Jay Freeman
'Not adulting.''I feel like a boy living in an adult’s body.'These words have been uttered by young men all over Australia who have been caught in technology addiction cycles. No jobs,no social life, no partners, with only the four walls of their bedrooms and their online world to keep them company. These are The Boys in Bedrooms.Fifteen years ago, Jay Freeman, a mental health social worker began to hear unusual stories from numerous emotionally and physicallydrained Australian parents who were labouring over their adult son’s bizarre social withdrawal behaviour and lack of emotional adulthood.For those caught in severe, long-term social withdrawal, often as a result of earlier years’ mismanaged or overwhelming events, theirstories have become bleak. Lack of intervention from the family unit at the onset of social withdrawal has resulted in a generationof young men in their thirties and forties becoming reliant on the support of their aging parents, who should now be enjoying theirretirement.Boys in Bedrooms: The Prison of the Mind has been written as a ’call to action’ - a plea to free our young people from the incestuousover-nurturing and technology-addiction cycles that have become evident within many homes. Supporting young men to grow and/orheal by stepping into their adulthood is of paramount importance, both for their mental health as well as the overall health andprotection of our nation.Boys in Bedrooms: The Prison of the Mind contains a plethora of bounce-back strategies to help young men and their families breaktheir cycles of social withdrawal and computer addiction.
