Sanity turns 5
The year of the Big Slowdown.
Dear Friend of Sanity,
I chose the photo accompanying this 5th birthday edition because it mirrors how I think of 2025 – real yet hazy, unfolding in the here and now yet feeling farfaraway.
This was the year of my, and Sanity's, Big Slowdown. I went into medically forced hibernation for what felt like the entire year (but was actually only four months). The culprit: a blockbuster episode of hypomania, a rip-roaring flare-up of OCD, and daily skirmishes with thoughts of ... on second thoughts I shall not name it since this year has already sucked hard and we don't need more gloom.
But hey, all was not lost. I also found a new psychiatrist who saved my life. (I went on lithium, had my stomach and bladder messed with, and was thankfully weaned off it in double-quick time.) I am now on a 'maintenance' cocktail of five different pills with a two- to five-year horizon. Good old lamotrigine is the lynchpin of my recovery now, and it appears that I am not under any immediate risk of the above-mentioned unnameable thing. (In case you need reminding, none of this is supposed to be medical advice.)
Let's now turn to this year's annual report for what it's worth. But first, a few words on why I am even here in a year like this: your love for Sanity. Here's Lorraine, one of Sanity's founding members. (This is actually a video from the 4th birthday, but Lorraine kindly allowed me to use it again.)
How I did on this year's promises
- At the start of the year I had promised that I'd hold more space for your expertise in my stories. You helped me do this here, here, and here.
- We celebrated two lovely books written by Sanity's longtime community members Tessa and Amrita. Check them out here and here.
- I also started a community bank for you to list your area of expertise and email so that other community members could find you and you could build stuff together. Do drop in your details here if you haven't already. (Please respect each other's privacy and don't spam anyone.)
- Finally, I'd said that I'd foreground solutions, ideas, and people that help us feel more empowered and less overwhelmed, and create space for learning beyond the written word. Which brings me to the year's biggest win.👇🏽
The launch of PostCode
The most satisfying thing I pulled off before the hiatus: two live, full-day virtual events under PostCode, Sanity's events platform dedicated to the intersection of mental health and technology.
The first one was on ethics and best practices for therapists using social media. The other was on the future of therapy in the age of AI. Both were topics never tackled before in this format in our neck of the woods. Over 100 people participated in these sessions that featured over 30 experts from fields as diverse as psychology, the academia, journalism, social impact communications, and technology. Attendees gave PostCode a lot of love. Here are a few testimonials.
You can watch the 5-hour therapy x social media masterclass ft. 17 experts here:
Two refreshes
Sanity's website now has a new design, and the logo has also changed to put more accent on Sanity than my name.
Two things I missed the most
- Sanity's annual community meet-up. This is the first time in 5 years that I could not host this most joyful of evenings because of my illness. It makes me sad.
- I also missed responding to dozens of emails from you expressing solidarity over my health. My reputation for replying to every single email has thus ended.
Pieces you loved the most (aside from my health updates, which were the most-read pieces by some distance ... thank you)
- This one on the dangers of your therapist turning into your 'best friend', demonstrating the kind of sycophancy AI chatbots are accused of.
Tanmoy Goswami
- This one ft. my imaginary conversations with psychology's biggest names on the social media lives of therapists.
Tanmoy Goswami
- And this one on how recovery from mental health conditions could lead to profound identity loss and loneliness.
Tanmoy Goswami
And my faves
- My most favourite piece of the year was the one where I confessed to be in love with skincare products.
Tanmoy Goswami
- Then there was this piece on a radical new treatment for people who experience distressing voices. Loved researching and writing it, also because it was the first proper piece I published after resurfacing from my illness.
Tanmoy Goswami
- And finally, my sprawling interview with self-help phenom Joseph Nguyen, because I have little love for self-help as a genre and yet could not stop admiring Nguyen's clarity and conviction.
Tanmoy Goswami
Other highlights
- Sanity received a precious gift from Disability Debrief. Thank you Peter Dada. Go follow the Debrief. Nothing like it exists anywhere else.
- Declared one of the top voices in mental wellness in Asia by New in Asia. Thank you kind people.
- Delivered a keynote at the National Psychology Conference at FLAME University, one of India's biggest liberal arts universities, on the dangers of the rising techno-solutionism in mental health.
- Gave the valedictory speech at the Bombay Psychology Association's annual conference.
- Served as advisor to the Van Leer Foundation's annual journal Early Childhood Matters. I am also helping them shape a brand-new newsletter.
- Contributed a chapter to a book on the importance of reflective practice in therapy.
- Another thing that gave me much satisfaction: I created a free resource for fellow indie writers/creators on crafting an authentic 'about me' page. You can download it here. 👇🏽
- I also launched Sanitify, quick guides and explainers on complex themes. Sample here.
One social media post that me absurdly happy
Last year, via Dhruti Shah, I had written about the I Am Not A Typo campaign that was asking Big Tech companies to stop treating non-Western names as spelling mistakes. (Dhruti was mauled to Dorito and my name autocorrects to tannoy.) This year, Microsoft's English (UK) dictionary finally woke up and spellchecked spellcheck. Thousands of names – including many of African, Asian, Eastern European, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish origin – will now be correctly recognised. Well done, you brilliant folks at I Am Not A Typo.
Itty Alimi
Outlook for next year
Who knows? The only thing on my agenda right now is survival. And that's freeing in a strange sort of way.
If you too are focusing on survival in the new year, I hear you. I will leave you with some validation from the author I am currently in love with. Fredrik Backman writes in Anxious People:
“The truth of course is that if people really were as happy as they look on the Internet, they wouldn’t spend so much damn time on the Internet, because no one who’s having a really good day spends half of it taking pictures of themselves. Anyone can nurture a myth about their life if they have enough manure, so if the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, that’s probably because it’s full of shit.”
