I’ve been a writer, blogger and journalist for about 15 years, but my books mostly draw on my experience with battling and (mostly) overcoming a range of mental health conditions that persisted since infancy.

While I’ve been through some therapy and psychiatric treatment in adulthood, my most transformative improvements have come through realisations and shifts in perspective that have changed the trajectory of my life.

With my books in the Monothology series, I hope to help as many people as possible come to their own realisations and change their perspectives in ways that can benefit their lives as well as the future of the wider world – even if just a little.

And it’s not about getting rich, getting ahead or just getting by on what you have. It’s about changing the way we view ourselves, others, and our very existence. It’s about re-getting in touch with who we are as human beings on a fundamental level by unlocking self-awareness, improving emotional resilience and regaining a healthy sense of optimism.

After living with undiagnosed ADHD for over three decades, I had spent most of my life with conditions including depression, anxiety and insomnia. Addiction to drugs, starting with weed at 14 years old, progressed to alcoholism and all forms of substance abuse before I was a legal adult. After leaving my home country shortly after scraping through a journalism degree and a year of full-time work, I embarked on a mission to travel the world as a backpacker, intending to reinvent myself.

Unfortunately, while I managed to scrimp and scrape as a freelancer, aiming for high-end clients with minimal work requirements, the alcoholism became rampant. With little will to live, a series of unfortunate events that included two overdoses (including one technical death), 20+ road accidents, and countless losses of clients, friends and family, couldn’t bring my rampage to an end. It seemed like no rock bottom was enough.

But one day, without fully realising it, my ‘mask’ had slipped. People no longer perceived me as a fun-loving, care-free guy. Instead, people were treading lightly around me, not as if I was about to explode with rage, but like I was fragile – and I couldn’t stand it.

Four years ago, I quit hard drugs, cut drinking back to once in a blue moon (which only happens begrudgingly), and started to climb on top of anxiety and depression. I did some therapy and a bit of psychiatric treatment, but – by far – the most significant contributing factors to my change have been improvements in self-awareness and changes in perception.

As it turns out, those changes in perception matched my true feelings all along. I was hiding in self-denial without realising it, and my mental health was taking a beating as a result. I had lived in self-denial for decades without even knowing, and the consequences were disastrous. I needed to realign my perceptions with my instinctive thoughts and feelings that were buried so deep that they were almost lost. But through years of intensive research and reading in subjects such as psychology and neuroscience, my realigned perceptions have helped me truly enjoy life and face challenges with a healthier attitude.

Despite having changed my life in significant ways starting from four years ago, it wasn’t until being diagnosed with ADHD around four months ago that the final piece of the puzzle clicked into place.

After studying the brain chemistry of ADHD, I finally understood the true nature of our illusory sense of autonomy, and that our thought processes, actions and outcomes really aren’t under our complete control in the way we think.

Our first-person inner monologue coupled with the culture of modern society tricks us into believing that we’re completely autonomous, separate from all other cosmic phenomena.

But this perception, which is a recent cultural phenomenon rather than an accurate representation of reality, can lead to all sorts of problems, individually and collectively.

It allows us to blame ourselves and others for perceived shortcomings based on subjective expectations rather than the broader context. It also prevents us from reflecting on ourselves objectively, minimising innate emotions such as empathy and self-compassion.

Believing in complete autonomy allows us to compare our worth to others, judge people as inherently good or bad, and feel incomplete as if more material wealth equates to more happiness. It also makes us very easy to manipulate and exploit…

My books on Monothology help you see through the autonomy illusion, unlock self-awareness and deepen your appreciation for yourself and the world.

While exploring fascinating concepts from fields like evolution, psychology, the neuroscience of volition, free will and quantum mechanics – all presented as an adventure-style narrative with plenty of analogies and mind-boggling thought experiments – Monothology gradually peels back the layers of our reality, deepening your appreciation of yourself while unlocking innate self-compassion and pro-social values in the process.

It discusses the dangers of the autonomy illusion, such as the exacerbation of loneliness, narcissism and feelings of incompleteness, as well as what you can do to see through it and transform your life in the process.

It also proposes a science-based, speculative theory for the existence of God as the universe emerging, with our ‘Sense of God’ reflecting our awareness of that process as one cohesive framework.

I’ve always been and remain a non-religious person myself – this theory focuses on the awareness rather than any cultural or religious interpretation. Monothology does not propose that deities or supernatural explanations are real, although it makes no attempt to disprove or undermine religious faith.

I don’t believe that I’m unique. I believe that many more people can improve their lives in the same or a very similar way to me. I hope that my books on Monothology will be as fascinating as they intend to be helpful. I want them to stick in your mind while opening it as well as be actionable, uplifting and therapeutic.

If you enjoy them, please help me spread the word! My resources are minimal, but word of mouth – whether in real life or in the digital world – is by far the most powerful way you can help me and, potentially, a lot of other people.

Thank you for reading!