After a Traumatic Brain Injury: Stages of Healing

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In general, after a Traumatic Brain Injury a few stages of healing happen.  Most of them are driven by our inner person.  The first stage is unconscious denial.  Here is when, in my opinion, everybody notices something wrong with us, but we don’t notice it.  As an example, in the early stages of my injury, others would tell me that I was acting very different, and that I would forget simple instructions, that I just simply could not put things together, that I could see or talk normally or that I could not balance well.  Even though they mentioned to me how I was behaving, I did not see it and I did not take it serious. All through this stage, there were some doubts in my mind, and I kind of saw all they were mentioning as a blur, I could not see it clearly.

The second stage is what I will call the shocking truth.  Here is when after going to extensive clinical testing we start to accept the presence of an injury or that there is something different.  Here is when I first really saw that I was having cognitive problems.  It was at this stage that I became extremely frustrated because I saw I could not remember simple things, not even a three line story or a list of five words.  At this stage I became irritated when others would point out deficiencies.  Keep in mind that here there is a shock but yet there is no acceptance.

I will call the next stage the race against a ghost.  Most of us have a clear memory of how we were and at this point we could see the deficiencies.  We could see how annoying is not been able to balance ourselves, remember things, not understanding what we read, basically not been proficient at anything.  As rehabilitation happens, we maintain a focus on trying to be who we were.  I had put a lot of energy in attempting to be who I was.  I was trying to rush thru everything so I could get back to work.  There was still no acceptance of the severity of the problem at hand.  I was taking it as if it was a flu or cold.  Everything I did I tried to remember how I had done prior to the injury and I would fail.  Instead of learning new ways I was trying to perform as if nothing had happened.

The fourth stage is sadness, grief, and anger.  Sadness and grief will happen all through the healing process.  As a result of us witnessing our new acquired problems and our inability to perform how we used too, we start grieving and asking ourselves many questions.  I would ask myself: Why me? Will I ever get to be how I was?  How long is going to take? Do others see me different? What am I going to do now?  At this point we all have been seen by many clinicians and at least one of them has mentioned that it could be a behavioral problem, PTSD or depression.  We know is not mental, but by them mentioning that, it raises more questions inside us like: Am I going crazy?  Those doubts should never be put on our heads as it makes all this process harder to deal with.

The next stage is acceptance.  After dealing with the sadness, grief and anger, we then have to see things as they are.  Nobody can change the past. We have to deal with the card that life played us.  At this point we see the severity of the injury and we realize that denial just makes it worse.  Here is when we are trying to make the best of our new found reality.  We start to put all efforts in our rehabilitation and try to work with a better outlook in life. The real healing and rehabilitation starts at this stage.  Here we try to gain our independence back, we learn how to set attainable goals that would minimize frustration, and we start learning about our condition.  After a brain injury acceptance is what gives us clarity of what is it that we are dealing with.  We start owning our injury at this stage.  We try to make the best out of it, the only downside during this stage is that ownership of the injury has not really happened yet. 

The last stage is healing through ownership.  At this stage is when we take control of our condition and we know exactly what our impairments are.  We try to find what works best to balance the losses.  We find new ways to cope and do things.  We see that attainable goals bring a sense of accomplishment and success.  We see ourselves as tools to help others and help them in their healing journey.  In this stage is when most of us have a new found purpose in life, which normally involves helping others.

Thanks!

IT WILL GET BETTER      

Disclaimer:  This article is based on my experience.  I am not a clinician and I am not pretending to be one.

***THIS BLOG IS A PAGE AT http://www.tbiwarrior.com