I think one of the biggest obstacles for me in writing is my health. I'm not capable of being on my own for more than a few hours, so once again I am writing this from Arkady's computer. My laptop and all my writing folders are the other side of the city. At the same time being ill gives me something to write about. I am really aware that I have a different perspective on life to many other people.
A lot of people with severe mental health problems find it difficult to express themselves but this is not the case with me. I want to be useful to the mentally ill community by helping them communicate. Perhaps through documenting my experiences the family and friends of people with similar problems may be able to access some understanding. This is why I want to write: to help.
I did a module at uni called Narrative, Identity and Crisis and we studied a very avant garde book called Spasm which was about an epileptic girl and the problems she faced. It had a really chaotic structure to reflect her disjointed life. I'd like to do something similar with my depression. All too often books about depression are written by people who haven't experienced it themselves and like I say you can smell the chocolate, see the chocolate and read the packaging but you'll never know how it tastes until you take a bite. Hmm, nice analogy there, I should save it to my ideas file on my computer so I can use it in a 'poem'. I think my depression book will have impulsive writing and then reflections on the impulsive writing. I want it to be a useful explanation rather than a 'woe is me' whinge about life. Lists will also ply a major part and hopefully pictures. Art therapy is used for a reason. It is a horrible cliche to say that a picture paints a thousand words but it is unfortunately true. I like to take photos of how I feel, maybe I shall try to upload some onto here.
Phew, this blogging stuff is addictive!
No comments:
Post a Comment