I can't promise this works for everyone, but I've found that I can manipulate my daydreams so they become boring or unpleasant. If you can make everything go wrong in your daydream world, the real one will seem more appealing.

I've spent the last few days imagining I'm right in the middle of the London riots, and it always pushes me back into reality, where I'm far away from London, safe and sound.

It doesn't always work of course. Sometimes you just end up…

I realise this may offend people with serious mental problems but I love the term "basketcase". That's what I am, I'm a basketcase. Thinking this way helps me cope, puts a smile on my face. I'm happy and safe in the knowledge that by having all this chaos in my head, I am carrying on a fine tradition of British eccentrics. Everyone on this island is slightly odd in some way, I figured I'm no weirder than the other 60 million inhabitants. The stereotypes are true, we're all just Monty Python…

I've been like this since I was 8, when we moved away from my hometown and all my friends to a town where I never fit in and had great difficulty making friends. My little brother adapted well, I did not, so I just disappeared off into my own little fantasy world where I've been everything from a secret agent to a rockstar to things as banal as a guy working in a coffee shop (I mean, what's that all about?).

I'm happier than I used to be. Four years ago I moved for a second…