"Brain Injury Is ..." Brain Injury Defined By People Who Are Living With It

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Comments (502)

Please remember, we are not able to give medical or legal advice. If you have medical concerns, please consult your doctor. All posted comments are the views and opinions of the poster only.

Anonymous replied on

You want your old life, back, but will never know what it is or how it was like it\'s just a reboot - Dylan

Anonymous replied on

remembering how i used to be and not feeling the need to talk about what happened just accept the present. The access is not there why struggle to when the words are not there? Some people think you have a bad attitude and I don't

Anonymous replied on

the loneliest, most frustrating time of my entire life. Its like forgetting who you are and wondering if you will even come back. So much doubt

Anonymous replied on

Like living in a dark cave hearing faint echoes of memories knowing they are there and not being able to find them in the dark. ~Doctor become patient

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For me it is like waking up every morning with a hang-over even though I have not taken any alcohol

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Standing in the middle of an intersection and everyone is honking their horn for you to move, but you can't.

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Like being a Stranger in a Strange Land.

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Feels as If you're starting over with life again.

Anonymous replied on

So many good comments! For me, its becoming a puzzle that has been scattered, some pieces soaked in water until the images have come off, some twisted to the point that you'd have to hammer them into the puzzle if you could figure out where they fit, some like they'd been carried in a little boys pocket along with several rocks for weeks, all this then occasionally you get a glimpse of the portrait, see who you are(should have been)but are not nor will ever be...Hubert Rondeau Alberta Canada

Anonymous replied on

Like driving an old jeep with shaking steering down a road filled with potholes, you've got to be constantly correcting yourself.

Anonymous replied on

I struggle every single day to stay on this earth.

Anonymous replied on

A TBI makes it difficult to get from point A to point B every single day. One never know if you will make it. It's getting lost in an area you have lived al your life. It's not recognizing people you have know for decades.

Anonymous replied on

They say you're lucky, but it never disappears.

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I took a picture of the ending of a day lily. There are no color, no life. I wrote on it - "Memory of myself". molly

Anonymous replied on

Walking up the down escalator of life

Anonymous replied on

My son seems to be on a path winding through a dense woods and every few steps he veers off the path and wanders about until finding the path again.

Anonymous replied on

more understanding ,after seeing my MRI 10 years after TBI-how the brain rework around dead frontal lobes spots ,still so wonderous

Anonymous replied on

I'm getting better! It took me a year to be able to read a book. But I can do it now.

Anonymous replied on

It seems like I've been asleep and woke up and everything was different. Not because I remember the way things were pre-TBI, but because I don't remember.

Anonymous replied on

It is a feeling like you brain is stuck in quick sand. All I can say is don't give up. It's going to be hard but don't give up. Get into a TBI support group or if there isn't one start your own. Exercise, read, meditate, do yoga, hike, eat healthy, all of these are wonderful for your brain.

Anonymous replied on

TBI, esp. Mtbi is a lifetime of explanations to strangers, begging for mercy (lower the music, talk slower, etc.) and being treated like a partial person if can't manage allergy reactions to diabetes medications, amputation, heart attack, kidney failure. It is the syrup on the plate that rolls off the pancakes of life onto clean tablecloths and your best clothing. It gets old after a while to keep on explaining that I am a tbi survivor, therefore this and therefore that. I'm tired. And I sure didn't deserve it.

Anonymous replied on

I liked the analogy of a TBI being like a cage. When I was in my coma I had a very long dream of being tied to the mast of a ship. No one could see or hear me so they kept moving. I feel like this is a wonderful representation of what had happened in the years following my accident... ~a lonely soul

Anonymous replied on

My head hurts and brain is collapsing from reading all these comments. So I stop for awhile and start again. Every day is like this.

Anonymous replied on

Living with a brain that makes you become a NEW you unwanted

Anonymous replied on

All that used to be familiar. Now become strange and broken in pieces, that just will not fit togeather. Phil

Anonymous replied on

Depressed, angry,and I do not recall the doctor mentioning this huge sunken part of my head/face. Droopy eye.......an emotional roller coaster. I want off!

Anonymous replied on

What was the question?

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part time intelligence, part time chaos and confusion. Hard for others to see a condition that has no apparent visual tells.

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a constant challenge of physical pain, stamina, emotions and faith.

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the continual struggle with everything.

Anonymous replied on

an Assassin. It claimed the life of my wife, but it was a long slow and often painful sentence. 18 years of slow deterioration, although the last 3 months was rapid.

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Being alone in a crowded room. -Brian

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I feel like a freshly shaken Etch A Sketch

Anonymous replied on

Like thick cataracts and super loud noise all the time. Been living with it most of my life. Sometimes death looks appealing

Anonymous replied on

Do you ever have weird reactions to normal sounds well they say are daily sounds to you but you jump everytime like it is the first time hearing it. This happens to be often or shit is way too loud and it’s not loud to anyone else. Or the can’t hear shit days like my ears are clogged up

Anonymous replied on

Extremely frustrating at times especially trying to process to much at one time. You eventually go dim yet u think u be able to do it all. Then the numbness sets in and the processing ceases and it's not that u don't care u just burnout and fade. Kevin

Anonymous replied on

I've always described my injury like I was reading a novel. I was enjoying the story, then one day I couldn't remember anything I read, so I had to start over. When I opened the book to the beginning to start over all the E's T's R's O's and N's were missing from the words. I could still read the story but it didn't flow as easily anymore. I got tired, and frustrated quickly trying to read it. It wasn't as enjoyable anymore. Nancy Garland - Ontario, Canada

Anonymous replied on

at times severely depressing when you tell people you have a TBI and they don't believe you ...when trying to make decisions the brain becomes overloaded to the point of avoidance ...when support is needed the most there is no one there ...

Anonymous replied on

when your sporty car comes to an end, just like most of your social aspects in life, you were proud of, come to an end too...

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...being alone!!!

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the lights are on,but nobody\'s home. Getting overwhelmed looking at a menu and not being able to make a choice. never having a drink, but drunk all the time.

Anonymous replied on

Being very easily overwhelmed by too much of anything around you.too much noise, conversation, images, wind, rain or sunlight. Constantly wanting to retreat to a dark cave with a blanket and pillow.

Anonymous replied on

http://p1.bikepics.com/2013/05/13/bikepics-2554992-full.jpg Living and trying to get out every day from the thinest glass cage,all dressed up in the heaviest steel ever...

Anonymous replied on

I think I remember who I am, but yet I am different now.

Anonymous replied on

being locked in a padded cell against your will, knowing what once was on the outside and trying to get back there, yet no amount of screaming or punching the walls is going to get you back, understood and accepted

Anonymous replied on

Like having Alzheimer's in reverse.

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I know right.

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the dots never connecting

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Inexplicable to the world....Kerry

Anonymous replied on

I have said this many times:Having a brain injury is like dropping a box of unmarked pieces of a puzzle ..then picking it up & having NO Idea on How, What, When and Why ..to even start placing them together to make any kind of sense out of it.Often it is not the trauma that creates the most pain..it is the lack of support & understanding after.~WRH

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