How I Taught Myself to Read and Write Again
One of the things that I found hardest to deal with when I developed a migraine variant balance disorder was the fact I could no longer read or write. That sounds overly dramatic, I hear you thinking. Can you really lose your ability to read and write? But I’m being serious.
Before this condition I was the very definition of a bookworm. I read voraciously (mostly speculative fiction) for hours at a time, making my way through hundreds of books a year. Creative writing has been a vital outlet for me since I was a teenager; as well as countless poems and short stories, I’ve written four novels in my spare time over the years. Consuming and creating stories has contributed significantly towards my sense of self: it’s what makes me me.
Having migraines never stopped me from reading and writing before last year. Long stints on computer screens would make me ill, but that was easy to avoid with a paperback, a Kindle or a notepad and paper. The catastrophic migraine and resultant vestibular damage I sustained in February 2023 changed this. It wasn’t just using a screen that made me ill — it was using my brain.
What reading and writing feels like
When I look at the page of a book, the text can feel overwhelming and strobe in front of my eyes. Have you ever adjusted the font…
