I am now 72 – unbelievably – and live on my own.

In fact, I have lived on my own for the past 18 years.

Due to the fact that I have no family, I live on my own in America. I am from London so am far away from home.

This may sound rather bleak to you, but it is just like anything else. You get used to it.

I enjoy my own company and keep myself occupied all the time. During the day time I write on Quora, read, paint or watch TV. In the evenings I read, watch Netflix or You Tube videos.

It is not an exciting life, but I am not miserable.

I also have bipolar disorder and manage to take care of myself. I am what they call ‘high functioning’ so can live alone with no help from anybody.

Everything is fine except when I need people to do things I cannot do.

Yesterday my microwave oven blew up and I knew that I couldn’t carry it out of the house, nor could I carry in a new one.

However, there is an activity center in town that helps with this kind of dilemma, so the Volunteer Coordinator dropped in after work and took my microwave away with him. He is coming back next week to install the new one I ordered from Amazon.

If a person is resourceful, there are usually ways of managing the hard stuff.

The only time I miss another person is when I just want to chat to someone. Nothing in particular, just comment on every day things. Then I would like somebody here, but not under any other circumstance.

If I could hire a chatty person for an hour or two a week, I would. Other than that, I manage quite happily on my own.

EDIT: It is now three years on since I wrote this answer. It is doing the rounds again. My life has changed dramatically over the last three years.

I now go to the gym three times a week to workout, and I have also written and published five books.

My books are called “How to Live with Bipolar”, “Bipolar 1 Disorder Rescue Plan”, “A Practical Guide to Overcoming Loneliness”, “We Never Did Mornings” (poetry) and “37 Symptoms of Bipolar Depression – a workbook.

I have branched out from nonfiction now and have written a novella called Shards of Glass which will be published in November or December.

I have since published two more books in the Shards of Glass series.