Normalising Your Neuroses When Nothing is Normal

Week 16

I’ve not been sitting out the lockdown but I’ve not been as productive as I should have been and life is stacking up. It’s a situation we all believe is peculiar to us yet is surprisingly common — surprisingly because we all assume everyone else has it together. Yet of course it’s common because we all hide our internal contradictions and irrational behaviour. And it’s not just because of shame. Why would I want to be constantly faced with your dysfunction?

We can all identify with the scatty character on TV or film who clumsily navigates through the clutter that dogs their life and is largely down to their lack of objectivity. The friend who shares their struggle with missing socks and misplaced keys gets knowing looks and the “don’t we all” agreements. But even as you brave the labyrinths of your neurosis drawer it feels like your deeper and darker secrets consistently get dismissed as common. Standing on a bridge and feeling drawn to throw yourself off is not uncommon; neither does it indicate suicidal tendencies. The truth is that many of the things that concern us are not that difficult to fix and while the anxiety may be real, to amplify that anxiety…