Author of 3 New York Times best-selling books, Exec Producer of Oscar-nominated film & 8-part TV series with @SamuelLJackson
Feb 1 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
This is my first time looking at Twitter in a year. The world is full of joyful & meaningful things to do. Talk to people; read books; walk in nature; dance. Twitter is not one of those things. It coarsens & degrades everyone who heavily uses it. Spend your one precious life well
The 4 mental states that Twitter most often stirs in its users are sarcasm, exasperation, contempt, and rage. We all have those feelings sometimes, & in small doses they can be healthy - but they are psychologically disastrous modes to live in over the longer term.
Sep 17, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Whoah! I just got an email explaining my TED talks have now, in total, been viewed over 70 million times. People are clearly hungry for a more compassionate and loving approach to addiction, depression & anxiety. Here’s the addiction talk ted.com/talks/johann_h…
Here’s my talk about why depression and anxiety are rising – and why we need to stop insulting this signal by saying it’s a sign of weakness or madness, & start listening to it: ted.com/talks/johann_h…
Sep 12, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
A year ago today I learned my friend Jamie Janson died by suicide. He taught me many things in the 10 years I knew him but I am think of one in particular today dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7…
Jamie was from an extremely wealthy background - but he chose to seek meaning instead of comfort, possessions, stuff.
Jun 10, 2020 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Most people know that, except in small doses, Twitter is bad for your mood, attention span, & outlook. It’s why I take long breaks. Here’s some tips for cutting back your use:
1. Make a list on your phone of all the things that are more fulfilling than twitter - books, phoning friends, going for a run. Before opening twitter, look at this list & ask: could I do one of these instead?
May 10, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I just got an email saying my most recent TED talk - 'This could be why you're depressed or anxious' - has had 6 million views. It got a recent surge because so many more people are depressed & anxious, & the causes for this surge are clearly environmental ted.com/talks/johann_h…
If you're interested in how I'd apply this thinking to the current crisis, I talked to @voxdotcom about some aspects of it: vox.com/2020/3/28/2119…
May 10, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
My brilliant friend @rcbregman has written an extraordinary book that won’t just expand your mind, it will expand your heart. It's called 'Humankind: A Hopeful History', out now from @BloomsburyBooks
It’s about the most important question of all - what’s our nature as human beings? - and it has so much to say about it that is revelatory
Apr 7, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The current rise in depression & anxiety has very obvious environmental causes. I hope that this will prompt lots of people to see the existence of environmental causes of depression that have been rising for years before this crisis, e.g. loneliness, financial insecurity
Most importantly, it should tell us that we need to do a +lot+ more to deal with those environmental causes when we rebuild after this crisis.
Apr 2, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Unexpected things that have emerged in the corona crisis - Dolly Parton as a pioneer of a universal basic income (no joke). Huge credit to Dolly medium.com/economicsecpro…
Have you seen this, @rcbregman@AndrewYang
Mar 28, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
If you’re finding it hard to focus or pay attention at the moment, there’s a concept in psychology that might help you to realize it’s not some flaw in you: hypervigilance.
Imagine you are attacked by a bear. You stop thinking about your mortgage, your holiday, what you’ll eat that night, anything but watching the bear & trying to figure out how to get away from the bear.
Mar 22, 2020 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
The leading expert on #loneliness in the world, Professor John Caccioppo, said something to me once that I have been thinking about a lot in the past week of corona crisis.
He was trying to define loneliness. It seems strange - we all instinctively know what it feels like, but it’s surprisingly hard to pin down in words & to study.
Mar 17, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
It’s frustrating to see leading mental health charities going on TV, and then offering as their only solution to the anxiety people are experiencing that they should watch the news less.
It’s not necessarily bad advice in itself but remember: people’s anxiety makes sense; & the best solution is to deal with the underlying causes of our anxiety.
Mar 15, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Two weeks ago I flew from Moscow to London. On the plane, I got chatting to some super-nice Italians. A week later, I got a raging fever.
A few days after that, I got a cough. I self-quarantined. I’m feeling a lot better (though still a bit unsteady).
Oct 30, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
For the next six months, I will be in deep focus mode, writing my next book. (I have been researching it for over two years). So I will be off Twitter until late April 2020.
On social media, you can’t easily express complexity or compassion - & I think those are the two things the world needs a lot more of right now. This is why I prefer to spend my time on books
Oct 14, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The movie adaptation of my book ‘Chasing The Scream’ is currently shooting in Montreal, directed by @leedanielsent, and its crazy-exciting chasingthescream.com
Billie Holiday was stalked by the founder of the war on drugs. He tried to destroy her. But she always resisted, she sang, & she gave us all so much.
Oct 6, 2019 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
I am in St Louis, Missouri, and I am TERRIFIED after visiting the wax museum here. Behold Julia Roberts:
Behold Patrick Swayze
Sep 24, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
.@johnmcdonnellMP is totally right - a 4 day week would improve Britain’s physical & mental health. Overwork is a major cause of depression & anxiety
I went to visit this company in New Zealand (for a future book) where they made this shift & produced more in 4 days than they did in 5 amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct…
Sep 11, 2019 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
This report says the response to massive loneliness in the US is... “developing a pill to treat loneliness” nypost.com/2019/09/09/225…
Loneliness isn’t a malfunction. It is a symptom - that your deepest needs as a human are not being met.
Apr 16, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
A totally extraordinary book is about to come out. Eve Ensler was sexually abused by her dad from the age of 5. Over the past few years of #MeToo, she kept watching as...
...one man after another, accused of sexual abuse, issued an ‘apology’ that was not an apology at all. And Eve realised she had never heard a man sincerely apologise for rape.
Mar 5, 2019 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
We can learn a lot about addiction today from looking at the 18th century painter Hogarth & what he was depicting (thread) theguardian.com/artanddesign/2…
In his times, huge numbers of people were driven out of the countryside into disgusting urban slums. They lost everything - & there was an outbreak of mass alcoholism
Jan 30, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Yay! My friend @rcbregmam has gone viral. Everyone who watched this amazing clip should read his book ‘Utopia For Realists’ which is the best book about radical change in years
There’s so much that’s great about Rutger. He’s not just really clever, he’s the best kind of radical: he explains things really clearly, because he wants to actually change things, & he knows that comes from persuasion & clarity
Jan 22, 2019 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
I’m often asked the difference between decriminalising drugs, & legalizing them. So here goes:
Decriminalisation is when you stop punishing drug users, but they still have to go to criminals to get their drug. Legalisation is where you open up some legal route - which differs according to the substance - to buy the drug
