There’s a great deal of pressure on independent authors to maintain an online presence. To find Instagram-worthy photos. To write regular blog posts on topics that aren’t too divisive or likely to offend anyone. To try and respond to those who take the time to engage with you. It isn’t easy, and it’s not always healthy in my opinion.
For some of us, the last few years have been difficult at times. The polarisation of politics, the continuing fallout from Brexit, the covid pandemic (which is far from over), the climate crisis… The world is not in a good place, it seems, and nor is humanity in general, I fear. Sometimes it can be hard to see good things around us, to find joy in our lives.
I have never made any secret of the mental health issues I used to suffer from. My diagnosis was Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and at times it could be crippling. Moving to the south of France has helped enormously. Living 1,000km closer to the equator means we don’t get the extremes of daylight and darkness that used to dominate my life. I remember summers when I had so much energy it seemed I barely slept, and winters when even getting out of bed was insurmountable.
One of the plus sides of my condition, however (and there are some), is that as a result of counselling, I am now equipped with an armoury of weapons that I can call upon whenever I start to feel like everything’s getting a bit too much. One of these is to cut down on my engagement with people online, which is why this is my first blog post since January 2022.
It’s not that I have felt particularly down or unwell, but I have chosen to reduce the online networking in favour of maintaining better relationships with my nearest and dearest. My parents have both had nasty health scares in recent years, and this has naturally caused me to reprioritise some parts of my life.
It hasn’t all been bad, though. In summer 2022, I attended a school reunion, and bumped into some folk I hadn’t seen since we all sat our GCSEs in the late 1980s. Much hilarity ensued as we discussed some of the more quirky teachers that had to put up with us! And earlier this year, I married my best friend of thirty years. Quite possibly the best decision I have ever made in my life.
We need to talk more about how social media and the internet in general can be bad for the collective mental health of society. There are too many people out there who seem to get a kick out of getting into volatile arguments with strangers, and using abusive language to make their point. And we accept this now as a fact of internet life. When did that happen? Or perhaps, more importantly, why do we let it happen?
As an indie author, of course I’d like to reach more readers and sell more books. But I think it’s good to acknowledge that my family and my mental health comes first. Always.
To be clear, this doesn’t mean that I am stepping away from my online life. In fact, moving forward I’d like to make more meaningful posts about my writing and the messages that I want to convey in my novels. It may well be that I don’t post often, and when I do it may be intermittent and infrequent, but I will share my news and my thoughts nonetheless. Less of the rollercoaster and more of the merry-go-round, shall we say. I hope you’ll stick around for the ride anyway.
Be kind to each other. Much love, Liz
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