Just when he was about to commit suicide... Who is Matt Haig?
When 24-year-old Matt Haig, living in Ibiza in 1999, was on the verge of suicide, he could not have imagined that 20 years later he would be a million-selling author.
Matt Haig experiences a breaking point one morning in Ibiza when he finds himself on the edge of a cliff to end his life. He leaves the Island with his girlfriend Andrea (now his wife) and returns to England to live with Haig's family. Haig is diagnosed with suicidal major depression, severe anxiety, and separation anxiety disorder.
When he was first diagnosed, he thought that these were due to his lifestyle in Ibiza, but years later he learned that the anxiety he experienced in the youth camps he attended in high school, the excessive excitement and heart palpitations he experienced while making a presentation at the university were actually symptoms of his disease. Like many people with depression, he realized too late that he needed help. Years later, in his book Reasons to Hold on to Life, he describes the pressure and fears he felt inside as follows; “What idiot called it 'depression' instead of 'Bats are living in my chest and it's taking up a lot of space'?”
Matt Haig (born 3 July 1975) is an English author and journalist. He has written both fiction and non-fiction books for children and adults, often in the speculative fiction genre.
When the treatment started and the medications did not work, he quit drinking alcohol and started reading, writing, and exercising, with the support of his family and his own efforts. When he regained his composure after a very difficult year, he and Andrea moved to Leeds. Haig cannot leave the house for three years because he suffers from agoraphobia, among other mental illnesses. During this period, he wrote a few books on marketing to make a living.
Haig's introduction to the world of literature occurred with his first book, The Last Family in England, published in 2004. The book, published in America under the name The Labrador Pact, tells the story of the efforts of a labrador named Prince, adopted by the Hunter family, to protect and save family members struggling with divorce, teenage conflicts, and suicide attempts.
In 2006, The Dead Fathers Club, inspired by Hamlet, was published. He was awarded the Nestle Children's Book Award for his children's book Shadow Forest, published in 2007. He continues to write children's books, with The Possession of Mr. Cave and Samuel Blink and the Runaway Troll published in 2008.
When The Radleys was published in 2010, Haig took the vampire clichés of popular literature to a different level, but still could not avoid being the target of critics. Although the protagonists of his book, Peter and Helen Radley, live a little longer than humans, they are not immortal, they do not hunt at night to drink blood, and they live a normal life in a small town. However, for the Radleys, blood is like a drug to which they are addicted. Like an addict, they suffer from withdrawal, are under pressure, and struggle to get rid of it. The film rights of the book were purchased by Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón.
Haig achieved the success he had been waiting for for a long time with The Humans in 2013. In an interview, he says about the book: “I finally learned to trust myself as a writer. "It wasn't a bestseller, but it was the first 'optimistic' book I wrote."
In his book People, which he wrote by combining science fiction, psychology, diary, and formation novel genres, Haig questions the meaning of being human, achieving happiness, and the power of embracing love. Daily life, emotions, the language we speak, and details that we do not even notice because we are used to it, that is, the surprise of the alien who has difficulty adapting to the paradox of human life, makes us smile.
Matt Haig lives in Brighton with his wife and two children, where they moved in 2015. They decided to continue their children's education from home so that they would not experience the feeling of isolation and loneliness they felt during their own school years. Because he knows that the depression he struggled with in the first 40 years of his life may recur, he is always on the alert. Despite his persistent anxiety disorder and tinnitus, he continues to write, produce for adults and children, and support those with mental illnesses.
There is a huge difference between the young man who looked at death one step away on the edge of a cliff in Ibiza in 1999, and Haig, who is determined to be successful in his fight against his illness, instills hope, and knows how to be grateful for love.