Matt Haig on Mental Health

Good Influence

Global

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Arts

4.9 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 14 June 2021

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome back to Good Influence!

This is the podcast where each week we'll meet a guest who’ll help us pay attention to something we should know about, but maybe don’t.

This week, we're talking about mental health; exploring mental health issues through writing characters, the differences between fact and fiction, and how social media misses out on the middle parts of our lives.

Matt Haig is the author of 21 books, including 'The Midnight Library', which is enjoying a long run on bestseller lists around the world. Matt also shares a lot of poignant musings on mental health on his social media channels and his very open with his own experiences of depression, anxiety and panic disorders. His new book, titled 'The Comfort Book', comes out in July.

If you want to learn more, here's where to find Matt and his recommendations:

Instagram: @mattzhaig

Twitter: @matthaig1

Website: matthaig.com

Something to read: Phosphorescence: On Awe, Wonder & Things That Sustain You When the World Goes Dark - Julia Baird

Something to watch: Old musicals - Singin' in the Rain, Meet Me in St Louis, An American in Paris

Something to listen to: Dear Theodosia - Hamilton Soundtrack / Carpenters

Get involved and join in the conversation:

Follow @gemmastyles @goodinfluencegs and send in your messages and questions to [email protected]

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Gemma and welcome to another episode of Good Influence. This is the podcast
0:06.0	where each week you and I meet a guest will help us pay attention to something we should
0:10.0	know about as well as answer some of your questions.
0:14.1	This week we're talking about mental health. Exploring mental health issues through writing
0:18.4	characters, the differences between fact and fiction and how social media misses out
0:23.4	on the middle parts of our lives.
0:27.3	So joining me this week is Matt Hague. Matt is an author of 21 books with his latest
0:32.9	book, The Midnight Library, which I've described as a sort of fable on life and regrets, currently
0:38.3	enjoying a long run on bestseller lists around the world.
0:42.2	Matt shares a lot of poignant musings on mental health on his social media channels and is
0:46.0	very open with his own experiences of depression, anxiety and panic disorders. His new book, titled
0:51.8	The Comfort Book, comes out in July.
0:55.0	One thing I'm actually thankful for, if you can be thankful for a breakdown, I'm actually
0:59.6	thankful for it because I've known more genuine happiness, more genuine gratitude, this
1:08.2	side of being ill than I ever did before.
1:12.9	The Midnight Library is about a woman called Nora whose life has been going from bad to
1:16.6	worst and I'll read you a tiny bit from the beginning so that you might understand
1:20.0	more of what we're talking about in this episode.
1:23.4	Between life and death there is a library, she said, and within that library the shelves
1:27.5	go on forever.
1:29.7	Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived to see how things
1:33.9	would be if you'd made other choices.
	...

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