Artists Are Prone to Hurting Themselves
Maybe I am generalizing here. Maybe it’s all in my head. But I think this is true. Not because we intend to do damage to ourselves or because we think we deserve some kind of penance. I think mainly it’s because we think about other things we are doing or working on and spend too little time just allowing our bodies to tell us what they need. Every little project can become the focal point of our lives.
So I feel you deserve an explanation for the quietness the last few days. I spent most of Sunday in the emergency room. They couldn’t figure out what it was. Told me something about asymtamatic Chest Pain, which basically means “chest pain that we can’t figure out” then sent me home both times with some relaxant medicine and said I had an anxiety attack.
I’m so much of a laid back person, nobody around me even would have thought anxiety. In fact I didn’t either. As the pains were getting worse hour by hour I did my own research. Due to the fact that I just was not satisfied with their diagnosis. In between headaches and “head rush” type symptoms I found what I had been missing. Water.
I tested this theory by drinking about 10 glasses of water and realized that I felt tons better. Apparently the head rushes are when there is a sudden drop in blood pressure to the brain. Yay huh?
So as I sit here today feeling much better and a lot more hydrated and my brain actually functioning better than it has for some time, I am again reminded of how focused and intense some of us artists can get. We can even forget to take care of ourselves in our pursuit of artistic expression and just day to day life. So drink your water and take some time off this season to be with the ones you love. You need it as much as they do!
Tags: dehydration, art, artist, care, family
2 Comments
So glad you’re feeling better. Water = good.
I think you’re right that we artists tend to hurt ourselves because we’re too distracted by our art. While attending art school, I had to go to the emergency room because I’d managed to slice the tip of my finger off with an x-acto while completing finals project. When I told the doctor how I’d cut myself, his response was, “oh, you must go to that art school.” Since then I’ve felt that doctors should be able to specialize in “art medicine” – cuts from x-actos, inhaling too many toxic fumes without adequate venthilation, accidental ingestion of poisonous pigments, paper cuts, etc., etc.
I think overall it was a combination of not enough sleep, eating poorly and lack of water. I am feeling so much better now.
I used to do airbrush art and you can tell a true airbrush artist by the color of their sneeze. Not that it’s healthy.