Truly getting someone to understand an experience (ongoing experience) is one of the hardest things for us Human Beings to do... here are my thoughts about it:
If y'all didn't know, I'm in a few groups that are
specifically for people like me, or people helping people like me, with TBI's,
brain injuries of all kinds...
I try and assist with advice where I have experience, as
often as possible, but I find myself asking more questions internally than I
feel I am able to answer. Sure, this happens all of the time, to pretty much
all of us (even y'all without brain issues) & sometimes pretty often.
The thing is, though, despite frustrations about stuff that
nobody can crawl in and answer for me... I find that most people seeking
answers about helping themselves or others with brain injuries, well, we're all
in-the-dark about how to truly express what we're experiencing, what we're
seeing others experiencing, or how to adequately convey how it can affect our
lives in all-encompassing and long-term ways.
None of us can experience what someone else is, no matter
how much we care for them, no matter how much exposure to them we have, and no
matter how much empathy we feel with them. We simply cannot understand and
comprehend every aspect of an experience someone else is having. Impossible (as
of yet.)
How then, is a medical community full of anxiously awaiting
professionals supposed to clearly see/know what it is we're actually going
through in our day-to-day lives?
How are our Dr's supposed to know what we mean by, "I
can't sleep when I need to" or, "I'm not eating well"...? Both
of which could mean SO many different things for each and every patient with
numerous and deeply differing brain injuries that each affect us all
differently.
"I can't sleep when I need to" could mean to me
that 'I simply cannot fall asleep no matter how tired I am...' and to someone
else it could mean, 'I fall asleep but cannot stay asleep' - which are two
wholly differing things.
I cannot help but wonder how in the world any of us has kept
of surviving brain injuries, but I'm sure glad we have... I'll be even more
grateful to be alive when the medical community fully comprehends how intensely
life-altering brain injuries are to the patients, and especially to anyone who
is needed in order to help them to survive life with a TBI.