When we first came to Canada, my father’s colleague introduced us to the frightening delight of sailing in a tippy boat on a lake with capricious winds in Ontario. Pretty soon, my Dad had his own centreboard sailboat, one that was a little more stable than his colleague’s Albacore. Back then, only rich fat…
Tag: Emotions
Post Brain Injury and PTSD: What Happens If Re-Traumatized?
What happens if one is re-traumatized? If one witnesses something similar to one’s own trauma, especially after acquiring PTSD and/or a brain injury? Like anyone who watches a human bounce off a windshield and fly through the air, you gasp, your heart pounds, you freeze or rush to help. But I did something different in…
Hypnotizing Memories
Hypnotism is a strange, scary process. You put your mind under the control of another’s mind. So you gotta really trust that other person. I didn’t. But after an old friend suicided recently, and my fragmented memories wouldn’t let me remember her properly and were also disturbing my body’s humours (such an old term but…
Growing Social Media Divide Leads to Bad Advice
I’m not often told it might be good to avoid Twitter or to give it a break, but when I am — and when others with brain injury are — it’s by people not on Twitter or who have a lurking-only account. And who don’t know or understand how I use it. They’re unhelpful. They’re…
How Much Does Social Isolation Slow Down Recovery from Brain Injury? PTSD?
I had a thought (I know, so odd): how much does social isolation, systemic inaccessibility, and opprobrium from family, friends, lawyers, health care professionals, etc. slow down recovery from brain injury and/or PTSD? We’ve read of studies* showing positive effects on the heart of socially cohesive neighbourhoods, lifelong negative effects on children of lack of…
Endless Saturday, the Day Between Good Friday and Easter Sunday
It’s Endless Saturday. I used to call it Waiting Saturday. Like that day when Jesus’s disciples, particularly the women, waited for the Sabbath to be over so that they could visit his grave; like that day, the day after tragedy struck, and no one knew what to do other than wait, my life was one…
What’s it Like to Recover from a Brain Injury?
What’s it like to recover from a brain injury? Well, it leads to odd moments like this: Therapist: Give yourself credit. Me: For what? Therapist: For booking the tickets. Me: *blink* Thinks: I know how to book tickets. I’ve booked tickets since I was so young, I can’t recall when. *scowls* Therapist: You booked the…
Gamma Brainwave Biofeedback and the Healing of Emotions in PTSD and Brain Injury
Brain injury can lead to emotions turning off, short circuiting, the frontal lobes not mediating the reptilian brain. PTSD can lead to emotions being blocked. Having the two makes mood and feeling emotions like being on a rudderless ship in an unpredictable gale. So where does gamma brainwave biofeedback fit in? If brain biofeedback or…
We Humans are Social; We are Not Meant to Abandon our Sick and Injured
This is not an easy post to write — I don’t even know if I want to write it. Deep breath. Here goes (assuming autocorrect doesn’t stop me in my tracks!). Personality re-creation (shifting) is a neurophysiological process that is shaped by psychology, as I see it. Emotionally, it gets a little hairy. Think adolescence…