If you’ve been reading my lil blog for any length of time, you know I love movies, and especially quoting movies. The movies I quote the most are definitely my favorite movies, including, but not limited to: The Princess Bride, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Coming to America. Yet my most oft quoted line doesn’t actually come from these gems, but from another amazing flick – Zoolander. While there are many quotable lines from that movie, the one that most resonates with me is when a frustrated Mugatu exclaims:
“I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!”
You, yourself may have had moments in your life where this exclamation, fraught with emotion could well have escaped your lips. Perhaps your kids have been on your last nerve allllll day. Perhaps you and your significant other are having the same fight for the one millionth time. Perhaps your boss is, like, thisclose to causing your 19th nervous breakdown. Whatever the cause, most of us have been there at some point. And, after completely losing alll our stuff, we have time to cool off and, inevitably begin to have thoughts such as: “Did I seriously just throw a legitimate tantrum? What’s wrong with me??”
It’s times like these when you may truly wonder if you have actually gone crazy.
Well, as a therapist, I must be real with you…you’re not. I don’t really love the word “crazy,” but I’m using it in today’s tongue-in-cheek post because a) Mugatu did it first and b) For the purposes of this post “crazy” works a lot better than “someone who’s really going through a lot right now and life just feels really hard for them.”
So, fear not, my Besties, here are are 5 reasons you’re not crazy, even if you feel like you might be.
1. If you are thinking to yourself “Am I crazy?” You’re not. The same rule generally applies to “Am I a bad ________ (mom, wife, friend, person, boss, employee, etc.)? If you are genuinely concerned that you might be doing a terrible job or that you may have lost all your marbles, that’s a good sign that you aren’t and you haven’t. I don’t know the exact science behind it, but I can tell you that every person I’ve sat across from in my personal and professional life who has pondered these questions, the answer has always been a resounding “no. Nope, you’re not crazy at all.”
2. If you feel crazy in a certain situation, one of your Besties would probably feel the same way. Go ahead and check in with them just to be sure. If you can find even one person to validate your tantrum feelings, you’re good. Not crazy.
3. Generally speaking, there are so many people out there crazier than you at any given time. Don’t believe me? Pick up a newspaper or peruse cnn.com for a hot second. See? Unless you are looking at your own photo up in that newspaper, you’re cool. Not crazy. Or at least not nearly as crazy as those guys. In most cases, I agree with Teddy Roosevelt when he said “comparison is the thief of joy.” But sometimes, comparison is really helpful in making you not feel cray.
4. It’s not you, it’s them. Seriously. My therapist friends and I joke all the time that it’s not our clients who really need the therapy…it’s all the people in their life who are making things so dang difficult for them all the time. If you feel crazy, take a look around…chances are good the people making you feel that way could use a little guidance themselves.
5. If you’re reading this post, you’re not crazy. Real talk: if you’re reading this post, chances are you care enough about self care and mental health to spend some time reading a blog about it. Either that, or you were just drawn to the Mugatu photo and figured you’d see what this post was all about. Regardless, you’re still not crazy because you obviously feel, as I do, that Zoolander is one of the best movies ever made. #solidarity
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