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. 👍

Ops Director called me and told me to take tomorrow and Monday off, as I'm burning out and my NHS worker wife is off for a few days. 😁❤️ If you insist...

11.30pm. Woop. Tired. Bolognese cooked and @Jo's lunch in the fridge for tomorrow as a result. Her last shift for five days, so I'm looking forward to the weekend with her. I'm lucky. Also: overnight oats on the side for her very early breakfast. I think I rock. 🙏

Finally got around to becoming an ordained minister in the ULC (for reasons related to, but not exclusively, irritating people with titles and Discordianism - after all, we are all popes).

Changing my name to Rev. Andy until I get bored of it. Peace out. ✌️

I want @Jo back home. This was a day off for her. She volunteered to head back to the ward and do a half shift 4-10pm today. And is back on shift tomorrow. I love her. I miss her. She fucking rocks.

Isolation and my 18 year old and 13 year old are bashing out cool shit on their Minecraft server. Really cool to see them working together, having a laugh and enjoying themselves, even with everything going on. I expected eldest to be going stir crazy by now, as he's a party and gig kinda guy. But no. I'm happy. 🙏

My awesome team colleague has ordered me to finish and kick back. So with a quick yes ma'am, here I am Second week WFH done. Now...where did I put my pint glass...

First week WFH with eldest, done. It's a challenge but we're getting into a routine. I do think we need to work on tidying and moving things around in the room we're working in + invest in some QoL improvements. No blood has been spilt yet though, just some choice words exchanged.

Help slow the spread of #COVID19 and identify at risk cases sooner by self-reporting your symptoms daily, even if you feel well 🙏🏼. Download the app https://covid.joinzoe.com/

My bit: this is a legit app, developed by research teams in the UK, sent to me by a friend I've known for 30 years who works in the NHS and has worked with the teams. Data is anonymised, though it DOES need to know where you are to track your symptoms (or lack of) daily.

Think, crowdsourced symptom data. UK only for now.

I'm going to bed. Head is frazzled after today's WFH, worrying about friends and colleagues and tonight's lockdown announcement. I need to get back to some normalcy. Sleep it off. G'night lovely people.

Started noodling with an old personal project today. A kind of IF engine slash toolkit. I don't think I'll mess around with complex SQL databases or auth or anything like that - LiteDB, obfuscated paths to stories, passwords to "secure" them from unknown editors, just keep it simple. Then maybe expand it to make it MU-like.

I've had this gathering dust for a long time. Seems right to open it now and enjoy some of the foundations of my geek youth. #scifi #dvd #starfleet #80s

PS: by explaining this on the Internet, I'm being very eagle-y and cognitive. The irony isn't lost on me. Defence mechanisms are such fun.

So I've been trying to meditate lightly this evening. Favourite incense. Cool, quiet, dark room. Piano music.

I keep crying.

I know what it is. My "eagle" going away and my emotional self bubbling up. Scared. Tired. Not worried though. My therapist would be totally cool with it.

I'm still finding it so difficult to smoothly transition from my observant, cognitive self to my emotional self. It's jarring. Trying times.

#MentalHealth #emotions #self

No Swayze, no wayze. Am I right? (Also: Irene Cara.) #80s

So clear and cold and quiet outside. I love it. There's a beauty in the stillness that I think many of us have forgotten. I hope we manage to keep hold of it once we're past this crisis.