Allergic to Sanity, by Carter Hemion

Poetry, chapbook, 28 pages, from Bottlecap Features. Under the pressure of perfection, Allergic to Sanity is a confession of unkempt and uncertain cognition. It cracks open a window into neuropsychiatric symptoms that straddle the borderline between physical and mental illness. When undiagnosed and unmitigated immune dysfunction progresses from body to mind, it carries catastrophe on its back. Allergic to Sanity explores themes of hallucinations, delusions, impulsivity, depression, dissociation, anxiety, and acceptance. It shares the innermost fears and outermost hallucinations of a shapeshifting illness and the unbreaking resilience to move through it. From a period of misdiagnosis and desperation, it turns struggles into stanzas to document the everyday calamity of an unpredictable bodymind. When mast cell activation causes madness, Allergic to Sanity pulls skeletons out of the closet to examine the dislocations of reality. Carter Hemion is a Pacific Northwest-based writer and rare disease advocate. They document life through poetry with much of their work shaped by their experiences with classical Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and its many comorbidities. They work as a Community Engagement Director and embrace being a queer, mad creator with a drive to use storytelling for a gentler world.