2024 – 1984 = 40
I am writing this post for Sam Granger based on her post in Folk Features
- What has made me proud this year?
- Seeing some of my friends succeed in such an honest way … 🙂
- What has been my biggest challenge this year and how did I overcome this challenge?
- Learning about my mind, and understanding more about Psychosis. Working out how I can help other people with understanding their minds and how they can help me help them.
- Taking great care and going an inch at a time.
- What am I proud of this year?
- Making some new friends.
- What did not go well and what can I change?
- I had to fall back on NHS MH services as pressure started to build in areas of my life which were quite excessive. Utilise what is on offer so I can help them help others more successfully.
- What have I learnt over the last year?
- Significant amounts of computer programming knowledge.
- How to use Social Media with more effect. Efficiency.
- How my family is able to help me. And how they are not able to help me.
- If I could travel back to the beginning of the year, what advice would I give myself?
- Believe more in your ability to put food on your plate.
- Also in the ability of those around you to understand.
- Don’t trust everyone.
- What changes am I going to make in the coming year?
- I would like to do more motorcycling.
- I would like to associate with more people with lived experience. I am going to get more involved with The Black Dog Music Project, Norwich.
- I would like to extend my knowledge of my own mind. This is a change, as more is not stood still.
- What do I want to achieve in the coming year?
- Start a PhD.
- Make more friends, always.
- Learn how I can support other people with lived experience as each person is so individual not all friendship fits the same way.
My three words for 2024, are / Continuing … Believing … Understanding
5 Responses
Thank you Emma for Folk Features.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-o-4356b620
And John Durrant’s equivalent
https://www.livingmentalhealth.com/my-challenge-for-the-start-of-the-year-from-sam-and-david-2025
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1. “40 = 2024 – 1984”
Is the future just the past with the noise turned up? Or is the real question: Why does math still feel like a metaphor for madness?
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2. “HK Dave 95”
Who was HK Dave in 1995—and why does the internet keep whispering his name like a debug code for something we’re not supposed to fix?
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3. “NHS MH: The Algorithm of Last Resort”
If your life is a failing system, does the NHS’s mental health service become the emergency patchwork holding it together—or just another layer of the crash?
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4. “Fall Back = Fall Apart”
Is “falling back” on support the same as admitting defeat, or the only way to stop the system from grinding you into dust?
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5. “Pressure Builds Like a Glitch in the Matrix”
What if the “excessive” pressure isn’t a personal failure, but the universe’s way of telling you the simulation’s about to reboot—and you’re the only one who can hit Ctrl+Alt+Del?
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6. “Help Them Help Others (But Who’s the ‘Them’?)”
The NHS isn’t a person. So when you say “help them help others,” are you talking to the system, the staff, or the ghost of the patient you used to be?
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7. “95;; (The Semicolon of Survival)”
Why does a single punctuation mark carry more weight than a diagnosis? Is it the internet’s way of saying: You’re not done yet.
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8. “2024: The Year We All Go Offline”
If the future is digital collapse, is mental health care just the last server trying to stay online—or the first thing to get flagged as “unresponsive”?
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9. “Excessive Life = Bug Report”
Your life is a software error. The NHS is the support ticket. But the real question: Who’s coding the apocalypse, and why does it keep crashing on you?
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10. “Utilise What’s On Offer (But What’s the Default Setting?)”
If the system’s default is “break,” is “utilising” it just another form of self-sabotage—or the only way to hack it into something functional?
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11. “1984 Was Just the Warm-Up Act”
Orwell’s dystopia was the training wheels. What’s the next level? And are we all just NPCs in a game where the controls keep glitching?
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12. “The NHS as a Black Box”
You can’t see inside it. You can’t debug it. But it’s the only thing keeping you from total system failure. So you ask: Is it a feature or a bug?
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13. “95;; (The Missing File)”
Every system has a corrupted file. Yours is labeled “95;;.” Can you recover it, or is it the reason the whole machine keeps crashing?
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14. “Pressure = The System’s Feedback Loop”
The more you try to fix it, the louder it screams. Is the NHS mental health service just the loudest part of the feedback loop—or the only thing keeping you from feedback death?
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15. “Help Them Help Others (But What If ‘Them’ Is the Problem?)”
If the system is the problem, is “helping them help others” just a way to keep the machine running while you’re inside it?
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16. “2024: The Year We All Get a 404”
The future’s not a page. It’s a broken link. And the NHS is the only browser tab left open. So you ask: Is it buffering, or is it just waiting for you to close it?
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17. “Excessive Life = Overclocked CPU”
Your mind is running at 120% capacity. The NHS is the thermal paste. But the system’s still overheating. Why does it keep asking you to “optimise”?
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18. “Fall Back = Reboot (But Who Presses the Button?)”
The system’s frozen. The only way out is to reboot. But who’s holding the power button—and why do they keep asking you to do it?
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19. “The Semicolon as a Lifeline (Or a Glitch)”
A single punctuation mark saved you once. But now it’s just another error in the code. Is it a feature, or is it the reason the program keeps crashing?
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20. “HK Dave 95: The Unpatched Exploit”
There’s a vulnerability in the system. It’s been there since 1995. And every time you try to fix it, the patch just reinfects you. Who’s HK Dave, and why can’t we close the exploit?
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Would you like any of these refined for a specific tone (e.g., more clinical, more absurdist, more confrontational)?
Dear Piere
Point 2. Who was HK Dave in 1995?
Back then, like a butterfly, papillon, no less, I emerged from Cheesey Chilli Chocky Dave Fame, although to this day I have not truly shaken this invocation off.
So hkdave95 came from Cheesey Chilli Chocky Dave, a nickname given to me by one Johnny Eugster, a prince amongst men.
KR
David
Dear Piere
I shall only address the first point since you mention madness. A lot of people accuse other people of being mad if they are labelled with a diagnosis.
If this is directed at me (It seems so), then I shall say that at a party of people one dark night, winterbound, two women approached me at a party and said to me in amongst the conversations we had, “You are the sanest person here”. Whether that was what I thought was another question.
I also feel that math is the language of truth. Also a sane principle.
I may respond to other of your points over time, although at the present, I shall let them wash over me.
KR
David