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.
