Thought it would be good to look back on the top 5 posts of 2016. Some great discussions came from these, as well as amazing advice from other brain injury survivors.
1 – A Different Brain – Louis Theroux Documentary Review
I had some great feedback on this one, it was nice to know that I wasn’t the only one who thought he should have spoken to a variety of people with different severities of brain injuries:
“I suppose the one potential flaw of his documentary style is that he has to select only a couple of people to talk to – I agree that it would have quite possibly been better to also look at people with less severe or noticeable injuries, but I can see how he just felt he couldn’t fit it all in. It would have made quite a good miniseries in my mind, as I still had quite a few unanswered questions when it finished.”
2- Overhearing “Brain Injury isn’t really a disability”
This got shared on BrainLine.org’s facebook page and received mixed reviews on the swearing:
“I liked the swearing. It’s pure and it is how I feel.”
“Apart from the unnecessary swearing in the opening paragraph, it is exactly what is happening out there to many of us.”
At the time the swearing was necessary because that was my first thought when they said “brain injury isn’t really a disability” and I wanted to share that frustration when I wrote about it. I’m not going to change it and get rid of the swearing because it’s how I felt at the time, even looking back now over I still feel the same way.
3 – Our Beautiful Broken Brains
A review of the Netflix documentary My BeauAn old post I shared from my personal Tumblr account that made me realise all the brain injury survivors I’ve met thorough Alphabet Brains had become my therapy.
4 – “How is your recovery going?”
A sad realisation about my brain injury recovery and one that other brain injury survivors related to:
‘I was asked this by a friend a few days ago and only then did I realise that my recovery has stopped, the problems I still have are my way of life.’
5 – Pregnancy, Parenthood and Perhaps Fear
I still don’t have a conclusion for this, but since thinking and speaking about it more I don’t feel so scared. I’ll just have to think outside the box when it comes to it, nap when the baby naps, join baby groups so I’m not alone during the day—Stephen will be helping me when he’s not at work and even said he’ll come home if I’m too overwhelmed. In fact, since talking about this I’ve learnt that having support and getting help is the most important thing:
“Oh and getting help/having baby sitters. I didn’t do this with my first daughter because I thought I was a failure for.needing help. In hindsight it’s what we all needed to have a happier life together. Life is bard post-TBI and even harder with a newborn so do whatever you need to to make life easier on yourself.”