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Recovering with a brain injury, essential oils may help.

Michelle #jumbledbrain — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 13:18:30 +0000

After my TBI I’ve been discharged from almost every recuperation service, so I should be recovered from my brain injury, right? It’s not that simple. Some of you might have noticed I’ve had a bit of a gap since my last post. That’s not writers block, it’s brain block! If I’ve done too much, or been stressed it can really throw my poor little injured brain out.

The pain is almost indescribable and yet would probably annoyingly fall into the category of “headache”. But my brain can barely think.

The brain itself can not feel it’s pain, just report on others areas, but when you have a brain injury you do wonder if you’re the odd one out.

The only solution for me when this happens, is to go to sleep, no matter how much sleep I’ve already had. Even then I can wake up and still feel as dizzy, confused and in pain as I did before I went to sleep. This can mean making plans can be very difficult.

I often can force myself if I know it’s not going to be too long, but doing a long journey to visit someone is a real challenge. Driving for 2-3 hours can really take it out of me and mean I’m not great company even when I do arrive. This is a real sore point for me as a lot of my long time friends are from the South West of England, and I now live in the South East. So although I would dearly love to see them and try to catch up, I struggle to make it happen.

Little things that go some way to helping me.

As I regularly become anaemic (being a girl means no matter what I do it happens to me every month.) That can cause real problems for my injured brain. As the brain uses 20% of the oxygen in the blood, iron is essential. Iron is used to help the blood carry the oxygen to were it needs to go. Thus being anaemic stops the brain from functioning properly. So I have to take iron tablets. When I get really low my Doctor prescribes me to take the equivalent of 3 times the average daily dose! Too much iron can be very dangerous, so please don’t do this unless your Doctor advises it. But it goes some way to highlight how bad it is for me.

Essential oils can also assist in this process, and therefore are particularly helpful for those with a brain injury. Some have been shown to increase oxygen in the brain by up to 28 per cent. The most commonly recommended for helping those with a brain injury is Frankincense.

Essential oils, as they are inhaled through the nose, are able to pass through the blood brain barrier near the olfactory nerve. This deeper penetration can help the healing process.

The number of cells which make up the layer surrounding the olfactory nerve is little more than half that which generally makes up the blood brain barrier. This is why inhalation of essential oils can mean they will reach the brain. Therapeutic value and level of purity are important in the medicinal use of essential oils. 100% Therapeutic grade oils should used as lower qualities can have impurities which could do you more harm than good.

To use them you can either diffuse into the room. Or if you are going out you can wear a diffuser necklace with just a couple of drops.

Other oils can be used for other functions:

Anxiety : Basil, Lavender, Ylang-Ylang or Frankincense

Depression: Lemon, Mandarin, Jasmine or Bergamot

Stress: Lemon, Sandalwood, Geranium or Roman Chamomile

However if you suffer from epilepsy, or are at risk from developing epilepsy, there are some essential oils you should avoid. Rosemary, fennel, sage, eucalyptus, hyssop, camphor and spike lavender are not recommended as essential oils if you have epilepsy. This is because these essential oils may trigger seizures in some people with epilepsy. Regular Lavender is fine to used and should not be confused with Spike Lavender. For pregnant women there are also a number of other oils to avoid. For more information please visit:

Complementary therapies by the Epilepsy society.

Also your four legged friend can do you more good than you might have realised. Read TBI: animal therapy to find out more.

Have you tried essential oils, and do you find they help you? Any other tips on what helps you are always great to share.

The post Recovering with a brain injury, essential oils may help. appeared first on Jumbledbrain.

Brain training you can do at home after a brain injury

Michelle #jumbledbrain — Wed, 24 Aug 2016 08:06:32 +0000

When you have a brain injury it is very difficult to know if and when you will improve, or how much. With other injuries you can do physical training exercises to support your recovery. But that about a brain injury?

So many times I panicked about “what if this is it? What if I stay like this?”

There are no easy answers to those questions, but you have to be patient with yourself. Rome wasn’t built in a day and nor was your brain. What can help is finding a way to measure your progress. In the same way we are shocked when we look at an old photo of ourselves at how much we have changed, it can be hard to recognise the small improvements.

Whilst your loved ones will be better at judging your progress and be reassuring you of it, it helps to feel you have tangible evidence.

That’s where brain training games can really help. Personally I’m a fan of Peak which I play daily on my iPhone. All smartphones or tablets will have available apps, many of which are free. I love Peak because it gives me a graph showing how I’ve improved (or not as the case maybe if I’m having one of those days) in each different area. I find it reassuring and actually I’ve found I’m better at some things than I thought.

But what if you don’t want to keep staring at screens?

Buying an inexpensive puzzle book is a great investment. You can have a go at different puzzles at your own pace. Again it’s something that you can revisit to see which ones you can give yourselves a pat on the back. Because you’ve completed quite a lot or finished. And you can keep pushing to do those pesky ones which you find yourself wondering if the reason you can’t get it is because there’s a print error and it’s impossible. Actually it’s these ones that give me the most satisfaction when the penny finally drops.

puzzle books help brain training

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Remember you’re not any less intelligent, your brain just has to work harder to get there. It’s like the tunnel in the Alps being closed and you have to climb all over the mountains to get there. It takes a lot longer and it’s a lot more tiring. But be patient and keep trying. The brain behaves like a muscle and by practising and training you can give it the chance to relearn how to do it.

Try doing something you have never done before, and start training your brain in something new.

I don’t mean you have to go learn to play the violin. But try simple things like brushing your teeth with the opposite hand. It will feel really awkward at first and you’ll be tempted to switch back, but try to persevere. In time the brain will start to learn that this is something it needs to work on, and that hand will get better at it. So it’s something that you can see for yourself how you’re doing.

If you are also interested in what virtual training you can do to support your recovery, go to Game training that helped me.

Have a go and let me know how you get on. I'd love to hear of other examples people can think of.

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