Rev. Andy 🐺 @andy@mentalhealth.social

My #introduction toot!

I'm Andy and I'm the admin of mentalhealth.social.

My interests are covered in my profile. On #mentalhealth I've briefly known the Black Dog in the past and work hard to keep him on a leash. My wife lives with #BPD bundled with #anxiety and #depression (though has a grip on all of them) and her illnesses are one of the things that drive me to be so passionate about #MH support and care. Which is why I set up this Masto instance; a safe place to socialise and chat. 👍

Just been invited for my second jab tomorrow morning. Short notice, so I wonder if they're getting through the remains of a batch of Pfizer. No matter though, not going to turn it down! Scratch the DIY on Saturday. 😂

I've hit a wall in writing. Every time I try to add punk to Georgian/Regency/Victorian England, even working hard to come up with a hard science alternative timeline to the Industrial Revolution, I end up with something too close to steampunk. And I can't stand steampunk.

So I'm going back to what I know. Hard sci fi, the physics of intra-Solar System space travel, cyberpunk, transhumanity. But trying to keep my ideas on social class disparity in place. Warming up by rewatching Elysium. 😎

Frambled the shit outta my eggs this morning, I feel so cool. 😂

Didn't get to celebrate Eostre yesterday as Jo was at work, so taking a mindful day today. A bit of a walk and dropping some fresh bread that is baking in the oven at the moment, around to my parents (leaving it at the door, naturally!)

Listening to Levellers and getting fucking angry at the world. I'm really sorry the generations before mine fucked shit up and I have the most profound respect for the generations that follow mine for doing something about it. In my naivete I honestly thought the new century would usher in a new age of peace, love and understanding. Sorry folks. My bad. ☮️ ❤️

Clothes look SO much better on FemV (yeah, I started a second, casual playthrough if Cyberpunk 2077). It's really ticking all my Barbie boxes. 😂

Well, sayonara Night City. 92 hours later I've finished my first playthrough on the XSX. It was gorgeous, beautifully written and an outstanding realisation of a city and characters I've loved for 33 years. It meant a lot to me. It has its bugs and the way in which CDPR management handled its premature launch is horrendous (not to mention other aspects of the company culture, best left to a separate toot), but it was a powerful storytelling experience. I'm looking forward to my next visit. 😎

I grew up listening to Fish-era Marillion, and it's angry and brilliant; but I'm re-listening to "Brave" for the first time in years at the moment (the Steven Wilson remaster) and I have to say it's a fucking outstanding piece of music.

All Pfizered up. 😎

When you can't sleep, you're up at 4am, your NextCloud server is fucked and you realise you accidentally downgraded the VM to 512MB of RAM. 🙄

Enjoyed today's sobriety app pledge motivational. 🙏❤️

I guess I don't have a point. My therapist would be happy though, I slipped into an emotional place when that music came on and that's a good thing for a guy that used to spend far too much time as a hyper-vigilant guardian of his pack.

If anything, don't neglect your physical self when you're working on your emotional/mental self. The two are inextricably linked, from what you shove into your mouth to how you hold and move your body. Move your mind and body in unison.

And try yoga.

🙏❤️

3/3

The weird feeling I get when I listen to this song now is wholly pleasant. It's calming and it takes me inside myself and into a good place. Not at all upsetting (and to be honest, when I was crying my eyes out at it, walking in the dark, I couldn't explain WHY I was crying).

People forget the connection between the mind and the body, whether it's diet (the brain-gut connection) or our experiences. Our nervous systems have memory and unprocessed trauma can sit in there for years. Decades. 2/n

Bit of an odd one. Some piano music just appeared on Deezer and reminded me of something.

When I was seeing a therapist back in 2019, in the first 10 minutes of our first session we talked about trauma and healing. He mentioned that yoga has a really high success rate in assisting with releasing "locked up" trauma. The shit your nervous system keeps hold of like a coiled memory.

I remember walking back from my first yoga lesson, listening to this song and suddenly bursting into tears. 1/n

That was supposed to be "sooooooo" but fuck it, it works. 🐺

Awoooooo tired. It's all getting a bit Groundhog Day now. Called out for food so an earlyish night after eating, I think. And maybe up early for some quiet writing. G'night and stay safe, fedifam.