Wanted to share some of the things I’ve learned that have been helpful to me, that others might find useful as well.
Living with a TBI brings lots of challenges, in particular a very short term memory, strong reactivity, amplified emotions, and mental health conditions (like anxiety or depression for example) can be intensified.
Recovery can look like phases from my experience, in my case from the week in ICU on life support (count myself very lucky to survive, and will always be so grateful for the hard work and care of the medical professionals), to the weeks in a rehabilitation hospital to get to the point I could be released and go home, then trying to learn and adapt to the new realities of living with a brain injury.
Progress with a brain injury can be very slow, but I believe it’s important to always try to keep in perspective that recovery is not linear - there will be ups and downs, good days with forward progress, but you should not get too down when it feels like things don’t continually improve, try to see the big picture and focus on even small positive steps that have happened or can happen in time.
Finding FitMind while looking at options for guided meditation, it was exciting to me to find things presented in language and perspective that really resonated with me, and kept me coming back to take in all I could from it.
Even when I felt a lesson really resonate with me (like Combat Training - I found the ideas around releasing such an important concept, especially for somebody struggling with how they think, and spending too much energy on seeking approval), I still found myself having to listen to these lessons repeatedly trying to retain the information.
I was fortunate enough to get the chance to work with an Occupational Therapist recently, who gave me some great suggestions that I found very effective, and wanted to share them in case they can help others.
For memory, there were two techniques I found particularly helpful:
Association - associating words or phrases you hear with items or senses (things you can see, hear, taste etc.), or context like in what situation you would use an idea or concept, as something to associate it with can really help the brain retrieve it again.
Elaboration - explain an idea or concept in your own words, as re-framing what your heard from hour own perspective can help make sure you really understand what you took in, and help retain it.
Another strategy I was given, was that to try and help with struggles around short attention span and mind wandering, was to watch short videos or listen to guided meditation, and make notes on what you’re listening to.
When doing this, you will try to summarize what you are taking in, but if you lose track, you can go back and listen to it again, until you are able to retain it long enough to make notes on it.
The goal with this would be to slowly increase the length of the meditations you are listening to, going back to shorter ones if having an off day or losing focus repeatedly, but longer term trying to progress to longer sessions - trying to keep the mind calm enough to take in info when presented, and otherwise stay in a relaxed state without mind wandering. This can be challenging for anyone, but I believe there is an extra degree of difficulty with this for someone living with a brain injury.
Sorry if this got long, with my brain injury it’s been pointed out to me that I can definitely over-explain things often, as much as I try to summarize and get to a point. My intention is to try and give a full picture of what I’m trying to say, including things to provide relevance.
