Hope Is Greater!

March is TBI Awareness month. HOPE & Recovery are the only subjects of Traumatic Brain Injuries I will be covering. TBIs affect over 10’s of millions individuals each year around the globe.

Instead of talking about the trauma, let’s look at Improvement to Recovery and the maintenance never spoken of! I know this subject intimately, I have had countless TBIs and concussions, and I Recovered.

The “Recovery Process” is through our behavior, changing a perspective one small moment at a time. Baby steps do lead to quantum leaps. Leaps are freedom!

No, I will not recite the trauma, you know this intimately, no point in reading another story!

How did I recover? Primarily on my own! Yes, I did see over the top, too many doctors and therapists, who offered no value, except two, “Brainspotting.” Will cover this therapeutic practice in a subsequent articles. In the meantime, you can look it up, Dr. David Grand from NYC developed the technique in 2003, and still finding deeper results.

The skills I had were and are: Determination – Grit! Having studied Behavioral & Psychological sciences. Being an X-Trauma Recovery therapist and problem solver! Plus, being really pissed off, due to time wasted with less than educated doctors and therapist, and lawyers who offered no hope!

“Anger is a great motivator when used to push forward, facing the impossible!”

TBIs feel impossible, they are! A person becomes trapped in their own brain’s dysfunction. The most important organ of our body that keeps us alive. When our brain is injured, we experience a profound conscious coma, an imprisonment of our own brain.

Worse are the HUMANS outside our experience, who cannot see there is a profound injury affecting our behavior. which by all accounts is strange!

Suicidal Intentions: Understanding I could not leave my Arabian Horse or my Service dog, Sädé!! They saved my life over and over again for more than a dozen years. I Highly recommend having someone you love more than yourself to keep you alive! For me it was my Arabian horse.

There is hope & improvement – I know both INTIMATELY!

First, get lots of sleep, REM sleep. Fall in love with SLEEP! As you feel more rested, start recognizing what your brain is telling you, the hundreds of odd sensations, especially the fatigue syndromes. We have these “Magnificent brains, even when damaged, telling us through sensations what to do, Learn to Listen!“

Some symptoms: Brain Pain (not a headache) this is from the internal, vestibular area) – Your eyes are popping out of your head – Your brain feels like a dingy being tossed around in a stormy sea – Attempting to think through scrambled eggs – About ready to scream or you are screaming; at what (??) someone who has no clue to your agony. – Crying jags – Panic disorder – Suicidal Intentions – High Anxiety (not the movie) – Feeling trapped in a Brain maze – Lost in a conversation not knowing where the subject went what direction – Or getting lost going home! I did say a few symptoms……

Any of the above and more, you need more sleep! Deep sleep, allowing good lengths of REM to help flush the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Beta amyloid concentrations continue to increase while a person is awake the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain increases dramatically. Rest, rids the harmful waste proteins [like a dishwasher,] that build up between brain cells during waking hours.

Lose your car in the parking lot and begin to cry – because your car is directly to the left with your dog smiling directly at you!

It may be Weird but it’s your Weird, and everyone is Weird.

Lost in a dark world? You are not alone. Did you know most “”normal people feel lost who do not have brain injuries!””

Take a breath, you are normal with a Brain Injury.

Let that experience be your guide in telling you what you need. Sometimes it is a good cry, or walk with your dog. Moving each step forward. A walk, an errand, a phone call, a therapist’s office, some fresh air, noticing pain in the body or head – relax and walk into the pain.

On disability making life impossible! “Corporate Welfare makes the Rich Richer. Welfare for the poor, serves to only cripple them.” If perchance you receive the amazing 2% raise at the beginning of the year on SSI, the government will take that 2% out of your EBT food money. Use this only as a tiny resource. The spark in YOU has more skills than our government!

Close you eyes for a moment, there is a spark deep inside that wants to live and free yourself from your injured brain, you want to heal. It is you, before and after your own injury. Go ahead and cry – you need the release.

Rest First! Maybe you are tired, time to take a break. LISTEN to the 100’s of indicators from your brain, these words will still be here when you are not fatigued.

I had over a dozen TBI’s and recovered!

You’re Back? When I return to my writing on my laptop, I take a deep breath first; as I glance down Sädé is still by my side.

Now, on my own maintenance program and to back to work, solving problems and speaking of how to resolve human problems.

And, those myths about “Personality Change, I did say Myth!” I’m still a Sassy Redhead! I cried 10,000 tears when my service dog Sade and my Arabian horse died. Yet, they live within me and never forgotten.

There is more than Hope, TBI improvement and recovery is a fact. There are many who silently walk on, back to work, back to their lives, a bit different, more knowledgeable – more confidence – knowing they booted the impossible!

it is a great feeling – when you know you conquered the impossible!

Don’t give up on yourself – a dog can be your best friend from the pound or humane society.

Be kind, a dog does not even care if you smell, have a sour day, be Kind to your dog, they are loyal for life.

Some agencies have TBI funding assistance programs; ask. There are people online who will help fund an adoption and possibly food costs. It’s hard to ask sometimes, but when injured with TBIs and PTSD sets in, a dog is your best friend. My Sädé was and still is by my side for 13+ years!