The Low mood and Vulnerable Friendships...

It can be very hard to grasp what causes our moods to shift. A day that started with energy and hope can, by lunchtime, end up mired in self-hatred and tearfulness.

A sure sense that we’ve finally turned the corner and are on the way to better things can be replaced at speed by an alternative certainty that we are a cosmic error.

The one great solace for a low mood is the right sort of company: people who know how to reassure us that we still belong, that sadness is to be expected and that our errors never put us beyond compassion.

These consoling souls will have suffered, they will have hated themselves and they will have learnt how to laugh at the absurdity of being human. Most importantly, when we show them our low mood, they will know how gracefully to take that most essential next step of friendship: accept our flaws and display one or two of their own.