I had been thinking of making a drawing for Louis Wain’s birthday, which is the fifth of August. Louis Wain was an artist and illustrator who lived from 1860 to 1939 who had some kind of brain condition that meant he moved further away from reality, while still maintaining the ability to create pictures. He drew cats! He must have loved them, because they were I think mainly what he drew. If you look him up there are lots of different images of cats to look at. A strange quirk of fate is that some scientists have lately even put his illness down to a toxic substance that comes from cat ‘excrement’.
Louis inspires me because he made great art works that are wonderful to look at while being mentally/neurally ‘atypical’. He spent a long time in hospital, many years, but continued with his drawing.
“Atypical”. It’s hard to talk about “illness” all the time. I recently realised schizophrenia comes from an underlying brain disorder, so really the way I am is the product of having an interesting brain, scientifically speaking. I still think I am a kind of hybrid of psychic and psychotic. Why not? And if you disagree, well, I’m happy seeming a bit eccentric to you. I recognise that I do get really ill sometimes, but otherwise believe I am spiritually oppressed.
For me it wasn’t feline food waste that made me sick, but cannabis. It changed my brain, mutated it! I have read statistics like this: don’t use cannabis while the brain is still developing, to be safe, which is under the age of 33. If you use cannabis more than about fifty times, you are in danger of developing schizophrenia. If you use cannabis you are six times more likely to get sick with schizophrenia, which tends to develop in about 1% of humans ordinarily. I worry about legalisation, for all the young who will get sick and struggle to come back and suffer, like I have and will. I didn’t know what I was getting into with the drug that cannabis has, and this health problem is very serious. And did you know about neuroplasticity too? Which means that the brain constantly strives to be healthy. And did you know that some people, a significantly large percentage who experience an episode of schizophrenia make a full recovery? It can’t be all bad. I hope to get a lot better and a lot better integrated socially, but I don’t know about being totally trouble free again, for myself. I wish for longevity, to complete this journey. But you don’t know! There’s a lot I would like to do, and I think it would be good to be an old man one day, although there are never any guarantees.
I have hope for psychology and psychiatry, they are making strides in scientific research into schizophrenia, but I still worry about pharmaceutical intervention, which often comes at a cost to our greater health. I don’t know how views of spiritism and those of reductionist science will ever come into balance and support each other; I hope they will, but I don’t yet imagine how they can.
So some science facts back there on cannabis and schizophrenia and the brain, but don’t just take my word for it, if you are curious, go and investigate for yourself, ask questions and look facts up online.
And back to Louis - please check out my new drawings page for an interesting sketch I just made of him including a copy of one of his ginger cats. I was so pleased I put it straight up, although I would like to have another go and put up another one for you all soon.
Have a nice day, and happy surfing of the web today.
Louis inspires me because he made great art works that are wonderful to look at while being mentally/neurally ‘atypical’. He spent a long time in hospital, many years, but continued with his drawing.
“Atypical”. It’s hard to talk about “illness” all the time. I recently realised schizophrenia comes from an underlying brain disorder, so really the way I am is the product of having an interesting brain, scientifically speaking. I still think I am a kind of hybrid of psychic and psychotic. Why not? And if you disagree, well, I’m happy seeming a bit eccentric to you. I recognise that I do get really ill sometimes, but otherwise believe I am spiritually oppressed.
For me it wasn’t feline food waste that made me sick, but cannabis. It changed my brain, mutated it! I have read statistics like this: don’t use cannabis while the brain is still developing, to be safe, which is under the age of 33. If you use cannabis more than about fifty times, you are in danger of developing schizophrenia. If you use cannabis you are six times more likely to get sick with schizophrenia, which tends to develop in about 1% of humans ordinarily. I worry about legalisation, for all the young who will get sick and struggle to come back and suffer, like I have and will. I didn’t know what I was getting into with the drug that cannabis has, and this health problem is very serious. And did you know about neuroplasticity too? Which means that the brain constantly strives to be healthy. And did you know that some people, a significantly large percentage who experience an episode of schizophrenia make a full recovery? It can’t be all bad. I hope to get a lot better and a lot better integrated socially, but I don’t know about being totally trouble free again, for myself. I wish for longevity, to complete this journey. But you don’t know! There’s a lot I would like to do, and I think it would be good to be an old man one day, although there are never any guarantees.
I have hope for psychology and psychiatry, they are making strides in scientific research into schizophrenia, but I still worry about pharmaceutical intervention, which often comes at a cost to our greater health. I don’t know how views of spiritism and those of reductionist science will ever come into balance and support each other; I hope they will, but I don’t yet imagine how they can.
So some science facts back there on cannabis and schizophrenia and the brain, but don’t just take my word for it, if you are curious, go and investigate for yourself, ask questions and look facts up online.
And back to Louis - please check out my new drawings page for an interesting sketch I just made of him including a copy of one of his ginger cats. I was so pleased I put it straight up, although I would like to have another go and put up another one for you all soon.
Have a nice day, and happy surfing of the web today.
