Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal (Paperback)

Anxiety can bring us to a halt. Anxiety can lead us to run away and hide, or never come out in the first place. Anxiety is also many people’s secret fuel. Is there a way to balance its dual power to create – and to destroy – at the same time? Robin Ince spent thirty years performing in public and appeared to be a confident person. He has stood in front of 12,000 people and performed poetry; made hours of live radio and television; even been on the terrifying TV quiz show ‘Mastermind’ (he won) . . . and all undergone while appearing to be totally in control. At least, that’s what viewers told him. But he knows how many voices in his head were screaming. Safest when sitting in his attic, the moment Robin entered the outside world, his mind became full of thoughts about how things would go wrong. How he will shame himself. How he will let people down. He felt more security standing in front of a huge audience than when walking down the street. Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal is an urgent inquiry into the invisible anxieties all around us – if only we knew how many were drowning and not waving, wouldn’t we be a happier society? Robin presents a mixture of his own first-hand experiences of anxiety, how he came to realize that what appeared to be many different issues all stemmed from one thing after his ADHD diagnosis aged fifty-two, his conversations with therapists and neuroscientists, as well as with those who inhabit calmness differently, such as his remarkable Infinite Monkey Cage comrade Brian Cox. Maybe if we all could see just a little bit more of the interior which we no longer think of as a sign of weakness, we could all be happier and more empathetic – more ready to help and be helped. Comical, absurd, sad, and ultimately hopeful, Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal aims to turn what can be seen as a burden into an invoking liberation.