Cleaning up after Capitalism. The Vacuum Cleaner. Some Rights Reserved.I’m at the Royal College of Psychiatrists meeting their research team. I make a half-hearted joke as I’m a little intimidated by the situation. “Y’know how people who said they are being monitored by the CIA were labelled as paranoid? In light of Snowden’s revelations, is that going to be reviewed?” Half the room laugh, the other look at me disapprovingly, either annoyed by this query or thinking, ‘Just because someone was listening in, doesn’t mean you’re not paranoid/psychotic.’
Like any human experience, being paranoid can be totally healthy, provided it doesn't begin to effect you in a way that becomes destructive, either to yourself or those around you. If it does, then that could be the point at which to get some support to help you keep your feet on the ground (but not too firmly rooted, otherwise you lose the ability to move around and change it up).
When I’ve not been crushed by debilitating mental distress I’ve spent my adult life working as an artist and activist, with a foot in both camps – however unlikely a pairing the two are. For me, art is about asking interesting questions in new ways, where activism is about answering/confronting problems with solutions.
