I’ve sat on the tube late at night being shuttled between the ends of the line having no energy or motivation to find my station. I’ve woken in the morning to what seemed like an endless space next to me, feeling that the universe has cracked into a million discordant pieces. I’ve seen some of my strong gorgeous friends fall into a life lived with hurt and contempt. I’ve sat in cafés and meetings and hated the world for being so carefree, for having the cheek to get on with life. And through all this sadness, hurt, confusion and drama, there is hope. Life gets better. I got better, my friends got better. And you will get better.

This is what you will read here, stories and thoughts from the lives of my friends and I and how we got, are getting, better. I hope you will find them of use. I hope that you will laugh at them, the laugh of an accomplice who recognises their own folly in others, how love makes us behave as though we were the unlucky subjects in those tacky hypnosis shows. And of course know that more than likely, we’re going to be like that again. Maybe, in time…

For now though, don't be hurting. Well, at least don't focus on it. Accept what's happened, if only because you can't change it. Take some comfort that this experience gives you texture, puts iron and compassion in your soul. As Billy Connolly would say, allows you to be ‘all windswept and interesting’, at least for a while. Let it give you knowledge and confidence in new situations, but don't let it overshadow your whole life. That would be a much bigger tragedy than whatever you've been through.

From our families fussing to our friends constantly trying to fix us up, people view being single as a bad thing, as if it were a state of being broken. Enjoy this attention as the comfort food that it is and recognise it is done with love, but don’t rely on it, and don’t believe it. Think about the power of one, that less is more (you have to allow me some clichés). The freedom to live your life on your terms. Think of something that you’ve always wanted to do and do it. You have one less excuse now.

Everything within these articles has happened, more or less. How would you view your story if you read it in a novel, in an article on the Web or saw it in a film? Chances are that you would see it as part of life's varied tapestry, as part of the endless tale of existence. Sad, perhaps, but at home in the world. Grand passion is better than shitty feelings. The events that you lived through to bring you to here were, in an odd way, easier than having to live with the hurt after. Getting up day after day to nothingness, to face the abyss of life without is the hardest thing. When events unfold, you have a role. In life after, you have to improvise.

Existence is interesting, it will distract you again and you may even enjoy this improvising. You can write a new ending to your story, you can carry on from where the film left off and change the feeling of being wounded to one of being a survivor, of enduring and smiling. I don’t claim that this web site can show you the way and I certainly won’t provide a ten-step plan back to strength and happiness. But at least I hope to be able to persuade you that you can get there from here.