Table of Contents
2022 was a complex year for me. On the one hand, I grew significantly as a person as I tried new things and learned much more about myself, but on the other hand, I struggled with illness, loss, anxiety and depression. This combination resulted in this blog taking a backseat.
New Adventures
Following an idea from a family member, I opened an online store selling local goods. Success has been slow, but I am getting sales from the endeavour, and have learned a lot about the process.
Mostly, running the business as ethical as possible has been very educational. From the creation of the website to how sales are packed and shipped, everything has been eye opening and tested me in a good way.
It took a significant amount of time to set up the whole thing, and takes a couple of hours every other day to maintain. Although this isn’t a significant amount of time, it nonetheless has drawn my attention here rather than writing.
Low Times
The other substantial aspect of my life last year was my ongoing issues with my mental health, which while I believe I am in a better place now as I write this than I was last year, still drained my energy, preventing me from dedicating time to writing.
In particular, Autumn onwards was basically a write-off, with a sudden and unexpected death sending me into a spiral of depression before then being hit with a long illness I have only just recovered from. As such, it wasn’t until January 2023 did I begin to spend my whole day awake and have the energy to do things other than the most important.
Rediscovering Myself
On top of all of this, I discovered I am autistic. This has been a complicated experience, but one which has ultimately made a great impact in my life for the better. So much of my behaviour, attitudes and feelings are now better understood as they can be explained. I am a lot less depressed about who I am since finding this out, as I feel less broken and dysfunctional, but I still struggle with anxiety, which has a paralysing affect on me.
Nonetheless, I have been reevaluating my life through my new autistic lens and am in the process of making a number of changes to help improve my life, now I know so much more about myself.
Future
One thing that has stayed true is that I do enjoy writing. I started using Twitter in Autumn of 2022, and switched to Mastodon in November 2022 just as I became really ill, and found writing this way therapeutic, helped me socially, and enjoyable. It made me want to get back to writing in this blog as soon as I was healthy enough.
Tags: Mental Health Personal