What better way to flee from your problems than delve into someone else's? The hardships in your life don't seem half as bad when you're trying to win the games with Katniss, escape the maze with Thomas, or destroy the ring with Frodo. Words are the greatest escape, whether you are piecing them together yourself, or enjoying someone else's arrangement.

Whenever I am besieged by life's little dramas, I tend to retreat into my man cave and immediately proceed to make matters worse by dwelling on them!

Churchill had his famous 'Black Dog' and I have my Island Of Black. It is a barren and wretched place were all creativity becomes stifled as I ponder ever deeper into the mire of shit that my problems become.

Then I discovered writing, and how writing about a problem helps to solve it. Once the demon has been put to print it becomes obvious to me what the solution may be; and this method has proved successful over time.

It won't always work however, but it will give you a fresh perspective on it. Try it.

Though I have to admit that if I were ever to be pursued along a corridor by flesh eating zombies, stopping to write about it might not be the brightest solution.

When I can sit down and write. Write my heart out. Bleed onto paper.

When I curl up with a book. Whether new or an old favourite, it doesn't matter. A good story cures.

When I am upon the stage. No matter what my problems, they dissipate as I become someone else.

When I listen to the music. Classical or rock or opera or jazz or indie. The music pulses in my soul, lifts me above my worries.

And with these things, I am free.

1) Fighting back--trying to solve them, perhaps make them smaller before attacking them, and

2) Walking away if the situation calls for it, reminding myself that life's never perfect and I will never be able to fix everything.

Dismal as the second option may seem, it's actually quite liberating to see life that way: all the pressure disappears when I allow myself to be human.