A discomfort I can barely explain

THE WRITER'S LIFE

Despite having everything I could hope for, there's still a tension to life which I can't quite grasp. This is not a new thing. It's one of the many products of depression and anxiety, PTSD, personality disorder...

I really do have everything which my modest needs require: Food and shelter are taken care of in a way which others might take for granted, and so may I have done once. But I know how fragile any situation can be, and I remember how easy it was to gradually slip off of life's ride. When you've been a tramp, even basic human needs become gifts.

I've been at the studio for exactly a year, with all indications that I'm now on a rolling tenancy and likely to enjoy many more years here, as my two neighbours have. Private renting comes with its own inherent anxiety, when a tenant is at the mercy of a private landlord's personal whim. My own landlady is a social one, in that she accepts housing benefit tenants for the properties at the more modest end of her portfolio. The studio is very comfortable, well decorated and maintained, and no more than I need. The reasonably low rent is one which my housing benefit covers.

The fridge, freezer and cupboards are full. So for that matter are the biscuit barrel, the crisps basket, and the Minecraft Darth Vader Paul Auster mini bar (another, long story). I've usually got weed to chill with too. Just lately I've had more days when I actually feed myself than not, which is some kind of progress. Sometimes it's as though I just buy food to look at it, or for other people to eat. Now I've got back into an old habit of planning meals. So often in the past, my indecisiveness was such that I'd grow tired of thinking about food and just not bother: Irrational, but just another part of the cocktail which makes my brain what it is. If I plan meals in advance, that part of me saves the indecisive one having to make a decision. It's part of the fun mix which is my borderline multiple personality disorder.

Even though the studio is small, it's crammed with the things I love: Films, music and books. It's not so crammed as to look like a mentally ill hoarder lives here; Through the keyhole would reveal a cool, cosy little place: That of someone who likes their own space and who is perhaps somewhat eccentric. It's been likened to Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter's apartment, albeit smaller: I'll take that. And in the corner by the window is the desk, with the typewriter and all of a writer's tools, on and around it.

I'm content with my writing at the moment. I'm pleased with the three books which are out. My children's story at least is getting good reviews in the marketplace: It's helping people. I only wish that some of the people who tell me in private that the other two are good, would post reviews online. I find it frustrating and unfair that I spent three years writing my anthology and it would take five minutes to post a review. That sense of entitlement is another part of my frustrated mind. It's the part of many depressives which allows them to crave contact with others, only to then push those people away.

Now that I'm free of editing for a while, I can devote more time to actually writing, which is what I'm paid nothing to do. As such, I'm having fun with some new stories. I'm practising a way of working which my more successful and wealthy peers employ: Experiment, play, throw away. This will sometimes produce a daily output of a few thousand words, which will then be consigned to the slush pile, or become something else.

I've invented a new character: A kind of Lewisham Tank Girl. She's involved in one short story I'm writing at the moment and could well be a recurring character (in no more than three, before I have to consider another novel). One day I might do a head count of all of my characters and perhaps write something fun which they can all be in. I fear some may harm or kill others: Experiment, play, throw away. I'd first need to re-read everything to see who's still alive.

So I have relative security in my housing situation, and as much writing as I can fit in until I'm no longer able to do it. I have things to look forward to in the short term too: This weekend's monthly visit to Milton Keynes, to gallivant with my children; and a lunch I've arranged for my parents on their Golden wedding anniversary a week after. This is something which makes me want to grab all those old friends who dropped me when I was drunk. I want to grab them by the necks and show them that everyone who was affected by my illness, is cool with me now. I worked hard to rebuild those relationships, so that now everyone gets to actually enjoy my company, rather than fear it. I will live with the guilt for the rest of my life: That's the price I pay for sobering up. But I haven't lapsed and neither will I. Those around me know how important they are to me and if I returned to drinking, I would lose all of that.

The lunch with my parents is just a traditional Sunday roast at my local: Not a place I frequent, but it's been very pleasant on the half dozen or so occasions I've visited in the last year. So I've booked us a table, so that my parents can enjoy a the tradition of Sunday roast, as they do, and my company, which they now do: They've told me so. They've also both told me that they're proud of me. Well, I've come a long way and it was fucking hard, but I did it because of them. But I can already hear the friends I no longer speak to: “He's taking them to a pub. Oh, right...” Well, fuck off, those people. I am an alcoholic. I am a functioning alcoholic. This is not to say that I just about manage not to soil myself; It means that I can go to a pub and enjoy a social alcoholic drink in good company: Company which I do not crave with those who still judge. That's part of the life sentence; a penance I must pay.

All those people I should be kissing.
Some are here, and some are missing.

There's plenty on my mind, which I'd like to share, only to illustrate how frustrating my life can be. There are things I wish to say to people; Things which I would gladly air in public, but then I have to consider the other parties. So those are conversations to be had with other people, or more than likely, just with myself. Or in fiction. Because with words, I can destroy people. But I can also do a lot of good with my writing, not just for myself. This month's royalties will just about cover the cost of the lunches with my children and my parents.

So everything is good for the most part. But still there's that discomfort I can't explain.

And that's what clinical anxiety is: It's irrational, it's that niggling doubt, not a fear (that comes with the panic attacks), but an unease about something which may or may not be there, like a presence. The important thing is, it's always there. And one of the reasons for that is those who still think ill of me: I'm sure they're happy. But that's paranoia and insecurity.

All of which is why, when I'm asked how I am, I'm just okay. It's easier that way.