What Does It Mean to “Go Crazy”?

My BIG, BEAUTIFUL Adventure in Boycotting

The Goal:  To Spend Joyfully and with Purpose

By Chalmer Thompson

August 19, 2025

“Am I going crazy?” I’ve encountered this question on numerous occasions. It’s sometimes asked playfully, but not always. Sometimes it’s spoken with a mixture of desperation and skepticism.

Just for the record, the academic answer to the question is that “crazy” is not a word that psychologists use. However, people loosely use it to refer to feelings of extreme, persistent anxiety. It may also include symptoms like hearing voices, visual hallucinations, and the compulsion to harm oneself or others.

In my experience, those who’ve asked me this question tend to have negative thoughts that keep racing in their mind, seemingly unstoppable. The depth of their despair seems insurmountable to them, and yet, the ray of hope is the act of asking the question. In other words, not everyone who encounters such frightening episodes of distress is ready to share what’s happening to them, even if it means that they can find some relief from their misery.

Many people ask a somewhat similar question when they’re among a circle of friends or perhaps chatting in public forums: “Has the world gone completely mad?” This too is a scary question to ask, but over these past several months, the news of Trump’s decisions and actions has created an eruption throughout the country and, indeed, the world. These decisions have not only deepened existing cracks in the social and economic landscape for people in the U.S. who have long been marginalized and treated unfairly in many spheres of life, but also established conditions that threaten people’s lives both within and outside of the country. Black people throughout the diaspora are among the targets of these actions. To many, it can feel like the world is unraveling into chaos.

Consequently, whenever I hear the question, it’s from people who have concerns about the welfare of other people’s lives and who need to check their own reading of the societal pulse against the readings of others. The conversations that follow tend to involve sharing information about recent news regarding certain acts or reports on the economy, exchanging opinions about the possibility of a deteriorating civilization (with most agreeing to the question with a resounding yes!), and, in some cases, opportunities to blow off steam from feelings of frustration, hurt, and rage. These exchanges often occur in affirming spaces that offer opportunities for solace, hope, and action.

How does psychological distress relate to sociopolitical distress? The two are closely intertwined. I propose here that we can learn a great deal about self and society when we seek understanding of both. Further, when we aren’t taking good care of ourselves, we also compromise our ability to address the conditions that create or exacerbate existing personal challenges. We can get stuck in a cycle of anguished complacency rather than do what is necessary to remove ourselves from it.

Below, I turn to this matter specifically in relation to the issue of money and its impact on our lives.

Money

The hard, cold fact is that when we lack the money we need to tend to our basic needs, we tend to worry, even become hypervigilant about the need to solve the problem immediately. That’s the practical part of this challenge --- a lack of money means access to fewer resources, like food, that we need for survival. Therefore, money is necessary.

Many people have very little money and even die from not having enough of it, while others have huge amounts of it. What is unfair about this state of affairs is that greed and corruption can operate to keep money away from the people who need it and, simultaneously, channel enormous amounts of money to others, including those who already have lots of it. This is a sickness.

Political theorizing notwithstanding, the deplorable reality is that regimes of power historically have used money and other material resources for the purposes of bribery, corruption, and personal greed. We know, for example, that in the U.S., politicians across party lines are routinely “bought” by wealthy individuals and corporate leaders to influence policies that can make them (the politicians and the donors) wealthier and that takes money away from less impoverished citizens. We may feel anger about these conditions and chalk it up to politics: “Everyone has to go for their own.” Yet, brushing aside corruption and bribery rubs out the matter of fairness. It can also suck us into false beliefs about human worth based on how much money people have, beliefs created and couched in fairness and oppression.

And I don’t mean the kind of unfairness of a schoolyard bully. I’m referring to what Cornel West has called “a pile of wreckage,” that which builds up over time and requires monumental changes to the structure of a given society. The work to overhaul the wreckage will take time, goodwill, as well as the engagement of many people, especially Black, Brown, Yellow, and Red people whose voices have been muted in the past.

And here’s the psychological fallout when this level of unfairness continues and society continually sweeps it under the rug: when many people are confronted with having to deal with their need for money, they can spiral into dark places. They come to believe that their hardship is entirely personal and not at all tied to messages about their low “standing” in a society based on entrenched classist, racist, and sexist ideologies. In the minds of the needy, thoughts like, “I knew I would never be anything in life; people like me rarely are,” or “Without money, I will look like a loser, and I can’t bear this experience,” can prevail. These negative thoughts and the dreary feelings that occur alongside them do not necessarily lead them to doing something to change their circumstances in meaningful ways, or at least not in a way that reflects stalwart persistence and confidence. They may even come to believe that their existence is not important. “This isn’t just an unfortunate incident; it defines who I am, unworthy as a human being.” Ostensibly, other factors also contribute to their life functioning.

And how is it that so many of us become convinced that having no money makes us matter less than others?

The convincing happens because of how poor people are perennially treated in our society (see www.poorpeoplescampaign.org for the data). It happens when power brokers largely decide to pay less- less-than-livable wages to unskilled workers, and as organizations grow in size and wealth, the distribution of revenue largely favors the wealthiest with abundance and the poor with very little change in pay. The convincing is nurtured with people’s conditioned tendency to size up others and spend money to appear wealthy, established, or “put together. We may have learn early on in life to feel embarrassed when we run into someone at a store when we’re not looking “just so,” and spending money on expensive coiffures and clothes that covers a hefty portion of our incomes.

It happens in popular culture, like in TV sitcoms aired over the past several decades, in which working-class or impoverished living conditions that stem from factors like poor wages, factory closings, union-busting, and slum housing prompted by housing discrimination based on race, are whisked from sight or downplayed. Audiences have delighted for years in watching programs in which poor people’s lives are fodder for laughter. These programs typically downplay the conditions that help explain how so many end up poor or working class or remain that way (e.g., The Honeymooners, Beverly Hillbillies, Good Times, Roseanne, Mama’s Family, and Reba). Adding to the cover up about the conditions of poverty in the U.S. and other countries, recent actions that are abundantly funded by organizations to support politicos and local school board elections have successfully influenced how public funds are used to educate the nation’s children, and have moved to erase and distort historical references that bring depth to our understanding of current economic conditions and the uneven distribution of wealth by race and generational poverty.

The more informed we are and fortified personally, the more ready we can be in taking on the negative impacts of a society that ravages individual lives and communities.

What We Can Do to Feel Better and Become a Better Society and World

First things first: recognize that there are forces that prevent us from being fully whole. Societal greed and corruption are two of these forces. From my standpoint, what makes us whole is an embrace of self as human, as manifestations of the divine, and with it, a concern for the lives of others as part of the human family. Working through internal, negative messages can begin by first tapping into our divinity. Readings by Linda James Myers (Toward an Optimal Psychology) and Eckhart Tolle (A New Earth) are two excellent books to use as guides for this effort.

Many believe that money will ease us out of our woes. . . and yes, it certainly can’t hurt! However, research has shown that how people rate their levels of happiness is not correlated with wealth. Yes, having enough money to feel comfortable with one’s life, spending time with family, and setting aside time for leisure are qualities all associated with people’s reports of being happy. But the happiness measure levels off at some point. In other words, having “enough” money seems to be the happiness zinger, not a straight-line correlation in which the more money one has, the happier they are.

There is no protocol for treating a society gone mad, but we do know that totalitarian regimes eventually have ceased to exist in some form or fashion (see R. Maddow’s historical accounting of a previous era in the U.S., where fascism almost reigned in a book titled Prequel). We can’t predict what the future holds, but we can work on recognizing that our worth is far greater than how others interpret it to be.

Boycotting and Other Practices

There’s so much each of us has already done and continues to do. In my boycotting journey, I try to uncover ways to break through some of the wrongs by breaking away from spending money in places where the corporate leaders care little for human life, social justice for all people, the environment, and workers’ rights. This journey has been an enlightening one, leading me to act more concretely about where to shop, which places and sites to avoid, and how to learn to spend less overall.

Avoiding Certain Vendors, Moving Toward Ethical Ones: There are FREE apps we can install on our phones that can help us shop ethically. I have found the app called Boycat useful for scanning items from the stores I visit to determine whether their producers are complicit in the boycott of Israeli businesses. But aha! I found a newer one called No! Thanks may be even better than Boycat. The information on the No! Thanks app not only includes the date that the status of the company was checked in terms of its complicity/non-complicity, but it also includes references that support the reason for boycotting the company. Both apps provide alternatives to the product you scan if the company that produces it is non-complicit in the boycott.

Instead of buying new phones, which companies build with materials from war-torn countries in Africa, we can buy reliable, used phones (see www.BackMarket.com). (Eventually, we’ll address how to become part of collective movements that involve informing company executives of the reasons we refuse to shop at their businesses ---- coming soon!).

My oldest daughter, Mudiwa, introduced me to ThredUp, one of the finest online used clothing stores for women I’ve seen in a long time. It also reduces the prices of their clothing items the longer they remain in inventory. Some of the items still have tags on them. The company also invites you to send gently used clothes to resell.

My youngest niece had a birthday this month, and I’m always trying to find something fun for her to play with. There are some ethical shopping websites that have some creative gift ideas, www.Hopscotch.com for one. I also loved strumming through the web pages of BLK + GRN, a Black-owned gift shop with neat ideas on body care products.

Many of these websites will define “ethical” according to environmental issues, which is right up my alley, and some include businesses that present full statements about their views not only on the environment, but also on human rights and justice issues. Fair trade vendors like www.TenThousandVillages.com offer a nice alternative to the many big retail businesses.

Breathe In: A mantra: “Money does not determine my self-worth.” If you’re struggling and are barely making ends meet, know that finding peace within yourself and removing the negative thoughts are avenues for transformation. Be patient as you push onward for work, to decrease your debt, or to make decisions about how best to use your money. These are challenging times. Take care of your mental health and physical needs, and surround yourself with the people who love you. And be kind to others.

Set your parameters, but don’t get pulled into the need to buy things to somehow confirm that you are worthy. Notice when there is talk about “things” and simply contemplate your reaction to them. When your work colleague talks about buying a new home, do you feel a tug of jealousy? Do you find yourself waiting for the day when you can get the perfect job, home, or car, while unconsciously overlooking the joys in life that you have NOW? A good spiritually related book on finding peace within ourselves that emphasizes how to fully embrace the present moment is Oprah Winfrey’s The Wisdom of Sundays.

I’ve stated this before, but here it is again --- taking my boycotting journey has taught me a lot about being more patient and non-judgmental. It’s also brought me to a place where I am less likely to make mindless purchases. Whenever I shop in public, I breathe three deep breaths before I consider buying an item that’s not on my list. Most of the time, I can walk away without picking it up. Not perfect, but more money in my pocket.

Last humble piece of advice: don’t do the journey in one day, and don’t give up hope. Acknowledge the messiness of new boycotting dilemmas and learn from them as you continue the journey.

If you’ve been experiencing relatively mild stress over these past several months, seek out the ear of a friend or clergy who’s a good listener, and who has remained both engaged in what’s happening in the world and whose demeanor is calm and positive. There are excellent resources on our socialization as it pertains to money and equating it to human worth. Look for a reference page on this website that will provide a list of references on a variety of topics --- also coming soon!.

If you’re feeling in serious distress and have considered killing yourself, please dial 988 for immediate help, please. You may also want to contact a family member, religious or spiritual leader, or psychologist. Check out the page on this website titled Getting Better for help in finding a psychologist or other mental health professional.