For TBIs, Stroke Victims and anyone who will themselves find it helpful or have a loved one for whom it might helpful.
July 14, 2012
There are two schools of thought on neurological injuries:
School 1 Your system is fried and damaged- all those synapses that have gone unused are useless- plus you just lost more. This school of thought believes in neurological death.
School 2 Your system has been fried and damaged - however it can be re-routed and even files and synapses that have laid dormant can still be re-activitated and utilized to form a new neural network.
The second school of thought is the one I subscribe to and my belief in it has over the course of many years and literally thousands of hours of work has meant I can write this. Writing was the skill I felt I most needed back because it would give me means to communicate and remember.
I have been attempting to recover and form a recovery plans, protocols and systems for the last ten years..with a brain injury “Welcome to South Carolina”. Per being a brain injury trying to construct such systems- and rememebr them and maintain them and being able execute them it has been hit or miss.
I write/say this because should this find an individual or a family in a similar situation choose the school of thought #2 believe you can recover - make that your life’s work. Its still mine and my hope is what it was ten years ago and still is today: I can and will recover from this.
I am told that is unrealistic which is quite possibly true however what is there to lose in trying? That and the other hope that some of what I’ve learned may help someone/s if I pass it on.
Dizziness
Dizziness is broad term applied…broadly and manifests differently- I have at least 3 separate dizzy ness experience that aren‘t listed here.
Dizziness 1 I know for me my dizziness varies- it’s not always the same but it is in part rooted in what’s called “atypical”s, for me there‘s been a whole host of atypicals which means either a) there isn‘t a vocabulary word for it b) there is a vocabulary word for it but I can‘t describe it in a manner for which the medical practitioner can recognize it or c) it has a term but the practitioner isn‘t aware of it.
I’m sorry the writings so all over the place below but if you have an atypical visual problem try polarized lenses as well as those given to diabetics and people with night vision issues. Go to a Doc with a wide array and see what your eye-brain connection responds to.
For me polarized gradually helped me to stop seeing everything in flashing, rotating triplicates. They can and still do help because they flatten out an image, make it less complex, easier for the brain to decode.
In conjunction with that approach I use/d a non polarized lens in a similar shade - in my case it was yellow. Kodak lenses makes an entire range of colors and I recommend them highly. They are pricey, I’m fortunate because at the time I had the money to invest in the goal that “Someday I Will Not See in everything flashing and rotating on top of each other”.
I’m also fortunate because I believed- I had decided, like I do every day that I will heal from this…but of course that was one manifestation of my atypical visual problem and in that one kind of dizziness.
Dizzyness 2 Your eyes are not under your own control but flit out. I can’t say I’ve found a solution to this but after 2 years of yoga my balance has gotten good enough that I can close my eyes. Voluntary blindness I call it and it works for times when my eyes are essentially doing their own thing. If you have the balance for it AND definitely walls, counters or furniture close at hand try voluntary blindness.
Dizzyness 3
There are times when I have to do things- because there is no one else- and that means no matter how dizzy I am I have to walk. I have to make my body do it. Any one who has been there or is there beware of the muscle tense - because it’s like the “light-as-a-feather-stiff-as-a-board” thing from slumber parties: if you tense everything up somehow you can stay and be upright. Problem is it causes problems so beware of that particular physical coping technique.
But like I said sometimes I have to make my body do things it can’t really do, a practice I am trying to avoid as much I can in accordance with a good bit of medical advice of lowering my tipping point. Good advice I received about 6 months ago and it has had benefits- but that’s my magic carpet story and I’d really like to be able to write it well- though may just wind up in my annuls of “try this”.
Anyway- if you are hyper dizzy but you have to walk essentially you want
a) to walk slowly- do not rely on momentum to compensate because if you’re like me - well let’s hope you’re not
b) play/make a visual version of Hansel and Gretel’s breadcrumbs.
Find a single spot/item- something that won’t move or be moved (passersby can cause an interruption and if you’re having to employ this strategy just be aware of that and try to pick things that have the lowest probability of that visual interruption occurring.- If it does: stop and wait until you’ve re-steadied.
When you can pick out what the next visual breadcrumb (stationary object) will be switch to that and the next and the next. I find when I’m dizzy, especially when I’m in a public space, this really, really helps and helps me avoid locking my muscles.
The Hansel and Gretel visual breadcrumb thing may sound obvious to you the reader but what I know is in ten years no medical practitioner ever told me about it… I say that but in the early years I couldn’t remember much of anything so I have to acknowledge that as well.
How cognitively dizzy was I? I remember at a little over year three I was thrilled by a particular bit of progress: I no longer had to pull out my checkbook when asked for my address, I could finally remember it all on my own. I know then- though fortunately I didn‘t know then- plenty of people find, and found, that extremely funny/amusing/ delightful/entertaining.
I could say more about dizziness but won’t at the moment just that those tricks have helped. Also beware not only of tensing like a board so as to stay erect but also of leaning and using your wrist joints to steady you- the damage that has been to my wrists via that is just frightening. Also if you have to utilize that joint for balance: NOTE THE ANGLE. How extreme is it? Etc.
Oh- and don’t lock your knees? Or try to notice if you are- I do that a lot because again it keeps me upright.
July 14, 2012
There are two schools of thought on neurological injuries:
School 1 Your system is fried and damaged- all those synapses that have gone unused are useless- plus you just lost more. This school of thought believes in neurological death.
School 2 Your system has been fried and damaged - however it can be re-routed and even files and synapses that have laid dormant can still be re-activitated and utilized to form a new neural network.
The second school of thought is the one I subscribe to and my belief in it has over the course of many years and literally thousands of hours of work has meant I can write this. Writing was the skill I felt I most needed back because it would give me means to communicate and remember.
I have been attempting to recover and form a recovery plans, protocols and systems for the last ten years..with a brain injury “Welcome to South Carolina”. Per being a brain injury trying to construct such systems- and rememebr them and maintain them and being able execute them it has been hit or miss.
I write/say this because should this find an individual or a family in a similar situation choose the school of thought #2 believe you can recover - make that your life’s work. Its still mine and my hope is what it was ten years ago and still is today: I can and will recover from this.
I am told that is unrealistic which is quite possibly true however what is there to lose in trying? That and the other hope that some of what I’ve learned may help someone/s if I pass it on.
Dizziness
Dizziness is broad term applied…broadly and manifests differently- I have at least 3 separate dizzy ness experience that aren‘t listed here.
Dizziness 1 I know for me my dizziness varies- it’s not always the same but it is in part rooted in what’s called “atypical”s, for me there‘s been a whole host of atypicals which means either a) there isn‘t a vocabulary word for it b) there is a vocabulary word for it but I can‘t describe it in a manner for which the medical practitioner can recognize it or c) it has a term but the practitioner isn‘t aware of it.
I’m sorry the writings so all over the place below but if you have an atypical visual problem try polarized lenses as well as those given to diabetics and people with night vision issues. Go to a Doc with a wide array and see what your eye-brain connection responds to.
For me polarized gradually helped me to stop seeing everything in flashing, rotating triplicates. They can and still do help because they flatten out an image, make it less complex, easier for the brain to decode.
In conjunction with that approach I use/d a non polarized lens in a similar shade - in my case it was yellow. Kodak lenses makes an entire range of colors and I recommend them highly. They are pricey, I’m fortunate because at the time I had the money to invest in the goal that “Someday I Will Not See in everything flashing and rotating on top of each other”.
I’m also fortunate because I believed- I had decided, like I do every day that I will heal from this…but of course that was one manifestation of my atypical visual problem and in that one kind of dizziness.
Dizzyness 2 Your eyes are not under your own control but flit out. I can’t say I’ve found a solution to this but after 2 years of yoga my balance has gotten good enough that I can close my eyes. Voluntary blindness I call it and it works for times when my eyes are essentially doing their own thing. If you have the balance for it AND definitely walls, counters or furniture close at hand try voluntary blindness.
Dizzyness 3
There are times when I have to do things- because there is no one else- and that means no matter how dizzy I am I have to walk. I have to make my body do it. Any one who has been there or is there beware of the muscle tense - because it’s like the “light-as-a-feather-stiff-as-a-board” thing from slumber parties: if you tense everything up somehow you can stay and be upright. Problem is it causes problems so beware of that particular physical coping technique.
But like I said sometimes I have to make my body do things it can’t really do, a practice I am trying to avoid as much I can in accordance with a good bit of medical advice of lowering my tipping point. Good advice I received about 6 months ago and it has had benefits- but that’s my magic carpet story and I’d really like to be able to write it well- though may just wind up in my annuls of “try this”.
Anyway- if you are hyper dizzy but you have to walk essentially you want
a) to walk slowly- do not rely on momentum to compensate because if you’re like me - well let’s hope you’re not
b) play/make a visual version of Hansel and Gretel’s breadcrumbs.
Find a single spot/item- something that won’t move or be moved (passersby can cause an interruption and if you’re having to employ this strategy just be aware of that and try to pick things that have the lowest probability of that visual interruption occurring.- If it does: stop and wait until you’ve re-steadied.
When you can pick out what the next visual breadcrumb (stationary object) will be switch to that and the next and the next. I find when I’m dizzy, especially when I’m in a public space, this really, really helps and helps me avoid locking my muscles.
The Hansel and Gretel visual breadcrumb thing may sound obvious to you the reader but what I know is in ten years no medical practitioner ever told me about it… I say that but in the early years I couldn’t remember much of anything so I have to acknowledge that as well.
How cognitively dizzy was I? I remember at a little over year three I was thrilled by a particular bit of progress: I no longer had to pull out my checkbook when asked for my address, I could finally remember it all on my own. I know then- though fortunately I didn‘t know then- plenty of people find, and found, that extremely funny/amusing/ delightful/entertaining.
I could say more about dizziness but won’t at the moment just that those tricks have helped. Also beware not only of tensing like a board so as to stay erect but also of leaning and using your wrist joints to steady you- the damage that has been to my wrists via that is just frightening. Also if you have to utilize that joint for balance: NOTE THE ANGLE. How extreme is it? Etc.
Oh- and don’t lock your knees? Or try to notice if you are- I do that a lot because again it keeps me upright.
