I've mentioned this to select people a few times now, but I've not yet made a public announcement for everyone to see... I'm taking a big stress break from social media until mid-December. This 4-6 week break will probably be the longest hiatus I've had since I returned to posting art online in 2020.

I've needed a nice, long break like this for some time... my usual 2-3 week breaks don't last long enough to fully relieve my increasing stress and depression before my return, nor is it enough time for me to get back into a healthy sleeping pattern where I'm not staying up late every night sharing art and interacting with hundreds of notifications across multiple platforms... yes, I need some time off to recover both my physical and mental health.

[NOTE: You can skip reading the next paragraph here, it's kind of rambling, but offers a deeper explanation as to why I'm leaving this November if you so desire to hear, but I summarise it in the paragraph after anyway]

I think now is a good time for me to take this much needed break. For one thing, it gives me some time to work on several unfinished art trades and Twitter raffle prize artworks, for me to deliver upon my return just before Christmas. For another thing, I think November is going to be a pretty wild, and potentially toxic, month politically: the US (the country most my viewers live in) is incredibly divided right now (no thanks to a ton of misinfomation and conspracies on both sides), and their election is imminent, so given the amount of political extremsts active on the internet nowadays, I think it's fair to say that there will be a VERY negative reaction to the result of the upcoming election REGARDLESS of who wins, and possibly even a second civil war; tensions in both the Middle East and Ukraine continue to rise, with North Korea now joining the latter conflict, further increasing the risk of WW3 as well. As you probably already know, I'm not a fan of politics (that's not to say I don't have opinions, but I'm pretty moderate and prefer to keep them to myself), yet I can't ignore the consequences it has on our culture, social media experience, and at times, even our safety... I wish everyone would stop fighting and get along, but sadly, humans are argumentative by nature. Whilst I'm probably going to be safe for now in my small suburban town in Britain, I hope all you folks reading keep safe, because, as rough as things are at the moment, they are potentially about to get much worse... I really hope this won't be the last time any of you'll ever hear from me...

Anyway... sorry about all that depressing waffle, but I just hope you understand that I'll still be busy working on a lot of stuff while I'm gone, which I should be able to get through quicker and less stressfully without the distraction of social media, and I thought November in particular would be a good time to leave the internet due to the imminent political toxicity at no doubt an all-time high, and so I can avoid that potential stress as well.

I say leave social media, but... whilst I'm not going to be posting any new artworks or news posts on any of my accounts, nor respond to most public comments (except urgent messages to me), I won't be COMPLETELY gone. No, I do plan on finally spending a couple of days to visit the galleries of many of my fans and friends here on Newgrounds (something I've neglected to do due to lack of time, and the high amount of stress this site causes me, resulting in me not sticking around this site for very long). Also, I still plan on reposting artworks to my Twitter once or twice a week during this period (mostly because I'm paranoid about losing access to my account again due to lack of activity).

I look forward to returning to Newgrounds, and my other accounts, for proper in December at the end of this year. I have many ideas I'd like to share once I've found the time to work on them, including finishing off my upcoming MOLE GAME! I do hope this year's Christmas will be especially merry, and bring everyone together again despite all our differences.

See you all soon (I hope), and good bye for now! (˵ ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°˵) ノシ