the nervous planet and especially to our own species of humans. We are thinkers, we think about ourselves and changes over time. We are dealing with the modern world despite not having particularly evolved as a species since cave man times. There is a wonderful section in the book where he has a conversation with a turtle (trust me its brilliant) and as everybody knows 'It's turtles all the way down' (but that another book about depression that I will leave for another day).
Go any get your copies of some of Matt's books, think about if you agree or disagree with them but, most importantly, switch off your phone whilst you are doing this.
Jonathan Pitt 12.7.18
Comments
Post a Comment