Last year Louise Page experienced an acute psychotic episode. She shares her experience of using art to aid healing.
It’s Halloween 2021. There is enough of a gap in the pandemic for there to be people out in costume when we arrive at the cheap hotel. I barely notice. My thoughts have no order. I’m permanently stuck in the middle of them – they have no beginning or end. I’m shaking pretty violently. I briefly note the receptionist taking that in. Looking mildly ‘concerned’. A faux facial expression I have got used to meeting over the years. My mum/carer extraordinaire books us in. This was her idea. One of her many good ideas that have got us out of sticky situations. This situation is very sticky. I’m deeply psychotic and I can’t get any help from services.
They are the ones that caused this. Caused ‘The Situation’.
So instead my mum has made plans to recreate some of the conditions of a psychiatric hospital, by booking us a double room in a hotel only a few miles away from our house. That way she can keep a careful eye on me, whilst I hopefully get some distance from ‘The Situation’. Metaphorical distance – ‘The Situation’ follows me wherever I go, but a change of scene does often help my brain.
Once we get inside the room, I begin to draw. I draw compulsively for 48 hours. It is the first time I have made abstract artwork in years...Keep reading on Disability Arts Online.
It’s Halloween 2021. There is enough of a gap in the pandemic for there to be people out in costume when we arrive at the cheap hotel. I barely notice. My thoughts have no order. I’m permanently stuck in the middle of them – they have no beginning or end. I’m shaking pretty violently. I briefly note the receptionist taking that in. Looking mildly ‘concerned’. A faux facial expression I have got used to meeting over the years. My mum/carer extraordinaire books us in. This was her idea. One of her many good ideas that have got us out of sticky situations. This situation is very sticky. I’m deeply psychotic and I can’t get any help from services.
They are the ones that caused this. Caused ‘The Situation’.
So instead my mum has made plans to recreate some of the conditions of a psychiatric hospital, by booking us a double room in a hotel only a few miles away from our house. That way she can keep a careful eye on me, whilst I hopefully get some distance from ‘The Situation’. Metaphorical distance – ‘The Situation’ follows me wherever I go, but a change of scene does often help my brain.
Once we get inside the room, I begin to draw. I draw compulsively for 48 hours. It is the first time I have made abstract artwork in years...Keep reading on Disability Arts Online.