Comments on: Living with a brain injury in an ableist society https://www.jumbledbrain.com/living-with-a-brain-injury-in-an-ableist-society/ Discover - Empower - Thrive Fri, 09 Sep 2022 21:13:42 +0000 hourly 1 By: Michelle #jumbledbrain https://www.jumbledbrain.com/living-with-a-brain-injury-in-an-ableist-society/#comment-2780 Fri, 16 Jul 2021 07:19:40 +0000 https://www.jumbledbrain.com/?p=9050#comment-2780 In reply to Sherri.

Your friend must have been so hurt losing the woman he loved that way. I hope he had family and friends like yourself you could rally round him.

]]> By: Sherri https://www.jumbledbrain.com/living-with-a-brain-injury-in-an-ableist-society/#comment-2776 Fri, 16 Jul 2021 00:20:16 +0000 https://www.jumbledbrain.com/?p=9050#comment-2776 I had a friend in the past who was adamant that balanced holistic nutrition was going to heal her husband along with positive thinking and prayers. He had suffered a stroke with partial paralysis. They had always believed in living a healthy lifestyle. After a lot of hard work, prayers, positive thinking, and time, she realized that his brain injuries and paralysis were permanent. The next thing I knew, she had left her loving, faithful husband who had helped her raise her 2 children from a previous bad marriage and moved to another state with another man. Her husband was devastated. She just couldn’t handle the fact that he wasn’t going to get better even though he still could do plenty of things.

]]> By: Michelle #jumbledbrain https://www.jumbledbrain.com/living-with-a-brain-injury-in-an-ableist-society/#comment-1478 Thu, 27 Feb 2020 13:56:10 +0000 https://www.jumbledbrain.com/?p=9050#comment-1478 In reply to Maxwell Turnbull.

It’s a good point that how to help one person during a fit isn’t necessarily going to be the solution for the next. But I wouldn’t want people to be put off from trying to help, as I think already people stand back and don’t intervene too much. I remember as a child falling of my bike as I rode home from school and as I didn’t have a helmet I cut my head. I saw a car pull over ahead of me and I thought they were coming to check on me. But no, they were just running an errand and went on their way. I remember being surprised that no one cared about the child lying but the side of the road with the bleeding head. I was only about 6 or 7.

]]> By: Maxwell Turnbull https://www.jumbledbrain.com/living-with-a-brain-injury-in-an-ableist-society/#comment-1476 Thu, 27 Feb 2020 13:34:45 +0000 https://www.jumbledbrain.com/?p=9050#comment-1476 All of thiat which I described occurred about fortyfive years ago-things have improved since then.
However, here in the U.K., things have improved ever-so-slightly. There is still the popular notion that pesons who ” have fits ” become unconcious, bite and swallow their tongues and shake and quiver.
And there are people like me, who just go into a dream-like state, smelling smells that aren’t there and sweating like a marathon runner.
Any other behaviour is just ” attention-seeking “.
There is also a peculiar perception that is prevalent especially amongst some people who think that, because they know someone who is an epileptic, that they know what to do should the situation arise.
Of course, when you throw the little spanner in the shape of a brain-injury into the mix, things get really interesting. I could ” Bore-for-Britain ” on that topic -let’s just say that life is interesting…especially if I am in a mischevious mood.
The thing that really interests me concerns is the efficacy of the anti-convulsant medication that I was forced to take. All three had a warning that they ( individually ) were capable of causing the taker to harbour suicidal thoughts. ( or as the blurb goes, ” potentiate suicidal ideation ” ) Then there was also the trifling effect of each of the seperate medications REDUCING the effectiveness of the other two.
I thank you once more for having the patiece to read this.

]]> By: Michelle #jumbledbrain https://www.jumbledbrain.com/living-with-a-brain-injury-in-an-ableist-society/#comment-1460 Fri, 21 Feb 2020 18:57:00 +0000 https://www.jumbledbrain.com/?p=9050#comment-1460 In reply to Maxwell Turnbull.

Maxwell I think it’s awful that anyone thinks violence is the answer to anything. I’m sorry that you have been assaulted. I do hope that over the last 50 years you have seen progression in people’s understanding, but we still have a long way to go.

]]> By: Maxwell Turnbull https://www.jumbledbrain.com/living-with-a-brain-injury-in-an-ableist-society/#comment-1459 Fri, 21 Feb 2020 17:11:10 +0000 https://www.jumbledbrain.com/?p=9050#comment-1459 Thank you for writing such interesting articles.
Being something of veteran of living with the aftermath of a brain injury that was acquired some fifty years ago I find them to be particularly useful.
The greatest difficulty that I have encountered is ot with the actual, physical, injury. ( In my case, the injury to the brain was to both sides of the organ along with a degree of torsion ) Most of my problems arose from the medical treatment that I received AFTER the first year or so after the incident. The best example of this mistreatment is that I was first prescribed Phenobarbital after undergoing two operations to lift the embedded skullbones from my brain. The phenobarbital was soon given along with phenytoin-which was supplemented with carbamezapine. The phenobarbitone was replaced with primidone at about this time as well. My condition worsened considerably so much so that I ended up being precribed anti-psychotics in addition to the anti-epileptic medication to ” control ” my condtion.
My main problem is, and always, as I mentioned previously, the attitude of other people. Medicos’ , I can just about cope with seeing that they seem to be hidebound through the training that the recieve. The attitude of an alarming minority of ordinary people is what really disturbs me. These people in particular always seem to assume that any behaviour that deviates from their percieved view of what passes for ” normal ” is a sure sign of some form of mental illness which, it seems, needs a physical intervention by them. I have been beaten up on a few occasions.

]]> By: Michelle #jumbledbrain https://www.jumbledbrain.com/living-with-a-brain-injury-in-an-ableist-society/#comment-1458 Fri, 21 Feb 2020 03:02:33 +0000 https://www.jumbledbrain.com/?p=9050#comment-1458 In reply to mark.

That’s a very balanced, mature response which I think we all should aim for. Thanks for being a great example of how we all, both disabled and abled should hope to be.

]]> By: mark https://www.jumbledbrain.com/living-with-a-brain-injury-in-an-ableist-society/#comment-1457 Fri, 21 Feb 2020 02:01:08 +0000 https://www.jumbledbrain.com/?p=9050#comment-1457 Being disabled/partially or totally is an ugly place to live in society, of that there is no dought. Yet peoples ignorance is also a disability they just don’t realise it. I also find it annoying when people say ( you poor dear you’ve had a stroke, I can imagine how you feel ) really ? But to become bitter and twisted about it is just as foolish, these words are usually said in sympathy after all. Cognitive damage is silent and unseen so we need to be patient and try to educate the ignorant not punish them. It is what it is
so be happy and try not to judge too harshly.

]]> By: Michelle #jumbledbrain https://www.jumbledbrain.com/living-with-a-brain-injury-in-an-ableist-society/#comment-1456 Thu, 20 Feb 2020 21:57:07 +0000 https://www.jumbledbrain.com/?p=9050#comment-1456 In reply to Chuck Hazama.

Thanks so much Chuck, your enthusiasm makes me smile ?

]]> By: Michelle #jumbledbrain https://www.jumbledbrain.com/living-with-a-brain-injury-in-an-ableist-society/#comment-1455 Thu, 20 Feb 2020 21:55:57 +0000 https://www.jumbledbrain.com/?p=9050#comment-1455 In reply to Sandra Miles.

Thanks so much Sandra! And I’m pleased to hear that the bad days are becoming less for you, that’s great news!

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