AM I MENTAL? - Staying Sane in a World Gone Mad
ARE YOU LOSING IT - OR JUST LIVING IN 2025?
If your brain now treats everyday life like a hazard course - emails as landmines, meetings as moral tests, family group chats as endurance sports - this book is your spotter on the course.
Am I Mental? - Staying Sane in a World Gone Mad is a wry, practical field guide to modern mind-noise: the productivity cult, the happiness hustle, the anxiety economy, the illusion of control, and the irresistible urge to escape. Across clear, punchy chapters you'll learn to run quick sanity checks, turn down the ambient noise, and build routines that keep you upright when the culture won't.
WHAT YOU'LL GET
- Sanity diagnostics you can actually use: Noise Tolerance, Social Calibration, Decision Friction, and Control Flexibility
- A simple scoring model to track sleep, focus, people, patterns, and recovery - no jargon, no fluff
- Practical fixes: five-minute resets, small experiments, and repeatable routines that survive real-world chaos
- Humour, not hectoring: plain UK English with just enough bite to keep it honest
WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR
- People who feel over-stimulated, under-slept, and permanently "on"
- Builders, carers, freelancers, founders, parents, managers - anyone juggling too many tabs (in the browser and in their head)
- Readers who prefer clear tools over vague pep talks
WHAT'S INSIDE (AT A GLANCE)
- The Productivity Cult: why optimisation became a belief system - and how to step off the treadmill without falling behind
- The Happiness Hustle: the pressure to "feel great" all the time (and the saner alternative)
- The Anxiety Economy: when stress becomes a market and how to stop being its best customer
- Control Addiction: why white-knuckling makes things worse - and what to do instead
- The Great Escape: healthy repair vs. numbing avoidance (and how to tell the difference)
HOW TO USE IT
- Dip in for a quick diagnostic when you're spiralling
- Run the score weekly to see where you're drifting
- Pick one small nudge, repeat it for seven days, then add the next
WHAT THIS BOOK IS NOT
- Not therapy, not a diagnosis manual, not a "rise at 5am or fail" sermon. It's a practical toolbox for non-dramatic stability in a dramatic world.
Note on scope: This book distils research, interviews, and conversations with clinicians and people who have experienced mental ill-health first-hand. It is not medical advice. If you're in crisis or suspect a clinical condition, please seek professional care.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dean Armstrong writes about how ideas harden into habits - and how those habits shape our days. He blends research, interviews, and lived observation across media, work, and technology. He prefers clarity to clich s, and humour to hand-waving.
IF YOU'RE READY TO FEEL LESS FRIED AND MORE STEADY
Start with the fastest probe that fits your day, score it, make one small change, and repeat. Sanity isn't a personality; it's a practice. This book shows you how to build it.
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