You may have noticed some of my strange behaviour in the past couple of week. Mysterious requests for information from friends. Weirdly ecstatic status updates. Unusual quietness from my blog. A big smile on my face for no reason whatsoever. Such creepiness should probably be saved for Halloween so I guess I owe everyone an explanation.

The first I’ll start with is, as promised, to explain my Facebook status earlier this week. For those of you who missed it, I posted:
Describe me positively in three words (it’s for a very …

Last week I took my ability to make spontaneous decisions to a new level. Most of my spontaneity in the past has related to taking a trip somewhere at short notice to see a friend or take advantage of a cheap holiday. I’ve often been known to jump at an opportunity to meet someone interesting with no time to plan anything interesting to say (meeting Gordon Brown last weekend was a fine example of this). I’m also one of those people that will volunteer themselves to head up in front …

Nope I haven’t become a nun. Even though my decline in blogging frequency may lead you to believe I’m holed up in a convent without access to the internet.

I am getting in the habit of exercising. Something I’ve tried to do before, and was finally succeeding in before the flu to end all influenza. This time once I was fully fit it took merely a week to get me back in a workout schedule. In the past my pattern with exercise has tended to be four weeks on, four months …

If you’d told me 12 months ago I would be writing this blog I would have laughed in disbelief. But times change and it does heal too. Not to disregard all the hard work I’ve put into reversing the effects of being bullied and recovering from depression. The past few weeks I have really come into my own and the past fortnight I have not only felt like I’m back to being “Helen” but that I may even be finding confidence in some areas of my life I didn’t have …

Apologies for the recent lack of blogging. It’s not like me to be this quiet! Life and technology has stood in my way the past few weeks.
It seemed quite a few of you enjoyed my BT blog and as I was rather angry (understatement) about the whole situation, I am pleased to say we got there in the end and it has been resolved. However I dare say this is the power of social networking. For those of you that aren’t aware, BT has a Twitter account @BTcare and it …

Continuing with the ‘Five…‘ theme today I decided to highligh five of the blogs I’ve written this year. I don’t think I’ll ever stop getting a buzz when people tell me they enjoy reading what I write. This year I’ve written about lots of different things, some better than others and some more popular from others. Even if I had no readers I would write, but it’s nice to know that people keep coming back… even my mum!
My blog moved to helenthornber.com on 15th March 2009. Since then I’ve had …

Firstly the cold that was starting seems to have made a hasty retreat so I am very happy about this. I am in fact giving myself a pat on the back for doing things to stop it in it’s tracks. Such as getting to bed at a reasonable hour on a Friday night. And actually relaxing, stopping myself from thinking about the exciting things that are happening right now so I can sleep.
In the past it has been full steam ahead, no time for sleep. Exciting things being much more …

It’s me who is my enemy
Me who beats me up
Me who makes the monsters
Me who strips my confidence.
~ Paula Cole, “Me,” This Fire

My blog yesterday was worthwhile. Getting everything out of my head onto (virtual) paper helped me to see what is holding me back and causing this feeling of “meh” as I like to call it.
When everything came crashing down last October I realised my confidence had evaporated. But because of my determination to turn things around and get on with things I had to find a way …

If you’re new to my blog you might want to read ‘The Real Me’ to put this blog into context.
The past two weeks I’ve been focussing on getting healthy so I have more energy. This came out of getting fed up of of feeling “meh” far too often. The depression has retreated for now but I’m still feeling a bit flat. I thought a fortnight of doing all the right stuff would have me dancing on the rooftops. It hasn’t. Though I have lost 4lb along the way. However that …

A couple of weeks ago I ‘came out’ about my depression in my blog The Real Me. The response was positive and, as I somewhat expected, some people opened up to tell me I wasn’t the only one.
It isn’t the first time I have opened up about this. At the beginning of 2003 I had to do the same. In university it is hard to hide these things. The people you live with tend to notice the endless crying, low moods and all the other things that characterise a serious …

If you could do anything in the world for a job what would it be?
Writing.
If you were given £10 million tomorrow would you still want to do it?
Yes.
I started writing because it was a release. I have kept diaries on and off throughout the years. Until fairly recently, when I started seriously thinking of moving into a career in writing, the writing came easiest when I was anxious or depressed.
I think too much. I am well known for over thinking and anyone who’s made the mistake of asking me ‘why’ …

As a natural communicator and in the business of communicating I am constantly checking how open I am about things. Inevitably I suffer from foot in mouth syndrome on regular occasions and quite often get it completely wrong. Fortunately I get it spectacularly right with enough frequency to keep me in a job and not lose me all my friends and acquaintances.
That balance is what has made the decision to write this particular post so hard. I’m know people who read my blog vary from close friends to colleagues to …