I'm Listening: Shirley Manson

Shirley Manson of Garbage on the evolution of mental health conversations, social media, and how mental health is addressed across the globe.

Transcript

00:00I have seen mental health conversations evolve throughout my career. The very fact

00:06that we're talking about mental health is kind of crazy because when we merged

00:09in 1995 nobody talked about mental health at all. It was sort of taboo quite

00:13honestly and yeah so that's how I would answer that question. How do I

00:21manage social media so that it doesn't have a negative effect on my health? You

00:29know I'm lucky like I'm old so I just don't really give a fuck. I think that's

00:36how I handle it. I mean it's easier the older you get the more experienced you

00:41become the less you take it seriously. Also there is the great block button which

00:47I have found just reeks revenge anytime somebody says something horrible like

00:51you're old, you're fat, you're ugly, you're this, you're that. I'm just like and block.

00:59As I've traveled the world have I noticed how mental health is discussed in

01:05different parts of the world? That's a really interesting question. I have seen

01:11quite a lot of fluctuations in how certain governments I guess choose to focus or

01:18not focus on mental health. I'm not going to call anybody out but my own homeland

01:23was definitely in Scotland was definitely one of the last countries really to start

01:28talking about how all of us at some point struggle you know with the weight of

01:33the day or we worry about our job or landing a partner in life. I don't know

01:39there's a billion and one things we worry ourselves about and to the point where

01:42sometimes we can make ourselves sick. But it does seem globally in general

01:47there's an awareness now that we are fragile beings and we're not meant to always

01:52feel happy and we're not always supposed to feel on top of things and I think we just

01:58have to be a bit more forgiving of ourselves I guess.

02:01but as long as I'm constantly感 seizing with my own