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  • We all want to be normal, but our picture of what is normal is, in fact, really unhelpful.

  • So many of the things we're told that are weird are in fact completely average and widespread.

  • For example, if you fear you've married the wrong person;

  • get sick with envy when a friend succeeds; fantasize about your wife's sister;

  • want to cry when anyone criticizes you; dislike the way you look;

  • panic at the thought of going to a party; worry a great deal about farting in public;

  • feel you might vomit during a meeting out of fear;

  • have ever had a lustful thought about a member of your own family;

  • bump your head while trying to get into a taxi;

  • are turned on by some pretty strange people or stories in the news;

  • frequently visit adult websites; regard yourself as a fraud;

  • worry about not making it to the bathroom in time;

  • walk into doors, lampposts, rearview mirrors, bollards; worry that other people can see your private parts;

  • still think about a relationship that ended badly eleven years ago;

  • then you can quietly congratulate yourself: You are deeply normal.

  • We suffer so much and so unnecessarily because our picture of what is normal isn't true to how most of us actually are.

  • We get disgusted and ashamed of ourselves for no reason.

  • There's nothing strange about being compulsive, manic, anxious, sexual, worried, or mad.

  • Being odd is normal.

  • And that's okay.

We all want to be normal, but our picture of what is normal is, in fact, really unhelpful.

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