This is the herstory of a young dancer whose ballet training was disrupted by
schizophrenia, and her journey back to the arts through recovery.
The visual memoir A Taste for Air and Water, by Tabitha Ines is an autobiographical
account set in New York following the life of a female coming of age with
schizophrenia during the Millennium. The main conflict that Tabitha endures
is how to not only navigate love with a mental health condition but also how to
embark on womanhood without the internal stigma of psychosis defining what
females should look like based on stereotypes, misrepresentation and sexism.
Family and friends, romantic partners and companions, animal connections
and ultimately community and peer support are pivotal influences in shaping
the narrator's childhood, adolescence and adulthood into psychosis recovery
from comorbidities such as depression, disordered eating and substance misuse
in educational and work environments. Major themes in the book include art
in death and rebirth, gender identity and feminism, and history and humor
while experiencing academia and employment with mental health symptoms.
The serious nature of living a life from traumatic events oftentimes is
overshadowed by the humorous sides of living with neurodivergence in the
world. Inclusion and acceptance is better achieved with the help of mental
health resources and addiction services, community and peer support, work and
school balance, and healthy creative works and spiritual spaces such as through
writing, photography and dancing, so our dreams as people living with mental
health conditions can be realized.
