I’ve been back at my desk for one month and one week since having my uterus removed (full recovery ends in January, but I was given the a-okay to return to my desk in September). I came back strong! Maybe a little too strong… I had all sorts of things planned for October’s Emotional Wellness month, including a special post for World Mental Health Day on October 10th, but I was a bit too “on” — autistic masking in full force! — a bit too soon and I wore myself out.

I slept a bunch, tried to come back on my other site (HorrorFam.com), accidentally tuckered myself out even more because although I “learned” the lesson my mind/body was trying to teach I assumed I could boss it into behaving on my timetable (big ol’ nope on that one — though I did end up with real stress-induced tears in my eyes for a horror-themed video I made so that was…good…I guess?), and then I got increasingly more agitated until I finally stopped ALL activity and REALLY rested for a while.

Now I’m back again! And I made a new art piece!

However, I also want to fulfill my promise to my readers (and myself) that I would tackle some deeper topics related to mental health and emotional wellbeing. So, rather than the usual Art post format, I’m going to make this post very long and tackle both the artwork itself AND the topic that inspired it: autistic masking and burnout.

I’m going to put a Table of Contents here so you can jump to the sections that interest you (or you can read the whole thing if you skim the ToC and decide it all interests you!):