Something I haven’t really shared is the fact that although my life was saved by medication it also initially had a devastating effect on my mental health. I became psychotic and had to spend sometime in a mental health ward. As the high dose of medication was lowered coupled by being on antipsychotics the psychosis went away, but I still had to stay there for sometime. There I rediscovered a childhood joy, colouring. There were sheets to colour and pencils to use. My husband brought in my colouring books, which one of my daughters had given me previously and a tin of pencils, which somehow she knew I would like. My medication for the Autoimmune Hepatitis also meant I only slept for about two hours just towards daylight. Sometimes I would get up, shower and go to the dining area and promise the nurse behind the nurses station that I would be good and just do some colouring. They got used to this and would bring me a cup of tea! I was on the road to recovery…
My long dead father had taught me how to hold a pencil when I was three, from then on it was often in my hand. I painted a ‘mural’ on my my Mother’s clean sheets that were on the line with a scrubbing brush and some mud! She was none too pleased…
When I got home I continued with the colouring books for about two years and then decided why don’t I design a colouring book and get it published?! Although I didn’t go to Art College I have O and A level Art and my main subject at Teacher Training School was Art. And that’s what I’ve done. Its taken me just under a year It’s called Woodland Faeries: an Adventure and Colouring Book for Adults and Children by Clare Collins. You can find it on Amazon.
clarthy 