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.
Food for thought: "I never write to disappear and escape. The truth is exactly the opposite. Most people strike me as escaping and disappearing in one way or another - into their jobs, their daily routines, their delusions about ...
Something inspirational: “Anyone can learn to fight. Hardly anyone learns to think.” TAMSYN MUIR, Gideon the Ninth Muir's quote reminds us that fighting is not just about physical strength; it can mean arguing, resisting ...
Food for thought: “All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you.” OCTAVIA E. BUTLER, Parable of the Sower This quote reminds us that everything we do has an impact, and every experience changes ...
My parents were always getting angry for one reason or another, which usually served to make things so much worse.
This is why I don't deal well with situations where people are yelling at each other well, since it triggers my PTSD and makes me just want to run away.
I get so angry myself before I have to shut it down, seeing as I acted out a lot when I was younger and became a person who I didn't want to be; so I learned how to dissociate.
It turned out to be a bad thing, since it not only cut me off from my anger but also my emotions, in effect feeling nothing at all.
Now I have to learn how to reconnect with my feelings, both good and bad, so that I can actually enjoy living, instead of just existing.
Thanks Randy. Yes, I get that. I used to retreat into my own little world because it was easier and it helped me disassociate myself from what I had to deal with at home and around my disability.
But even through that I still believe there comes a time when we have to come back in and start dealing with our issues, so that we can find peace and a life that works for us.
Sadly, cutting ourselves off from everything although that may work in the short-term, goes against us in the longer-term, because we will shut off completely. We have to be able to live amongst people and be a part of something. It's not healthy to shut off completely.
I think you're right. It's important you reconnect with your feelings, so that you can deal with 'the bad' and then live with more peace in your life.
Thanks Tim. Yes, I understand, absolutely. Sadly, I have seen how outside anger looks and it doesn't look or sound pretty.
Anyone with anger issues who takes their anger to the extreme and become volatile, has emotional problems and needs help. Perhaps they're not making that connection.
My parents were always getting angry for one reason or another, which usually served to make things so much worse.
This is why I don't deal well with situations where people are yelling at each other well, since it triggers my PTSD and makes me just want to run away.
I get so angry myself before I have to shut it down, seeing as I acted out a lot when I was younger and became a person who I didn't want to be; so I learned how to dissociate.
It turned out to be a bad thing, since it not only cut me off from my anger but also my emotions, in effect feeling nothing at all.
Now I have to learn how to reconnect with my feelings, both good and bad, so that I can actually enjoy living, instead of just existing.
Thanks Randy. Yes, I get that. I used to retreat into my own little world because it was easier and it helped me disassociate myself from what I had to deal with at home and around my disability.
But even through that I still believe there comes a time when we have to come back in and start dealing with our issues, so that we can find peace and a life that works for us.
Sadly, cutting ourselves off from everything although that may work in the short-term, goes against us in the longer-term, because we will shut off completely. We have to be able to live amongst people and be a part of something. It's not healthy to shut off completely.
I think you're right. It's important you reconnect with your feelings, so that you can deal with 'the bad' and then live with more peace in your life.
Outward anger can make you look like you're not in control, it also blinds you.
That's not how I want to present myself to me and the world.
Thanks Tim. Yes, I understand, absolutely. Sadly, I have seen how outside anger looks and it doesn't look or sound pretty.
Anyone with anger issues who takes their anger to the extreme and become volatile, has emotional problems and needs help. Perhaps they're not making that connection.