matt haig : Most liked Posts

I read ‘reasons to stay alive’ after seeing so many big names praising it (Stephen fry being one.)

Worst book I have ever read, I don’t have depression (have before) but this book actually made me feel depressed.

I then followed him on twitter and my god it really
Irks me that someone so terribly middle class and boring has the crown for ‘changing mental health’

He hasn’t at all. He whinges, moans and shames people. He doesn’t accept anyone else’s mental health journey other than his own. He recommends things that are impossible for working class (stopping working so hard, taking time out, just ‘hopping on a plane’ when he needs a break. )

I get he has his money etc. But he seems like such a wanker.

JulieScoobyDoo said:

This thread makes me very very uncomfortable when it’s about somebody who has been brutally honest about their mental health struggles to the extent he has

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Newsflash Julie, everyone on every thread will have had a mental health battle. It doesn’t discriminate. So because this guy is famous for it - we aren’t allowed to debate him?

Into_the_tunnel said:

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I cannot bear this shit. The fawning comments after it are almost as bad.

You are a privileged twat Matt, piss off.

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Get up in the morning.
Go to the loo. If it's just a number one, fine, just embrace it. If it's a number 2, get a magazine lined up, maybe light a candle, say a prayer, find a bible. Perhaps some nice quilted andrex. Or just Tesco economy loo roll. Or Halke Moists. It doesn't matter.
After that, if you need to burp, then burp.
Take the bin out. If you're in your slippers and PJ's, who cares?
Have breakfast. If it's just cornflakes, fine. Or, if you want to, make an avocado sourdough toastie with chili flakes, flax seeds, maybe a poached egg. Or maybe just toast. Or maybe, half toast, half bread. Have milk. Or tea. Or coffee. Or don't.

Oh my god I've found my people. I found Haigs writing after I was sexually assaulted and was going through hell, I ended up buying tickets to his book tour to ask a question about a passage on anxiety that I didn't really understand and wanted some clarity. He didn't have a clue what I was talking about, and he laughed at me. I pointed out the chapter and page number and then he gave me some bogus answer about loving your body and going to the beach (I asked about every day anxiety!) and made me feel humiliated. I was so desperate to know how to cope with my sexual assault anxiety and this dude told me to love my beach body. A lady behind me asked for advice re her suicidal teenage son, Matt said to "Google some resources". He acts like he is the founding father of MH but I truly don't think he gets it. I was crushed and chucked my book in the bin at the end.

He tweeted something SO patronising recently during Pride. (I think it was him.) Something like,

"Hey, if you're having problems this week, just remember: LGBT people have all YOUR problems, plus the stress of being LGBT."

I found it problematic on many levels:

1. Assuming no-one who follows him is LGBT
2. Being incredibly patronising
3. Making it into a competition, who can be the most oppressed
4. What if I am a disabled straight person who's father has just died, does that mean LGBT people deal with that PLUS they're LGBT?

It just felt like a really bizarre thing to tweet.

and yet, there will literally be hundreds of authors who deserve it more



I hope I word this ok

I really do feel like he is the media's safe option for mental health awareness. like, he's this nice mc cishet white dude who had a breakdown in ibiza and convalesced reading Camus at his parents' house - all of this is in his books

and, yes, having money and privilege does not automatically exempt you from mental illness, but people with bipolar, bpd, schizophrenia etc don't ever get this platform. people of colour, LGBTQ+ people living with mental illness don't get this platform

and, yet, here we are. just like the middle class Jack Monroe being the acceptable face of food banks cos she may or may not have been to one once, Matt's the acceptable face of mental health because society isn't ready to hear the reality while it's still easier to buy a book of soundbites

NomDeGuerre said:

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Wow Matt. Try being a woman who was manipulated, falsely arrested, raped, murdered and burned.
Today of all days don’t make it about you, you jumped up prick.

Made an account solely to reply to this thread.

I’m a super small-time writer on Twitter and one day Matt followed me out of the blue. In fact, he followed a lot of people from the writing community. He seemed like a decent bloke and interacted with most people.

Then his fame jumped up, and sure enough he unfollows us all and no longer interacts with the same people he used to. I know this really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things and it’s hardly the biggest crime in the world but for somebody who sells the idea of connecting with people and being vulnerable, he was sure quick to slam that door shut once he ascended above us plebs.

Really rubbed me the wrong way.

He truly is the baldest man who ever lived. How does that even work?

I’d advise him to take note of Gregg Wallace’s fate and never, ever do a front page…

I like the 'its just a weird feeling when books become memes'. For a man who is so popular because of his Tweets, he sure thinks he's above the internet.

JulieScoobyDoo said:

This thread makes me very very uncomfortable when it’s about somebody who has been brutally honest about their mental health struggles to the extent he has

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I think this is the problem. Just because someone has had mental health problems doesn't mean they're invincible to criticism. As someone before me said – everyone has mental health issues, imagine if we never looked at anyone with a critical eye ever again and just let them say whatever they liked without question? He is, of course, free to say whatever he likes, just as we are free to not enjoy his sanctimonious, patronising tone. I think the fact that you're 'feeling uncomfortable' is fine, but I don't think anyone should feel they can't have an opinion on something because it makes someone else 'feel uncomfortable'.

He is NOT a mental health expert in anything other than his own mental health. He hasn't studied it, he has no qualifications, he just found a niche on Twitter when there was nobody else and has made a career out of it. I wish the media wouldnt give him that label. I used to really like him but he is just so intensely unlikeable now. Plus he is never off Twitter. He needs a day off.

Used to love him. RTSA genuinely helped me in 2016. Specifically the line about us being hominid apes.

Since then he's disappeared up his own arse.

Some people need medication in order to get out of bed in the morning and to even brush their damn teeth. He never acknowledges people who are currently too ill to engage in "self care". MH treatment is layered. You have to reach a certain level of "wellness", in order to participate in this flim flam shit. Eventually I realised how toxic his approach was; at least for me.

Riding a fucking bike in Brighton in the rain might help him, but does he realise how privileged he is to be able to a) live somewhere nice b) have the flexibility to be able to jump on a bike on a whim in order to relieve some anxiety?

I'm not gatekeeping btw. I acknowledge mental illness affects us all regardless of wealth. It's his one-approach fits all attitude that fucks me off.

And no I don't wanna meet you on a bastarding tour.

I saw him mentioned on the Meghan and Harry thread and thought he needed one of his own.

I used to like him but recently have found him insufferable. Anyone else feel the same way?

I remember a few months ago Britney reposted a quote on Instagram and it was one of Matt's. Britney obviously didn't know that as the image had no credit. Anyway. Matt and all his followers jumped on her saying she needs to give him credit to post it as people thought it was lyrics of hers. The way he handled it, really put me off him. He came across as very egotistical when really, anybody could have wrote that quote.

he's deleted the tweet about bad reviews

anyway, I've been thinking about something

Extract from The Comfort Break Book
by kachoochoo, saviour of the world






Toothbrush

Imagine you are a toothbrush. Waiting patiently in your beaker on the sink. They say no toothbrush is an island. And yet, here you are. You anxiously await your twice daily moment to shine. And shine you do. Literally, you abrade teeth until they sparkle. Sparkle like Mr Sparkle, that detergent box Homer Simpson found at the tip. Don't put yourself in the tip. Keep smiling, like the smiles you keep sparkling


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that'll be £600K please and thank you

This sounds really mean but reading his tweets and that latest book I get the impression he just isn't that bright?
He seems to have the most inane thoughts and see them as amazingly unusual. Plus his total inability to deal intelligently with constructive criticism but just sulks.

It was this. I am sorry but if I saw this online just as the image, I would have no idea who it was by and I probably wouldn't look as it just seems like a generic Tumblr quote. He and his followers also went onto her page and bombarded the post about it. I am sure thousands of people share Britney's and others lyrics etc without quoting them and they don't get upset by it

Nah, that’s the pasta, mate.

Like, I may go to hell for saying this but: I feel like a lot of narcissists are being diagnosed as autistic by psychiatrists who aren't brave enough to tell them the truth (especially privately-paid ones, and even more so those whose patients have a public profile).

He may well also have autism/depression/addiction etc but his root problem seems to be pathological self-obsession and chronic attention-seeking. If I was raking in hundreds of thousands if not millions of pounds for books with chapters that consist of "Eat pasta!" and having my second-rate children's stories turned into blockbuster Christmas movies (£££!) starring Maggie Smith I would simply not be sat on Twitter every night fishing for likes or Googling my own name and then vague-responding by Instastory to every single scrap of criticism that has ever been written about me anywhere on the internet (he even admits to having read this thread). Why behave like such a loser when you're one of life's lottery winners? It's bizarre.

Omg he takes himself a bit seriously doesn't he? And it actually really is a dig at Britney.

I think this one star review of his new book on Amazon just about sums it up