General information about brain injury.

Building Brilliant Strategies For Brain Injury

Before you begin building brilliant strategies for brain injury - first a ‘Think One’ reminder. When you are thinking about building brilliant strategies for brain injury there is: No one strategy, No one right way, No one solution, There is no one easy way! Well that’s hardly a great start to building whiz bang strategies for brain injury! Doesn’t seem very helpful does it? I just believe you can save a lot of time, frustration and disappointment if you begin by understanding this. So the first tip for building great strategies is to understand there are a lot of “mights” and no one right way when working to change the outcomes of brain injury.   What Works and What Does Not When you get a new gadget it sometimes has a disclaimer in very small print that tells you all the reasons why your gadget may not work! Well I am going to start out here – in normal print – and…

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Concrete Thinking After Brain Injury

Concrete thinking is a descriptive term for this kind of thinking. Factual. What you see in front of you is what you understand. You take what is said to you, as it is said. Concrete thinking - being less able to generalise. Less able to think in the abstract. A person is likely to see and take things as said. Thinking about information and understanding information in a “concrete” way; taking things literally.       What Would Concrete Thinking Look Like As with many cognitive (thinking) outcomes; concrete thinking can be difficult to understand, and to accept as a result of damage to the brain. You might see the following: [unordered_list style="green-dot"] Taking things literally.  “Hop over here” would see you doing just that – hopping.   Difficulty understanding abstract language such as metaphors, proverbs, humour and sarcasm. Proverbs are good examples of how concrete thinking can occur. Proverbs need you to be able to interpret the meaning, it requires abstract thinking.…

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Damage. Waking With Traumatic Brain Injury. A First Person Account

‘Damage’ is a poem about traumatic brain injury by Stanley Smith. It is a powerful, impactful first person account of waking up and trying to make sense of what has happened. As I completed yet another clean out I found a copy of this poem in my archives from the early 90’s. I know, I know – I just don’t like throwing good resources away! And I am glad I did not throw this away.   Eager to share ‘Damage’ with you, I was lucky enough to find, and meet up with Stanley again. After catching up on 30 years of life in brief, Stanley generously gave me permission to reprint ‘Damage’ here. Stanley was surprised at my interest in his work of so long ago. While happy to have this poem shared, he is concerned that his creative property be respected and not be copied without permission. (I am happy for you to CONTACT ME with any requests).   WARNING –…

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A Fun Study With A Serious Side: Traumatic Brain Injury in Asterix Comics

  Sometimes people do things that seem a bit odd but fun! In 2011 a fun study with a serious side about traumatic brain injury was conducted by a group of Neurosurgeons in Germany. The results were published in the European Association of Neurobiological Studies and widely reported since.     Why is that special you might ask? Well this experiment looked at the incidence, severity and treatment of traumatic brain injury in the Asterix comic series!  Cartoon characters acquiring brain injury.   Who or What Are Asterix Comics For those of you who might have missed  Asterix comics -I might have if not for a son devoted to them. Including wanting me to cook wild boar in cream sauce! In Australia. This is a series of comics first published in 1959. Set in ancient Rome in 50BC. The main characters are Asterix and his close friend Obelix, fictional soldiers protecting their village of Gaul from the Roman army. Only 34 volumes…

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What To Expect: Neuropsychological Assessment After Brain Injury.

A neuropsychological assessment after brain injury is often recommended. In my experience this can be a source of worry to people living with brain injury and their families. Concerns include how this will be done and what the benefit will be. A support worker recently asked me how they could support a person who was about to have a neuropsychological assessment after brain injury. This lead me to try and answer some common questions here. This article will briefly look at: [unordered_list style="tick"] Why Neuropsychological assessment might be done. Steps that might be taken to prepare for the assessment. What is likely to happen in the assessment. What is assessed. What a person living with brain injury, and their family might get from the assessment. [/unordered_list]   Why Undertake A Neuropsychological Assessment After Brain Injury? To provide information to people involved; For the person with the injury, their family  and supporters such as where damage might have occurred and its impact on…

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10 Favourite Brain Injury Posts – An Anniversary Selection

Happy Anniversary Changed Lives New Journeys – it is two years and 110 posts since I began writing this blog, about brain injury. I thought I would choose a random selection of 10 favourite posts about brain injury from the past two years. The following are chosen for a range of reasons which I will try and summarise below:   1.  A Space Known as Liminal and Traumatic Brain Injury. This article was one I really enjoyed from idea to publishing. From research to writing. It also drew more comment and conversation than any other post.    2.  “I’m So Tired My Brain Hurts” Cognitive Fatigue. Cognitive fatigue has been the topic that has drawn the most interest and comment. And it continues to do so.      3.  Storytelling and Storylistening: Brain Injury Through Stories Through researching this article I was able to share a little about how I can follow ideas and end up in a very different place to…

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Read more about the article Diagnosis of Dementia: Reflections from Anne Deveson
Diagnosis of Dementia Photo of Anne Deveson Wikipedia Dman41689

Diagnosis of Dementia: Reflections from Anne Deveson

I have just read an interview with Anne Deveson on her recent diagnosis of brain injury – more specifically Alzheimer's Disease. Anne describes an approach to a diagnosis of dementia that contains hope and strength, not just the devastation one might expect. It linked to a question that occupies my thinking -  how would I respond in a similar situation? Anne is  a person who has influenced my thinking over the years. A strong, articulate advocate on a wide range of social justice issues. I see that again now as she publicly describes her responses to her diagnosis of dementia. It provides a potential answer to my own question. Firstly quotes from Anne about her diagnosis from a recent interview, and a brief introduction to her work.   Reflections on a Diagnosis of Dementia The following reflections are quotes from ‘National treasure Anne Deveson faces up to Alzheimer's diagnosis” by Fenella Souter in The Age Good Weekend January 13th 2015 [button link="http://www.theage.com.au/good-weekend/national-treasure-anne-deveson-faces-up-to-alzheimers-diagnosis-20150130-12mpwo.html" size="large" style="info" color="silver"…

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Read more about the article Looking From the Outside: Learning about Soldiers With Brain Injury
Soldiers Marching Wikipedia

Looking From the Outside: Learning about Soldiers With Brain Injury

  Today you are reading the remnants of what was to be a grand and enlightening piece about soldiers with brain injury. You might ask - Well what happened? [unordered_list style="green-dot"] You can see the beginning last  week in a "Rant for Remembrance Day". It was much, much, bigger and more complex than I thought. Brain injury - Post traumatic stress disorder - shell shock - the circumstances of war. It was more emotional and difficult than I thought. The human stories, the lack of support for veterans - anger, sorrow, guilt, disbelief, horror and more. I kept doubting I could. The more I read, the more I wondered - What did I really know about soldiers with brain injury and their lives? [/unordered_list] You might then ask - Why did I keep going? [unordered_list style="green-dot"] I was learning so much and I wondered if sharing what I found might interest other people. My belief that this story needs to continue to…

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Read more about the article Brain Myth Busters and Debunkers
Brain Myth Buster. Flickr Image by Hartwig HKD

Brain Myth Busters and Debunkers

  Sorting fact from fiction. Sorting brain myth from fact, can be difficult, especially when using the internet for information. Since beginning Changed Lives New Journeys I have learned much more about many aspects of the brain, and brain injury. Researching brain myths in these past weeks I realised one of my major learnings has been “Believe no-one. Check it out for yourself.”    Believe it or Not: a Brain Myth vs Fact Story The following story is to illustrate the differing views that can arise when researching facts, information, treatment, and therapies. About a year ago while researching an article on the causes of brain injury I came across a TED talk by Dr Amen entitled The most important lesson from 83,000 brain scans. I watched and I was impressed. it looked amazing and I wanted to believe it possible.  I looked up a bit more about Dr Amen and thought at first I would share the talk.  It seemed like…

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Read more about the article Brain Injury Happens To ANYONE
Image by Chris Scott

Brain Injury Happens To ANYONE

Brain Injury can and does happen to anyone. Brain injury happens to many many people across the world. This is one of the reasons I believe brain injury deserves much more of our attention and understanding. We all need to be better informed. We all need to have a real understanding of how brain injury affects the 10 million plus people around the world who live with it. I don’t mean the movie world presentation of brain injury, nor the way it is often presented in our news. This week my dear friend and “roving reporter” who sends me interesting snippets about brain injury sent me an article “Research shows that American football can ignore the dangers of trauma no longer”. This  prompted today’s topic. The article brought to my mind two directions I have noticed in recent news media presentations about brain injury. The first is that brain injury happens to ‘other’ people. The second is that brain injury makes people…

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