A week and a half of migraines…

I’m going on a week and a half of migraines… I’m exhausted. My head is spinning, I can’t think straight, I’m wearing my sunglasses inside and my noise canceling headphones to try to lessen the sensory impact on my sensitive nervous system. One of the worst things–how difficult it is to write. I want to write so bad. I miss it. I love it, and I feel as if this passion is being taken from me along with everything else, unless I can reshape it and rework it to work with my body and mind and my many new limitations, which have become a maze to navigate. As if writing alone wasn’t hard enough, now to try to get these two to work together. I’ll see what I can do.

This is one thing I’ve learned with disability and chronic illness, you have to get creative with how you do everything, even things you were familiar with, you have to invent new ways to do them that work with your body and mind and become your own inventor for all your accommodations.

I’m having to do that now and it’s a challenge. I don’t know how I’ll do that with my writing or where to start but here’s to trying because I’m not quite ready to give this dream up.

A Different Normal

What? No there’s no way you’re autistic!

You say it as if it’s a disease

But you seem normal to me!

Normal?

What’s normal to you is intolerable, painful

your bright lights

your loud noises

and conversations

and parties

make my head spin

my otherwise intelligent brain freezes

makes me panic

shutdown

curl in a ball

cover my head

hit my head

What is normal for you

requires coping strategies for me

quiet space

support for basic adulting

. . .

The complete poem appears in Magical Women Magazine Vol. 1 you can purchase it here and support this amazing group that gives voice to neurodivergent artists. https://www.magicalwomen.co.uk/