Enjoying art was my way of battling bipolar. I was unwell, as I later found out it was because my doctors prescribed me with medications that were being pushed by agents from big pharma. And to me, it was better than enduring the symptoms of my illness. It was crippling, I couldn’t continue my studies nor work, but I could write from time to time and enjoy all forms of art and creativity when doing better. Only, I could never commit to something since I never knew how long “better” is going to last.
It lasted for a decade.
When it somehow normalised, I finished my studies, travelled to some dream places, wrote reports on Sunshine Laws in pharma, read some things I didn’t have a focus to read before, did some work, left people behind, made better relationships….
And I am diagnosed again with multiple sclerosis. Since journaling did me well, I decided to make it a blog.
Writing in Croatian about times gone by that are vivid in my experience and my imagination, memories of the people I know and people I knew. Oral history since I’ve recorded many conversations with the touch of fiction to faction.
In English, my struggle with illness and coping by using art, connecting dots around the giant corpus of works in different media, connections that are helping in sense-making. I love sharing those, they are so therapeutic, and each one could be written in myriad variations.
Maybe someone will bring something of their own along these lines. Writing, rewriting, retelling.
Ivana's Blog 