The ICI Experience:

Traditional Guatemalan Worry Dolls A healing doll is an alternative form of journal writing that helps to externalize your feelings. It is a doll that can hold your feelings so that you no longer have to, and it can be an active and supportive process for healing that can be used alone or in conjunction with a diary. Here are some examples of Healing Dolls by Barb Kobe : This one totally reminds me of when I'm having an IBS episode. When I was first figuring out what was going on with that, my counselor asked me to draw what I was feeling. I couldn't get it on paper and finally got some clay to depict the "wounded feeling in gut (WFIG)" that I had come to know the feelings as. "Digesting My Life" healing doll by Barb Kobe This cutie is a Guardian doll by Marla, from Barb Kobe's Medicine Doll Class . Very symbolic. Read about her if you are interested. Dawning of a New Day, Steve's Healing Doll Steve is Barb's brother, and she had his permis...

Part I. Part II. Part III. The Benefits of Blogging About Your Illness Art has healing power. When I say art I mean all the arts: music, dance, sculpture, storytelling, journaling, painting, whatever we usually think of as the creative arena. Writing is art, therefore writing has healing power. I also find I’m making art on my blog in the sense that I use a lot of pictures on my blog posts. I use Flickr to find most of the pictures I use, but there is also PhotoBuket and probably many other sites where people post their pictures and if they allow you to use them, you can easily add them to your blog. It's also incredibly easy to add video and audio to your blog, for an all around super creative (and healing) result! Mike Samuels, M.D. is one of the leading pioneers in exploring creativity as an important part of every person’s healing journey. He says: "Physicians and nurses are discovering that art can have profound healing effects on their patients. Art b...

Part I. The Mechanics of Blogging About Your Illness Part II. Why Do People Write About Illness? As I mentioned in the first part of this presentation, writing about our illness is an age-old tradition. The cave people did it. It is simply being recast because of the internet. Here are some reasons people today say they blog about their illnesses: to clear my head - your mind gets cloudy when you get diagnosed, so you don't want to forget all the things you're hearing - and so you start to write them down; it gets hard to tell your story over and over again--it's easier to say to people 'Log on, and see where I'm at'; to create an info-portal for other people with a similar diagnosis; and to share stories about medical treatments with fellow sufferers. Some of us are comfortable with the thought of perfect strangers reading about our darkest fears, but we find ourselves unable to speak frankly with those closest to us. Yet on a blog, and through the proc...

As promised, here is the presentation I gave at the NICIAW Conference. It's in three parts. Thank you, Lisa. Hi Everyone. Thank you for coming to my presentation at National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week, “Blogging About Your Illness”. I’ll stop for questions and answers after each section. If we run out of time, I’ll have some topics to suggest for next year’s conference! And if you have any questions that don’t get answered, feel free to email them to me at sherril@theiciexperience.org. I'll start by giving you a little background about myself. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia (FM) and Endometriosis (Endo) in 1989. I was diagnosed with cervical osteoarthritis this year. I was able to manage the illnesses and keep working full time until 2001 when I had to have surgery for the Endo, and complications from the surgery due to FM and "referred pain" that wouldn't go away have so far kept me from being able to return to work full time and per...