I've just been thinking about how corrosive the UK's lack of leadership currently is for our collective mental health. This period reminds me so much of the months after my wife first had treatment for cancer.

Because the bit you expect to be hellish? It weirdly isn't. You have strict rules to live by, you focus on those, and they give you a sense of purpose and stability. It's tough, but living on-rails isn't so hard. Doctors say what to do, you do it.

Things get absolutely *grim*, really, once you're informed it's now time to go back to normal life. Without instructions or guidance, integrating yourself back into a now deeply different world is just so, so hard.

And I think that's where we're all at, now - struggling to find a sense of normality in this odd limbo state. Most of us know we're not ready to go back to "normal" but that's what we're being told to do.

And truly, that's incredibly isolating. Seeing others around you not understand why you aren't able to simply go back to being normal is tough, and will leave you often feeling lonely and angry.