We believe the easiest way to remain sane is to remember that it's a mad world. Life itself shows all the signs of being in the grip of a serious mental breakdown.

It just doesn't make sense a lot of the time, it behaves in bizarre and eccentric ways, and it lashes out when you least expect it.

We find having a sense of humour is Our main armour against mental breakdown. If you can laugh at what life throws at you, it generally gets bored and goes off to torment someone else.

Laughter is good for the soul (or souls) except that kind of unrestrained sort where you throw your head back and expose your nostrils. To be frank - such nostril exposure is a sure sign of madness.

Another approach is to adopt certain eccentricities (such as always referring to yourself as a collective noun - such as We). This is also an effective inoculation against insanity. By taking a very light dosage of madness, you can build up immunity against serious mental breakdown.

On the other hand, those trying to be normal are on the highroad to serious mental problems because the world, and everyone in it, is slightly abnormal. Even the Earth itself tilts on its axis.

We find it is impossible to stand in front of a mirror and say, "We are completely sane", without simultaneously looking like a photo taken for admission to a mental hospital. There is only a razor's edge between sanity and insanity, and you have to shave with it every day of your life unless you want to be a bearded loon. Or a yeti.

We understand that some Americans sometimes have a fortified "panic room" (named after the movie of the same name) in their houses where they can lock themselves in against intruders. We have found it more useful in "normal" life to have a "don't panic room" to protect yourself against mental intrusion. This can be a study, a living room or, in a crowded house, the inside of a bottle of vodka.

Of course, the worst kind of madness is Love. Love is a form of severe mental breakdown. One moment the world is normal and grey, and the next flowers, smiles and hormones are bursting out in midair.

Acute sufferers of this "love" condition generally have to be tagged (married), put in secure accommodation (starter homes) and given powerful tranquillisers (mortgage payments and children).

Sanity comes and goes during an average lifetime: the years of maximum sanity are six, 24 and 62, while the difficult ones are two, 15 and 43. The intervening years are taken up with personal growth or shrinkage, depending which way you're heading.

All in all - if it seems a little bit mad, embrace it because that's the only way to make sense.

Or alternatively take up creating "art" as therapy!