THANKS SO MUCH

THANKS SO MUCH!

I would like to say thank you to everyone who has written to me over the weekend, and today, after reading extracts of the Diary which were published by The Guardian on Saturday (17 March). I hadn’t realised quite how popular the paper was! The editor of the Family section, Sally, has done an incredible job in editing the Diaries, which must have been quite a task! She managed to keep all the important detail, and yet lost none of the flow of my thoughts. I owe her a lot. Her section is doing a great job to help families, thanks so much to them.

I am so grateful for all your personal responses. I have received hundreds of emails via the site – fantastic! As soon as I can, I shall be in touch with all of you who have asked to be put on the mailing list, and I shall put as many stories as possible on the site so we can start sharing experiences, which is so important. Thank you for sharing, we can help each other by simply doing just that.

I am delighted that so many people have found comfort from reading about our story. Many of you said how similar your situation was to ours. This has given me a lot of strength, so thank you. Some of you didn’t think we were doing a very good job and I also am prepared, of course, to accept constructive criticism. On the whole though, everyone’s message was the same – that reading about our experience had been helpful. I’m really glad, and that is the reason I wanted to be open about what has happened to us.

I was not surprised to read how many of you have had similar experiences to our own family. My hunch was that that there must be so many people who are suffering like we are. My aim of setting up the site, and of writing the blog, was to assure others that they were not alone. Many of you have said just that – some of you have quite simply written ‘thank god I’m not alone’. No, you’re not alone, and together we can bring this issue that is affecting our children out into the light to be looked at. Please continue to write to us at the site, there is so much power in combined energies, especially passionate ones! I was thrilled that so many of you chose to write your own story down and send it to me. I know that writing really works when it comes to healing yourself, it’s very powerful and immediate but sometimes takes a great deal of courage just to see your own words in black and white on a page. Many of you said that the process of writing your story and sending it to me had made you feel better. I would recommend that you keep writing – send it to me or burn it or keep it – it doesn’t matter, but keep writing. It will help keep you, as an individual, uncluttered and able to focus better. Most of us carry around a lot of emotional rubbish that can be cleared out, by putting it down on a page, just as you would empty the bins in your house. Buying yourself a journal, and writing when you feel the need, is a wonderful gift to the self. I know that many times, when my head feels like it’s about to explode, I will sit down for ten minutes to write whatever comes up for me, and I am able to find my way home again. I think we should also write to those people who make policy decisions too, let’s write to our MPs, to Tony Blair – I think that cannabis should be reclassified – that would send out the right message at least. But, may be just raising awareness is enough. Let me know what you think.

Thanks also to those of you who sent me Links that you think I should put on the site – will do, of course, thanks so much.

With much love to everyone who has been in touch.

From your heart to mine.

Debra