The Dazzle #13

I've found my tribe, and guess what? You're part of it, too!

Of course I needed helping up

I’m hoping you didn’t notice that this email took a break last week. I have been on a book tour, going up and down the country to talk about Mad Woman, and by last weekend I was just so damn dazzled by all the incredible people I had met at events that I had to have a lie down in a dark room, somewhere in Manchester. I have been blown away by the response to this little book of sadness and anger and hope, which has somehow gone to number 2 on the Sunday Times Bestseller’s List today. In a world of books about kings and CEOs and Elon Musk (see the last edition of The Dazzle), I love that so many people have responded so positively to a book about Binge Eating Disorder and breakdowns that turn out to be breakthroughs. The subtitle of the book is How To Survive A World That Thinks You’re The Problem, and I hope Mad Woman will give comfort to people who have been made by society to feel somehow faulty. I hope it will show you that you’re not the problem - you’re the solution. And I hope you know how very grateful I am to anyone who is subscribed to this newsletter, or who has bought a copy of the book.

This week, I want to shine a spotlight on the incredible females I have met at Mad Woman events, who have told me their stories and made me feel less alone. The women who have dazzled me with their honesty and their strength and their humour. The woman who sobbed as she told me about the terrible postnatal OCD she had experienced with both of her children; the woman grieving after the sudden death of her kind and brilliant husband, who had shown her the meaning of love after she left an abusive relationship; the mum who stood up in front of a theatre and spoke bravely of her debilitating intrusive thoughts; the 20something who revealed her lifelong struggle with eating disorders; the woman in recovery who had embroidered me a replica of the Mad Woman book cover as a thanks for making her feel less, well, mad; the 50something who was running her first marathon after treatment for cancer; the mother who was treating her teenage daughter to a night out after a long period of being treated for OCD; the woman who had dug herself out of a deep depression and somehow made it to Birkenhead (anyone who manages to leave the house during an episode of mental illness is an absolute superhero, in my eyes). It is the greatest privilege to be able to meet people who get it, after so many years of hiding in the dark with only my catastrophic intrusive thoughts for company. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You are the reason I write, even when that voice in my brain tells me terrible things (especially when that voice tells me terrible things). You are why I am here. You are dazzling, each and every one of you.

xx