The Hardest Thing of Mike's TBI Recovery? Acceptance!

In my post about TBI recovery and attitude, The Right Stuff, I mentioned the concept of acceptance. Shortly after writing about it, I was asked what was the hardest thing in my recovery. On reflection, I decided acceptance would have to be it! It's so difficult because acceptance is needed on so many different levels.

The first level is obvious, yes, I've had a brain injury. For me and many others, this one was or is easy! How else do I explain why I'm in a hospital bed with all of these jolly tubes sticking out of me?

The second level is a bit harder! It's accepting that, yes, I've had a brain injury and I can no longer do what I used to. Want to do something as simple as get from my bed to my chair? Whoa! What was once so easy is suddenly a massive undertaking! Done properly (and safely!), it involves me and at least two other experienced people.

The third level is the trickiest! Yes, I've had a brain injury, I can't do what I used to and I may never relearn to do it! So much has to be relearnt after many TBIs, it can be very hard to accept that the process of relearning might never restore the person I once was.

If you've had a TBI and this is the first time you've thought about acceptance at this third level, please don't despair. Accepting that you might not relearn to do stuff certainly doesn't stop you from having a jolly good crack at relearning it, as I'm doing now. Please see TBI recovery as not about restoring the old you, but as improving the current you! If you stop and think, you might well come to like what your TBI and your TBI recovery has made you become. I will write more about this shortly.

This third level of acceptance only takes up two of the first five paragraphs of this post. When I said it was the trickiest level, though, I wasn't joking! Indeed, Claudia Osbourn devotes an entire book (Over My Head) to discussing her road to this level of acceptance. I've described a little more of my own road here.

Cheers,
Mike