If you can’t stand your own company, don’t fill every silence. Get to know the person you’re avoiding.

If being alone with yourself feels unbearable, that usually means there is something you have not looked at yet, not that you are bad company. Noise keeps it at a distance, which works, right up until the silence catches you anyway, in the car or at three in the morning.

Start with small stretches rather than a whole evening. Ten quiet minutes, a walk with nothing playing, writing down whatever turns up. Go gently, because this is not a test you pass by sitting through misery. If what arrives is bigger than ten minutes, that is worth saying out loud to somebody.