If I woke up tomorrow without Cerebral Palsy, I wouldn’t be able to write in the way I do now and therefore wouldn't have my website. Because of my specific neurological differences, where some of my senses have over-compensated, I can now write.

When the senses are impaired, the brain does more with the information it gets from the remaining senses. The brain relies more on information from our working senses. The brain doesn’t simply compensate, but it works to better process information.

For example, when we lose our sight, the brain relies more on the information from the other senses to help us get around. Some of it will be used to help navigate through sound and touch, but other processing powers can help us smell and taste better.

That’s doesn’t replace our ability to see, but it does make our other senses process information better and that makes our other senses work stronger. It has taken me 8 years to piece together my own symptoms.

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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