I sense a grave disturbance in the force

What a week last week was. After various people getting upset because Cleaning Up is not, in fact, a guide to giving up drinking, (which I wouldn’t presume to write), I then get someone having a go at me for not making it a how-to guide, and assuring me that I won’t sell any copies because it’s all about, er, me.

People need to work out what they want in life, and I can’t claim to hold the key. I can only make suggestions, like any other writer.

The day before that, a journalist I used to know came up to me at a party, very drunk, and said ‘You must have had loads of people having a go at you about your book.’ I said, ‘You mean the people I wrote about?’ and she said no. Gosh, who could she have meant? I replied that, aside from green ink loonies on the web, no one had.

She then took another tack and, after some preamble, asked me what I thought of the fact that ‘some people’ (meaning me) had ‘nothing’ happen to them as children, and they end up, ‘you know, like that’, and other people had really bad things happen, and ended up fine.

Now, I actually like this woman and have no beefs with her, but when confronted with such a comment, what do you do? Oh, and guess what, she hadn’t even read the book!

I’d love to have the confidence to go up to someone and tell them that everything they’ve ever felt doesn’t exist. Careers are made on such front, I know. But what about all the other people who aren’t believed, because they don’t have the bruises to show for it?

I hope to get involved with Time To Change later in the year – especially if this is the level of understanding being shown by experienced opinion-formers. I despair for our society when people have this need to attack anyone who discusses their emotions in public.

I then met up with someone for a professional discussion, which was going fine until he told me how crap this website is(!), because it had too much ‘me’ on it, and then suggested that, because I am currently a single person with no children, I am too self-centred and should therefore attend group therapy, up to and including Landmark Forum. Needless to say, if it had been a date, that would have been the dealbreaker.

I acted fine at the time, but actually felt bemused and irritated by the whole thing. I think I need a holiday.