‘And while I’m alive, I’ll make tiny changes to earth’ On the 14th July I was listening to the new Frightened Rabbit album, Tiny Changes: A Celebration of Frightened Rabbit’s ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’ and these lyrics from the song Head Rolls Off hit me… This is the reason I started Alphabet Brains. I survived… Continue reading It’s OK Not To Be OK
A Q&A I took part in for Headway UK. In 2013 Naomi sustained a traumatic brain injury after a fall down the stairs. Since then Naomi has created the online community Alphabet Brains helping her to track her journey and support other survivors in the process. Here, Naomi speaks about her blog, her recovery and what makes her… Continue reading Headway Q&A About Blogging After Brain Injury
Afternoon Tea on my birthday with my mum, “Oh what a lovely photo!” it is yes and I am very pretty… Not pictured however are the back and forth emails to the venue so I could have the perfect seat. The perfect seat for a 28 year old who gets overwhelmed going into shops and… Continue reading On Turning 28… “But You Look So Well”
I wanted to be a nurse when I was little but then I picked up a pencil and that was that… I knew I wanted to do Art forever. I now often joke about this because I know there’s no career in Art but mainly it’s because of my circumstances; I had brain surgery and… Continue reading Learning About Brain Surgery and So Much More…
Stephen: What are you doing? Me: Making a timetable for my life I said this with all seriousness because the past few weeks my mind and life have been all over the place. There are so many hours in the day and I feel like I’m wasting them. I’ve been told many times “You need to… Continue reading A Timetable For My Life; Brain Injury Advice
I haven’t written much about the pain of living with a brain injury, I think this is because I am just so used to living with it. I imagine most of you are? The past few months however I’ve been experiencing new forms of pain and headaches, as well as talking about it which makes… Continue reading Headaches and pain after (traumatic) brain injury
My memory box: An old wooden box for J&J Colman’s Mustard found in the loft of my first student house, a perfect box to hold my memories and mementos as it is a memory itself. Holding old notebooks, old sketchbooks, exhibition leaflets from my time as a Fine Art student, birthday cards, Christmas cards, messy… Continue reading Mementos that take me back to the early days of my brain injury
The black hole in my mind from leaving my friend’s house to waking up after my surgery My sister telling me that I called her twice while in A&E, I have no memory of that at all. It’s part of the black hole. The conversation we had is even more haunting: “I’m in A&E I’ve… Continue reading Things that haunt me
Quiet Tears: Written on my phone and unedited after a noisy and frustrating afternoon at the swimming pool. Quiet tears as I’m sat alone in a swimming pool changing room because being in that pool with all that noise was just too much today. Quiet tears because I had to get out of the pool… Continue reading Quiet Tears: The Days When Living With a Brain Injury Become… Too Much
Just got back from a successful trip to my local GP. Headaches are one of the symptoms of living with a brain injury and since my injury over four years ago I get them every day. They don’t affect me and I can live with them but the past couple of weeks I’ve been suffering… Continue reading Headaches…
