The enormity of how I got to this place is clear from 8 years of writing blogs, particularly around a non-diagnosis, neurological symptoms and anxiety I didn’t know I had. They all point to what I know now.

My experiences have become a learning curve, no question there. But the flip side is that although I never made any of the connections as a child, I have the ability to write and work things out through my writing. My writing has become immeasurable for me to understand my life up to this point, finally.

ASD is the last piece to the jigsaw and that now has been confirmed. Without my website, I could never have understood my disability or my life, around what I had to deal with. My website has given me the opportunity to raise awareness, self-esteem and confidence.

Mum telling me 'it was a difficult birth' has paved the way for me to find out about me, about my disability. Mum is very much instrumental in my website, for the start of my cerebral palsy journey and more. Thanks mum.

Now to the rest of my writing... there will be more.

Ilana Estelle is a mental health and wellbeing advocate who combines educational insight with her personal experience of living with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities. She holds diplomas in Counselling, Diet and Nutrition, Nutritional Therapy, Psychotherapy and Counselling, and Stress Management. Through her writing, Ilana supports others in navigating their emotional, mental, and physical health challenges. In addition to writing for The CP Diary, her work has appeared in healthy lifestyle magazines. Ilana is also the author of three books: Cerebral Palsy: A Story – Finding the Calm After the Storm, Spirituality, Healing and Me, and Survival: The Covid Years – Time for Change.

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2 comments on “A Confirmed Diagnosis”

  1. I like your last sentence, this says it all and sums up your positivity well.

    Few would have weathered the storm that has been your last 8 years let alone dedicated themselves to helping others.

    You are our lighthouse in dark times.

    1. That's kind of you to say. The way I see it I could have done nothing and continue to moan about my life and how things turned out, or I could change things for myself.

      I believe that this was always going to be my life. I think I was always also going to run and manage my own website and write.

      Everything else has to be part of my journey also. I went through some very dark times throughout my life, but those times have made me more determined.

      I am also my own lighthouse having come through some very dark times and still going.

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