Writing is good for me. Writing a novel during NaNoWriMo is exciting and takes me out of the reality of my PTSD and brain injury. But writing can only do so much. And when reality intrudes in the form of a requested conversation with one’s insurance broker, the heart can go a little wonky. I…
Tag: Biofeedback
Reading a Sign While tDCS Stimulating Wernicke’s
ShireenJ (@ShireenJ) 2014-10-22, 8:59 AM @ADDCentre -> MT @mattgallowaycbc: great sign about distracted driving. RT @BrentToderian: Clever. Spread the word. pic.twitter.com/OKVyYrxWf7 When that tweet I MT’d came into view on my Twitter feed, it caught my attention, not for its rather obvious message, I mean who’s dumb enough to think texting and driving is a…
Write, No, Don’t Write, the War of Personalities
My brain biofeedback sessions always end with SMIRB — stop my irritating ruminations book. This week, I didn’t want to write during SMIRB. Or rather, a personality within me didn’t want me to write. For a few interminable seconds there, I thought I wouldn’t be able to start at all. For someone like me, this…
Brain Injury, Brain Healing, and Emerging Personality
I wrote on the back cover of my book Concussion Is Brain Injury that I had died when I suffered a closed head injury, not literally physically died, but the person that I was died that day. Since then, my health care professionals and I have talked on and off about who I am. This…
Reality is a Bad Dream
Now that the ADD Centre is training a second person with gamma brainwave biofeedback, they have begun asking me questions based on her feedback. Do you have vivid dreams, I was asked this week. Oh, I suddenly remembered, I did have a bad dream last week. Since my injury, I have not had nightmares or…
More Mines in the PTSD Minefield Courtesy of Brain Injury
In the spirit of my intention to write about my emotions since healing my traumatic memories, recovering the ability to feel is the part of my brain injury recovery I’ve barely touched, I write today’s post on new mines in my PTSD minefield. Deep breath. Before my brain injury I had this empathic ability to…
Do Therapists Need to be on Twitter?
Data don’t lie; you can’t hide from data. Mid-August my gamma brainwaves had dropped, my ever-spinning busy brain, heart rate, and muscle tension risen. Then my Pastor helped me make a necessary decision, and all my brainwaves returned to my normal the first week of September. I learnt a hard lesson about social media and…
Gamma Brainwave Training and Emotions in PTSD and Brain Injury
Two weeks ago, my biofeedback trainer re-assessed my brain at the PZ-O1 position — left back of skull. Last week we continued gamma brainwave biofeedback training at that position and will do so for ten sessions total. And then re-assess. Relief. My gamma was unusually low last week. It finally rose to my normal above-1.0…
PTSD, Getting Real, and the Fakery of Being Positive
Your smile and laugh have changed, my brain biofeedback trainer told me today. They’re real, she said. It’s true, I’m not faking emotions nearly as much or using my intellect to boost them to normal levels like I used to have to. She’s known me since 2005, and I’ve gradually been able to laugh more…