#mhapete

[mental-health-advice]

Even though I am the one who banished Pete from his kingdom I will still miss him. ( Bye Pete you are the best) - Sam

Hiya Sam!

Pete still mills about on facebook bothering us with bad jokes so I've been able pass your message on :) He's being realy sappy and is very overwhelmed with all the niceness he is getting so thank you for caring so much and sending this in- he really deserves all the kindness he gets :)

You are getting along fantastically,Amy-Shona~<3

He wanted me to pass this on to you and all the other Pete Supporters :)

I was up early today and I saw the 3 little messenger icons on my phone and I thought “Oh no.  What did I do now???”  It was so nice to see 3 lovely messages passed along to me!  Jeepers!  That is a great way to start any day.

Typing out “Jeepers!” makes me laugh.

It’s so tempting to slip in one last little piece of advice or something, but I think I’ll just extend my most heartfelt thanks to everyone involved with MHA, followers and admins alike.  I joined MHA during a very, very, very difficult time in my life.  I basically thought my life was over and this was some small way to try to be of some use to the world.  It’s bittersweet leaving my admin days behind, because my time at MHA is basically what got me to the place where I am ready to go back out into the world and live my life.  I’m working my way back towards a career in mental health, which I hope you think would be a good fit for me.  

I owe you all so much for making me feel so loved and appreciated, and just for making me feel of some use to the world.  It’s a gift I can never repay.Let’s all just have a big hug, I’ll cry all over the place (bring mops), and then we’ll stand around awkwardly for a bit before we go back to reading MHA.

With love,Pete

[mental-health-advice]

Hello ! I might have misunderstood but I wanted to ask to make sure. Has Pete left the MHA blog ? :/

Hi there, 

Yes, Pete has decided to leave MHA so that he can focus on himself and his family :) He’s greatly missed by both the admins and the followers, but I’m also really happy for him that he’s focusing on himself! 

All the love,

Ellen x

[mental-health-advice]

Dear Pete: This may sound weird, but I just wanted to say thank you. Ever since I've followed MHA, you've been kind of like a brotherly-figure to me even though you don't know who I am! I looked forward to your answers everyday. Good luck in all of your endeavors, it was nice getting to know you buddy.

Hey darling,

I have passed this on to Pete.  I know that this will mean a lot to him.  There have been hundreds of admins on the MHA and Pete was the sort of admin that we all remember.  He is a brotherly/fatherly figure to a lot of us here at the MHA and I know that he means just as much to our followers as he does to us admins.  I just want to say that he is cared about a lot and he cares about all of us too.  Feel free to message us any time.  Best of wishes!!!!!!!!

-Ashlynn

[mental-health-advice]

Oh my god, Pete left? Could you please tell him how much we all love him? His answers always brightened up my day. I'm glad he's taking care of himself, though :). I'll miss you so much Pete ❤️.

Hey darling,

I have shared this message with Pete and he appreciated it a lot and even left this message for you:

"There's no reason to miss me!  I'll be right here with you, following the blog!  And I certainly find many, many ways to bug the MHA admins (’when you love people, bug them all the time with your bad jokes.’  I want to be quoted as the author of that life tip.) as it is!  I have become the world expert at it.  I'll probably find a way to occasionally bug everyone who reads MHA, too, as I love you all so much.  I appreciate every kind message I have ever received at MHA more than anyone knows.  Being a part of this has always been, and will always be, an important part of who I am.  Thank you so much for letting me walk along with you and share part of your lives.  You'll never know how many times it kept me going to have you there, holding me up.  Pete"

I am so sorry that you feel sad that he left, but he does love you a lot. Feel free to message us any time. Best of wishes!!!!!!!

-Ashlynn

[mental-health-advice]

Aww Pete ❤❤ i loved what you wrote to that anon who was self harming again after two months clean.. and your quote at the end.. I live by that quote 😃 i really hope that you are okay because you deserve all good things out there!! Take care 😉❤

Hey there lovely,

Pete has left the blog now so he isn’t able to answer this himself! He is putting all his energy and focus into looking after himself for now :) I will be sure to pass the message on to him and I’m sure it will mean a lot to him.

Take care, Adrienne x

[mental-health-advice]

Hey, Pete! I don't know if you remember me but, I'm Sam. I am the one who overthrew your gravy regime, many, many moons ago. Anyway, I just wanted to say hi, and thank you for brightening my day. Farewell. - Your Supreme Overlady, Sam

Sam,

If you think I will publicly admit that you bested me and overthrew my leadership in my own chatzy, you’ve got another thing coming.  Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be for me to tell everyone that?  I’m taking that secret to the grave, chum.

My chatzy is sadly on indefinite hold as it doesn’t fit in the overall MHA support group framework.  I’d like to eventually bring back some kind of similar social/interactive thing, but we’ll see.

Good luck with your kingdom,

Pete

[mental-health-advice]

what's it called when you're only sexually attracted to someone you love.

Hello friend!

Our page with some helpful definitions (it’s obviously incomplete, but some of the more common terms you’ll hear are covered) is here.  I believe the word you’re looking for is Demisexual:

A person who only experiences sexual attraction if they have a strong emotional bond to a person or only form an attraction after getting to know a person.

“Demi-” means “half,” because this is really nothing like being “halfway to being asexual,” but people are bad at coming up with words.  Or so I imagine.

As with so many topics, peoples individual feelings/beliefs/inclinations/tendencies/whatever about the link between sexual attraction and romantic attraction cover a wide spectrum.  So while a demisexual feels an inseparable link between romantic attraction (you use the word “love,” and I hope its okay if I substitute “romantic attraction” as a more general umbrella term) and sexual attraction, there are also people who see sexual attraction as completely distinct from romantic attraction.  There’s love without sex and there’s sex without love, and we don’t all agree on how desirable/right or wrong/sustainable/realistic/etc those things are.  I think the only thing we can all agree on is that Aerosmith’s song “Love in an Elevator” is pretty great. 

Sexual attraction is often viewed as a more physical thing, as distinct from romantic attraction, which classically is seen as almost completely separate from physical considerations (“Beauty and the Beast” certainly teaches us that romantic attraction transcends the mere physical [even if it subverts its own message by having the beast turn into a handsome dude when Belle falls in love with him, so wtf, Disney?]).  That complete and total separation is probably not the most typical case, if we care to talk about such things.  There are non-physical traits that people find “sexy” - confidence, passion, accents, wealth, and so on - and there may be physical features that become part of our romantic feelings for people - holding someone’s hand is a physical act, but the way it feels with a specific person may elicit more feelings of romantic love.  So theses things can all be entwined in complex and fascinating ways. 

So, yes, there are people who see “love” as a necessary precondition for sexual attraction.  The term (or a term?) for these people is “demisexual” (are there other terms or variants?  Almost certainly).

In closing, I had literally zero idea how dirty the lyrics to “Love in an Elevator” are until I was in my twenties.  I had never stopped to actually consider them.  There’s a lesson there, but, like you, I’m sick of hearing myself talk enough for one post, so I’ll drop it.

I always thought you were cool in an elevator,

Pete

[mental-health-advice]

Pete : it's getting better with every answer, but please don't use 'fraîche' 😂 ( I promise this is the last one about your french )

Why can’t I be fresh?  Like “Pete - The funky fresh MHA admin”?  Why is the French language against me being fresh?

-P.Fresh