This is Neurological, Not Personal

Staying true to myself – this is a difficult blog to write.

Watching the film Some Like It Hot.
Where Tony Curtis says he can't feel anything.
For him it’s an act.
For me, it’s real.

Cerebral palsy is usually seen in the body.
What people don’t see is how it can affect feelings.

Emotional processing sits where the injury sits.
For me that means feelings are muted, absent.

I can look distant, vacant.
That distance isn’t a choice.
It’s my brain.

There’s the inner experience.
There’s the outer read.
They don’t always match.

Understanding the neurology helps.
It removes blame – helps others to understand – and to put my disability into context.

Cerebral palsy is the injury – autism is the clinical language that describes how my emotional processing is affected.

Support can improve function – it doesn’t alter the underlying neurology.

Writing and Therapy help me to manage how I function.
It doesn’t fix difference – it frames it.

I’m not pretending to be detached.
I’m living how my brain works.

It isn’t always easy.
But it’s honest – running The CP Diary blog

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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