I keep seeing on IG everyone sharing what they made each month of 2022, and it’s so cool! I’ve been debating participating in the trend but I’m hesitating because I didn’t really make anything in the first half of the year.
It got me thinking a lot about why that is. I lived with someone who inadvertently stifled any creativity I had. After she left, I’ve slowly felt myself coming back. I rebranded my site, published a couple patterns, but most importantly I picked up the yarn! I suddenly found myself creating again. Doing that magic, string theory thing my brain used to do when I touched yarn. As if a veil had been lifted.
So I’m writing to see if anyone else has experienced artistic blocks during periods of trauma? I want to make a space here for celebrating the ways our art moves through us in different emotional states.
This has the potential to be heavy so I ask that you please make an effort to offer content warnings and/or spoiler blocks so that people may avoid your comment if they choose.
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Photo for tax, of the first real burst of creativity I had in 2022 
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Yes, I agree. I hardly crocheted a thing for a year with the worst sickness/unremitting headache I ever had in my life. Ibuprofen, Tylenol, Fiorcet, migraine medication, Vicodin, Percocet. NONE of these meds helped, not one iota. No one could figure out the cause for 2 years. I was pretty much bedbound and no one knew why. After awhile of not knowing, the gaslighting started by the doctors, friends, family. Lost my job, my house, all the furniture, and so on,
I remember telling my daughter that if a robber came to my house I was just tell him “Takeit, just leave me alone”. I was too exhausted to bathe, change clothes, brush my teeth, etc.
finally, my old doctor tested me for COVID antibodies, and I was positive. Diagnosed me with Long COVID which in my case was essentially inflammation of the brain.
I didn’t take a turn for the better until I took ivermectin and daily queceritin.
It’s still bad some days, but nothing like it used to be.
I thank God I taught myself crochet years before this otherwise my self esteem would have taken a dive because I don’t tolerate unproductively well.
The last 6 months my creativity has just blossomed as well as my skills.
One has to feel good or well in order to pursue creative endeavors.
That’s my story anyway.
Thanks for bringing up the topic! @DragoncatCrafts
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Thank you for sharing your story! I’m so sorry to read what you’ve been through. I can relate a bit to the medical gaslighting, I’ve been fighting for screenings for years only to be prescribed different meds and told “we all need to push through pain and fatigue sometimes”. Doctors really can make things worse, but I’m so glad you were able to confirm it was post-viral, access treatment, and you’re now seeing improvement!
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