Ruby waxes funny - and smart - the on mental challenges of modern life

WHAT'S NEW on Twitter? Am I doing well enough at work? Where are my kids? What's the latest on Putin - I'm going to a party tonight and I don't want to look stupid.

Sound familiar?

Comedian Ruby Wax said that humans "don't have the bandwidth" mentally to survive the demands of 21st-century life. With our brains constantly stimulated, many of us are on the verge of a mental breakdown - whether we are among the one in four people living with a mental illness or not.

Wax tackles this issue, as well as methods to combat the chaos, in her book, Sane New World, a bestseller in Britain that came out yesterday in the U.S.

She'll bring a stage companion to the book to Christ Church Neighborhood House on Nov. 13 as part of the 13th annual First Person Arts Festival, which began yesterday and runs through Nov. 15 at locations troughout the city. Attendees at Wax's show will receive a copy of the book with price of admission.

In both the book and live performance, Wax discusses mindfulness-based cognitive therapy - a method to combat the mental agitation of the modern age that utilizes self-awareness and simple meditation to work through depression, anxiety and other issues.

"We try to blame the world [for] why we're in the mess we're in, but the conflict's in our brains and we project it onto the world," said Wax, 61, who was born in Illinois but lives in the U.K. "Before you start pointing fingers, understand the agitation comes from you. And then, there are things you can do about it."

When Wax was suffering from a bout of depression a few years ago, she drove herself to Oxford University to speak to a professor.

"I was really ill, and I begged him to tell me what goes on in the brain," Wax said. He said that if she really wanted to know about neuroscience, she'd have to study it for herself.

Thanks to her having "the drive of a Rottweiler," she applied and was accepted to Oxford.

Wax studied MBCT while at Oxford and graduated with a master's degree in September 2013. She created the "Sane New World" show for her collegiate dissertation.

While "Sane New World" is intended for everyone, Wax has become the self-declared "poster child" for mental illness. To be fair, she didn't really have a choice - a charity she'd been involved with used her photo and the words "I have a mental illness" for an advertising campaign - without asking her.

She created her 2010 stand-up show "Losing It" as a response to that incident, performing it for two years in mental institutions before bringing it to larger U.K. stages. The response led her to create Black Dog Tribe, an online community to help people connect about mental-health issues.

Her 2012 TED Talk on the stigma of mental illness has had more than 1.5 million views. She also wrote an article for the Guardian in September following Robin Williams' death, urging readers to stop linking comedic talent to depression.

"A mental illness is like cancer - explain to me, what particular job description gets more cancer?" Wax asked.

Wax takes medication for her own depression, but she said it can't be the sole method for treating a mental illness. "If it really worked, no one would have a relapse," Wax said. "That's why the therapy has to come in, too."

Wax said that she practices mindfulness before her shows by focusing on an individual sense, like how the ground feels beneath her feet. Zooming in on one sense helps her tune out the other chaos.

"When you sense something, you can't think at the same time - it's one or the other," Wax said.

Wax has made this technique part of her daily routine, allotting herself 20 minutes every morning to practice. Wax said that while mindfulness may not appear very productive on the surface, frequent practice helps you prepare your brain to deal with future stressful situations.

"It's a mental sit-up," Wax said. "You're not going to get a sixpack with one sit-up. It has to be a repeated thing."

However educational it may be, Wax's show is far from a lecture. She mixes the heady information into her high-energy, brazen comedy. After all, according to Wax, the best way to get people to retain information is to "give them some foreplay."

In the show's second half, Wax opens the floor to questions from the audience. "Because I've sort of done a mental striptease for the audience, they're comfortable," Wax said.

Wax said that audience members share their compulsions, ask if they're normal and sometimes even connect with other audience members over similar struggles.

"It's become a Grindr, a dating service for people who need help," Wax said. "I have to finally shut it off, because otherwise I'd be here all night."