FA+
Shop
My health is improving! (slowly)
4 years ago
General
[ General information ] ♞ [ Commission info ] ♞ [ Open slots and commission status ] ♞ [ About me ] Dear friends, patrons, and watchers!
As you know I have finally been getting professional help with my depression, and am on medication now.
It's day 35 on SSRI now, and I would like to give you a quick update.
After I got through the initial week of side effects kicking my ass, I started to feel better in many ways. I was only a bit better, but the difference already felt very significant. Since then I improved more and started slowly getting back to painting.
At around week 4, I experienced some relapse. I couldn't decide if the medicine is losing effectiveness, which would mean I need my dose increased, or if it was just a "wave" - depression tends to get better and then worse in waves. My productivity dropped back, but I decided to wait and see. But even at this relapse, I was nowhere nearly as bad as before the medication.
Then these past days I'm feeling better again, and now back to painting once more!
I'm expecting that I'll still have waves of better weeks and worse weeks. I'll meet the psychiatrist again in 2 weeks, and I'll discuss my experiences with her to see if we should try increasing the dose.
But overall, there is progress. It's a bumpy road, but it's progress nevertheless. I'm slowly finishing up some overdue commissions, and I've also concluded that I should give myself time to work on personal art as well, to maintain a healthy balance.
The road to fully healing will take years, probably. And getting back to decent productivity may take months. But I'll get there eventually. And hopefully, from now on you will be able to see new content from me more and more often. :)
So thank you for accompanying me on this journey this far, and stay tuned to see where we end up! :)
As you know I have finally been getting professional help with my depression, and am on medication now.
It's day 35 on SSRI now, and I would like to give you a quick update.
After I got through the initial week of side effects kicking my ass, I started to feel better in many ways. I was only a bit better, but the difference already felt very significant. Since then I improved more and started slowly getting back to painting.
At around week 4, I experienced some relapse. I couldn't decide if the medicine is losing effectiveness, which would mean I need my dose increased, or if it was just a "wave" - depression tends to get better and then worse in waves. My productivity dropped back, but I decided to wait and see. But even at this relapse, I was nowhere nearly as bad as before the medication.
Then these past days I'm feeling better again, and now back to painting once more!
I'm expecting that I'll still have waves of better weeks and worse weeks. I'll meet the psychiatrist again in 2 weeks, and I'll discuss my experiences with her to see if we should try increasing the dose.
But overall, there is progress. It's a bumpy road, but it's progress nevertheless. I'm slowly finishing up some overdue commissions, and I've also concluded that I should give myself time to work on personal art as well, to maintain a healthy balance.
The road to fully healing will take years, probably. And getting back to decent productivity may take months. But I'll get there eventually. And hopefully, from now on you will be able to see new content from me more and more often. :)
So thank you for accompanying me on this journey this far, and stay tuned to see where we end up! :)
Taking time to do things for just your own enjoyment like personal art is a good thing. That way your mind doesn't see things as everything going out and nothing staying with you. It gives the subconscious something to hold on to if you will. I have a number of started stories that are just for me to play with and no one else.
The real difference for me is that with personal art I do what I want to do, I say what I want to say, I don't have to please anyone else or fulfill anyone's expectations. I can make the choices I feel benefit the art the most, and put my own feelings, thoughts, and symbolism into it. And this is when I can do my best work.
And then when it's shared, it's like opening a door and allowing whoever wants to walk through it to do so. It doesn't try to speak to anyone specifically, it just speaks its message to whoever wants to hear it. If even just one person finds something in it, it was worth sharing.
V.