Greetings, and apologies

Hello, and sorry for the length of time since I last wrote this blog.  Funnily enough, just as things were starting to pick up, in a good way - a request to write for the Huffington Post, a new book almost ready for publication - it all seemed to get too much and I have had to take a step back.  Maybe that's not odd at all, maybe it's just natural, given my history with stress. 

There was simply too much going on.  I finished my recovery book, but then realised that it really was not good enough to publish.  I wrote it as a memoir and always had a niggling feeling that it was not going to be very interesting, but then took a long, cold look and had to acknowledge that things were worse than I had feared - it was really a stultifyingly boring piece of writing.  The book was only going to disappoint readers, and I didn't want to do that.  I am just pleased I realised in time before I published it.  So I have been trying to re-work it into a self-help book for those who have suffered emotional distress. 

Although, to be honest, I have not been trying all that hard in the last few weeks.  I have had a lot going on at home - I won't go into details but I will say that there has been no crisis or upset, just a lot of domestic stuff to deal with. 

I hate letting people down, and I had announced on here that the book was going to be published on World Mental Health Day.  At least one person had said that they were waiting to use it in their recovery, which felt like a huge honour but also a huge responsibility so I felt particularly bad about letting that person down.  But I have decided not to beat myself up any more - I am doing the best I can, and in the end everyone will be better served by a book which I am satisfied with than one which was published despite my misgivings.

So, just to check in really and to say that I have been having a short break from mental health matters but will be back soon.  I also signed out of Facebook, but will be back on there soon, and on Twitter. 

Oh, and by the way, I have already dipped a toe back into the water - I just wrote a review of Lucy Johnstone's fantastic book, A Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Diagnosis.  Here's the link, in case anyone wants to take a look:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Straight-Introduction-Psychiatric-Diagnosis-Introductions/dp/1906254664