debilitating impact of social isolation Archives - Jumbledbrain https://www.jumbledbrain.com/tag/debilitating-impact-of-social-isolation/ Discover - Empower - Thrive Fri, 09 Sep 2022 15:24:33 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://i0.wp.com/www.jumbledbrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-tab-logo.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 debilitating impact of social isolation Archives - Jumbledbrain https://www.jumbledbrain.com/tag/debilitating-impact-of-social-isolation/ 32 32 115417566 Brain injury and the debilitating impact of social isolation https://www.jumbledbrain.com/brain-injury-and-the-debilitating-impact-of-social-isolation/ https://www.jumbledbrain.com/brain-injury-and-the-debilitating-impact-of-social-isolation/#comments Thu, 26 Mar 2020 13:45:05 +0000 https://www.jumbledbrain.com/?p=9127 I am writing this during the UK’s official first week of lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic. The country has been asked time and again to stay at home where possible, to slow down the spread of the disease and give the hospitals a better chance to cope with the sudden increase in patients. But after […]

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I am writing this during the UK’s official first week of lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic. The country has been asked time and again to stay at home where possible, to slow down the spread of the disease and give the hospitals a better chance to cope with the sudden increase in patients. But after many people have spurned this request, the government and police are now ensuring we do as we’re told. And whilst I completely understand how people are finding this hard to adjust to, I can’t help but think, “welcome to the world of a brain injury survivor.” Although we aren’t fined or arrested for having a social life or trying to go to work, we find ourselves thrown into a totally unexpected situation where we can’t do either. 

People are now having a taste  one element of what we go through.

It’s no exaggeration when I say it’s the debilitating impact of social isolation, and I think the world is only now getting a tiny flavour what us survivors experience. Suddenly where people have often made quips about how nice it is that we don’t have to work and how they’d like some time off, there are internet posts everywhere telling people how to keep themselves busy when stuck at home.  Now the restaurants, bars, cinemas, gyms, sports clubs and just about everything else is shut, people are getting bored and restless. 

Well, this is what it’s like when a brain injury means you can’t drive, and being noise and light sensitive means you can struggle to leave the house at all. And where people might imagine that we can fill our days just sat on the sofa having coffee with a friend each day, this just isn’t the case. After our friends and family have seen we are very much alive after sustaining a brain injury and we have made it home after being in hospital, the sense of urgency relaxes. They have their lives that they need to get back to, and we see less and less of them. Social isolation just seems to creep up on us, it’s not that anyone is intending for it to be that way. Or when we start to see how many mistakes we make, like forgetting names, repeating ourselves over and again, struggling to follow what others are saying, we can feel ashamed and retreat into isolation. Either way, it’s a lonely corner we know all too well. 

Social isolation is actually worse for brain injury survivors than others.

Where as everyone else is just trying to find ways to entertain themselves whilst housebound, the lack of social contact is detrimental to a brain injury survivors’ recovery. It is linked to low self-esteem and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. These are all problems which survivors are at an increased risk of being affected by anyway, so social isolation just compounds the effect. But then there is the fact that for us to refine the skills that we struggle with as a result of our brain injury, we must practise them. Conversations, reading social cues on others faces, responding to changing situations are all things that people take for granted, but we can suddenly find challenging. But unless we spend time with people, it can be tough getting the vital practise that we need, and thereby holding back our recovery process. 

When this pandemic has passed and the world tries to return to normal, I’d like to think that there will be a greater understanding for what it is like for those who are housebound. But I’m not going to be holding my breath. For people quickly forget when they move on to whatever comes next in their lives. I’m not necessarily asking anyone to do anything differently. Just don’t always assume that whist we might not be rushed off our feet like so much of the modern world is today, that we don’t still have dreams of a different life.  But it would be nice if people would pick up the phone from time to time and check in on us. I know I’ve been guilty of being moody and difficult to talk to at times and put some people off. But it’s not always going to be like that. I manage my emotions much better now than I did originally, so I would ask anyone who hasn’t spoken to a brain injury survivor for a while after getting a curt response to try again. What all of this has to have proven to us all is that the people in our lives are worth more than anything else, so fight for them. 

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