I'm Summer. This is a lighthouse.

This is more than a blog — it’s a lighthouse for anyone feeling lost in a storm of health challenges, or navigating the unknowns of healing and personal growth. My story began with sudden neurological loss, but this space is about what I’ve gained: resilience, insight, and the quiet joy of moving forward.

Hi — I’m İlkyaz, or Summer. I’m not a doctor, a therapist, or an expert. I’m a person who lost her balance, literally, and had to learn a body again. After fifteen years of lithium for bipolar disorder, taken exactly as prescribed, I developed SILENT syndrome: irreversible lithium-effectuated neurotoxicity. Ataxia, tremor, a walk that stopped being automatic. A long road, and still walking.

Early in healing I held onto a Stoic reminder: we should reflect on what it would feel like to lose the ability to speak, to walk, to breathe — or to lose our freedom altogether. Those words didn’t frighten me. They asked me to stay present for the subtle, sacred acts of living.

Orange Healing is my notebook and my offering: the books, exercises, science, and small practices that helped, written down so you don’t have to start from zero. It isn’t about perfection or fixing everything. It’s about progress, meaning in the mess, and the knowledge that you don’t need every answer to begin.

If one sentence here makes you feel less alone, the lighthouse is doing its job. Welcome — I’m glad you’re here.