A brief personal update

For some time now I had been planning to write a long self explanatory post detailing some of the personal troubles I’ve been struggling with recently. I reached a very low point last year and the story of this year has mostly been about coming to terms with where I am and taking steps to recover. Yet if the truth is told I feel I haven’t really been my proper true self for several years before that. Feeling the need to share, I was going to write about the ins and outs of all that, the ups and downs, the reasons why I had withdrawn from friends and family, stopped previously regular activities, and so on. Part self analysis, part plea for understanding, and part apology.

However, having begun writing it yesterday, I didn’t get very far before realising that I was beginning to bore myself. So if I was finding it tedious goodness knows what you the reader — if this site still has such a thing — would have made of it.

So here is the shortened version. Significant money worries, a period of depression, and a general disillusion with politics, the state of the world, and my place within it has led to something of a personal crisis. The support of my family, some limited professional help, and some new elements of self awareness and understanding of my personality has meant I have gone a long way in recovering from that. I am not yet 100% myself but I am in a far better place than I was this time twelve months ago.

Part cause and part symptom of the above crisis was a lot of self imposed isolation. I suppose the natural reaction of someone who is at root an introvert. Something which, as a part of sorting myself out, I am now making a conscious effort to do something about.

First, this involves re engaging with the online world. So I am going to try and revive this site by writing and blogging more. To encourage myself to do this I am going to attempt a slightly different approach. I do want to start writing more considered long form blog posts again — my ‘Strange Thoughts‘ (RSS feed here). But I also want to do more less demanding ‘micro-blogging’ — sharing status updates, interesting links, inspirational or amusing quotes, cool videos and so on. I’ve been adapting this website to better accommodate this and this sort of content naturally enough will be found in ‘All Content‘ (RSS feed here).

However, I am aware that online stuff is not a substitute for actually talking to people. I need to actively revive neglected connections with friends, colleagues and other contacts. So if you have ever found yourself wondering “whatever happened to Andy?”, or have thoughts and comments on the topics that I am likely to be banging on about on this site, please do get in touch.

Finally, as if this post wasn’t self centred enough, I’d like to point out that hiring me to help you with your website and other digital media would also be very much appreciated.

Right, enough of this…