Tag: #braininjury

Routines: Anxiety and Breaking them

Routines allow a busy life to feel more manageable. Sometimes, the unexpected happens when you have to learn how to cope with routines being messed with.

Routines are a considerable part of my life. I have my morning routine and my after work routine. When something happens to break them, it causes anxiety.


When I have quirks like this, it is difficult to differentiate if this is due to my environment or my brain injury. Either way, it causes me anxiety.

Coping


The ability to cope with broken routines are crucial. Life can be unpredictable, and this means that routines are going to be broken.


Routines allow me to get done what I need to get done. I am relatively busy in life. I am trying to balance a full-time job and getting my masters degree.


My routine doesn’t have an exact timeline, but I know that when I get home, I shower and then eat dinner. After that, I do school work, and if I have, I will read a chapter of my pleasure book.


On the days where I go to the gym, it is the same routine just pushed back a bit. I try hard not to freak out when something happens, and I can’t do as much school work as I wanted, or I go to bed a little later than planned.


I try hard to remind myself that it is one night. It won’t kill me or make me fail. I focus on relaxing and figuring out what I need to do for sure that night and what can slide for a day.

Routines that break


The ability to relax when a routine is broken is a critical part because if you just let anxiety get the best of you, life will be very miserable.


I am not perfect. I am still working on not getting all worked up when something unexpected takes priority. Taking steps toward being okay with broken routines are essential to living an overall happy life.


I have found that one thing that works for me is telling the people around me that if I can have notice as soon as possible, I am then able to plan. This allows me to readjust what I want to get done.


Routines are great, but life is full of unexpected events. Allowing them to come and go with ease is the key to a less stressful life.

If you want more information about my brain injury, please click here.

Time Management in School

School is the first real experience of having a deadline to get stuff done. It is important for people with brain injuries to learn the best way for them to manage their time.

We have all heard the words time management. We know what it means. It means being able to be productive promptly.

This is an important concept when there is a lot on the to-do list and deadlines to meet. The first time we learn about time management is during school.

I don’t remember specifically, but I believe that when I had to start learning how to manage my time was in high school. That is when my readings got more time-consuming, and I had to write more papers.

I believe the big thing I needed to learn with my brain injury was how long it would take me to complete a task. After that, knowing what I needed to get done was more comfortable to plan for.

This allowed me to have an idea each night how long what I needed to get done would take me. This translated into college life as well.

Time Management: Friends

The issue in high school and college was friends. I loved them to death, but they were always able to finish in a faster time than me. This allowed them to go have fun.

There were times when I had to decline because I would not have been able to finish what I needed too quickly.

Sometimes its difficult for them to understand. My friends wanted me to go with them and not ‘be lame’ and do homework.

The thing they didn’t understand was that I wasn’t trying to be lame, I was just trying to do my job. My job was school, and if I felt that it wasn’t finished, I was going to finish it.

It was vital for me to do what I needed to do and stick with it. I had a lot more fun doing stuff with friends when I didn’t have to worry about work.

Some people will never understand the importance of what you need to do, especially if it isn’t a fun choice. It is necessary to stick to what you believe is the correct choice.

If they are good friends, they will understand.

If you want to read about how my brain injury came to be, please click here.

Fatigue: the cost of a brain injury

The brain becomes exhausted quickly when it is injured. Sometimes it becomes difficult to live a normal life with this fatigue

Everyone tends to talk about how people with brain injuries suffer from fatigue. Fatigue means that the brain can tire quickly. I think I have not experienced a lot of fatigue until I joined the workforce.

Throughout my schooling years, I was not mentally tired. There were times I thought I was mentally exhausted but turns out it was nothing compared to what I experienced in the past couple of months.

It turns out that what I thought it was me being an introvert during school was probably mental fatigue. I used to need time for myself and rest without people around me. This occurred after especially rough days.

Now I believe that I experienced fatigued. My need for breaks from others was a result of my fatigue, I didn’t know how to read it.

Even through college, I sustained my mental capacity by taking breaks throughout the day.

Now, I am in the ‘adult’ workforce as I like to call it. I am working eight hours a day. I am doing what I enjoy, and I am helping others live their best lives.

It’s a rewarding job, but it is physical. On top of being mentally exhausting, I exhausted myself physically. This means I need to try to find time to do what I want to do. I love to write, but sometimes my brain cannot handle it at the end of the day.

I am trying to use exercise as mental relaxation. It allows me to let my mind wander for a bit and then when I get home I am more willing to do activities that require more mental energy than just watching TV. These strategies keep my fatigue at bay.

If you have not read the story about my brain injury, please click here.

Math: That Subject in School

We all have that subject in school that was what we dreaded going to. It is no different with a brain injury.

Everyone has that one subject in school where they struggle and are in turn not a fan of it. I struggle with math. That is okay.

Math is my subject. I have always been a slow learner, but the math seems to take a while to click in my head.

That is okay, but the frustrating part is my foundation isn’t stable. The foundation isn’t reliable because I was busy getting pulled out of math to work on my reading.

It was a vicious cycle. It’s essential for me to put in the extra time and effort to be able to do everything, but if it impedes my ability to perform another subject, that is difficult.

Math has very different subsections. Some of it clicks with my brain, and others don’t. I had a lot of sections of math that just cannot mesh with the way my mind works but other I am.

I can grasp the concepts of algebra and geometry, but calculus is not my thing. It is okay.

The goal is just to keep working and never give up. I made it through high school and college math with hard work and never gave up. That is what has allowed me to push through and get to the point where I am today.

Please read about how I got my brain injury by clicking here.

Depression: Feeling blue

It is important to take care of yourself and if you think you are depressed and don’t be afraid to talk to someone.

Anyone can suffer from depression. It is not unique to an injury, but a brain injury can cause depression. It is essential to understand that right off the bat.

People who don’t have a TBI or ABI can have depression too. I can’t say for sure that I have depression because of what happened to me, but I can argue that its possible.

The important thing is that don’t ignore it if you think you have depression. You need to be able to know the signs and understand what to do about them.

Take a minute, notice how you feel right now. Was it tough to get out of bed this morning or do you have a lack of interest in doing something you used to love to do.

If you think you are depressed or may ha depression, it is essential to talk to someone about it. Don’t just keep it in. It doesn’t have to be a doctor, only a trusted adult.

The most important thing is to find help and take care of yourself.

If you are interested in my story, please click here.

Injury: I am a Person first

Once people know about the injury, they tend to see the injury and not the person. I am a strong believer that I am a person first.

I never thought about the concept of being a person versus being an injury. I began to think about it when I volunteered with people who had disabilities.

An injury does not define me as a person. I am a person who happens to have an injured brain. That is okay, as long as others understand that.

This is the exact reason why I am not a fan of sharing information about my past and my injury with others until they are able to know who I am.

This allows me to be a person with an injury instead of an injured person.
When you meet a person with a brain damage, it will make all the difference in how the person feels with you.

I know a few people who treat me like an injured human. Let me tell you, I want to get away from them as fast as I can, but when people just treat me like a person, I will hang around for a lot longer. My injury does not define me.

That is really all I want and what most of us want, to be treated normally.

Click here to read the story of my brain injury.

Time: There is Never Enough of it

There are never enough hours in the day. When you have a brain injury this is more than true. Everything takes longer and it is important to find strategies to help complete what you can.

Time is a human construct but, everyone says there are not enough hours during the day. It is true no matter who you are. But with a brain injury, it is even more difficult.

The ability to perform a task can slow after a brain injury. It is essential to take time to complete what you want to do.

The time it requires to finish a task can put this famous saying into reality. For me, reading a chapter takes the time it takes my friends to read multiple chapters.

This makes me not want to read often or at all. I enjoy reading, but it just takes a while for me to finish a book. That is okay, I need to keep doing what I enjoy.

For me to complete tasks that are time-consuming, it is helpful to create a list. I always have a list of things I would like to get done. This allows me to stay focused.

A to-do list can help me see what I still need to do, but it also allows me to see what I have accomplished. This can make me feel better when things are moving along slowly.

It is essential to be careful when making a list. It can be easy to get discouraged by seeing that what one still needs to get done and it is okay not to complete the list, just focus on what you have accomplished.

If you would live to know more about my story, please click here.

Reading: A love, hate friendship

Sometimes, a brain injury can cause issues to do what we want to do. It is difficult to rekindle the enjoyment that task used to give us.

I love to read and I like the idea of it. There are plenty of books I would enjoy to sit with and get lost in. The problem is that reading takes energy out of me.

After a long day I would love to read and relax, except for that I would rather relax and lose my mind in a tv show. I know that some people don’t like to read, but I would love to.

I wonder what would make it be able to be effortless for me. People will tell me that if I read more, it will get better.

My question is when. When does it get easier. Will reading ever be able to be my way to relax and unwind after a long day or will I always turn to Netflix.

There are plenty of books that catch my eye but opening them is what scares me. I have always had trouble.

When I was in third grade, I had to miss communal class and go to a particular class to help me read. I don’t remember what we did in there, but I remember walking back into the classroom and them being halfway through their math lesson.

I believe this is part of the reason I am not a fan of reading. My underlying fear when I open a book is that I am missing something more important.

I deal with irrational fears all the time. I can not pinpoint their origin, but they are present.

If you want to know more about my story, please click here.

Testing: An Inside Look of the Brain Function

Testing can assist the recovery process. It will show what areas need to be worked on the most.

I went through some significant testing at a younger age. These tests required me to do different tasks to show how I was able to handle them.

They told me that I had to prove that I had a brain injury. This didn’t make much sense to me, I am who I am.

They told me it was essential to get these results because it would assist how I can perform in school. It turns out that it did.

Even after all the testing, I went through, the prognosis was not very good. They predicted I would not be able to read at grade level, and there were questions about if I would end up going to college.

Now I have a college degree, and I have just finished my first week at my first full-time job. It is essential to keep pushing. It was not an enjoyable experience getting tested but it was worth it and I am glad my parents forced to do it.

Doctors will make predictions about outcomes and the future. The brain is a mysterious thing. It will change. Results will vary if you are willing to work through the difficulties your outcome will change.

If you would like to know about my brain injury, please click here.

Relationships: Letting someone in

Major life-changing injuries can be rough on every type of relationships, romantic ones, familial ones, and friends.

Major life-changing injuries can be rough on every type of relationships, romantic ones, familial ones, and friends.

Some of these relationships will fizzle out and are not able to withstand the challenges presented. As harsh as this can be, in the end, it is a good thing. This process will show you who your real friends are.

I do not have experience with losing friends after the incident. But the things that frustrate me the most, I have found, frustrate some of my friends also. The only difference is that they can walk away.

I am usually able to be close to people who can look past the difficulties and I have had some friends who can’t handle it. I am not able to say what makes them leave and end relationships but for whatever reason they do.

My injury has been used as an excuse for even a breakup. That was not fun, and it hurt a lot. If it was the exact reason I can’t say, but it didn’t feel right.

The important thing about being rejected is that life goes on. I use it as motivation from failed relationships to show how wrong they really are. It is essential the push a little more because of each rejection.

Curious to know more about my story? Please click here.