Broken up for summer

OK I’m going to come clean here. When I make a post, I have an idea and then I take a while honing it in my head, before I post it up. But not today.

Since my OU course finished for the summer, I’ve been feeling low and unconstructive. It took me a while to work out why. When I started my OU course, I remember my husband saying that I look as though I now “have purpose” in my life. And he was right.

Since the work is done for the year, I’ve gone back to that place where I’m just trying to pass the time. By watching YouTube and meaningless programmes on the telly.

I slumped to rock bottom a couple of days ago, and the usual thing happened. I thought okay, I’ll write a post up on the Headway forum. See if they get it. So yesterday I did just that.

Today I’ve been talking to all the people who replied to my post. We’re discussing how hard (impossible?) it is to find people who understand what’s going on. People who haven’t had a brain injury just don’t understand. I myself before my TBI had no idea what it would be like. But when I joined the forum, it was completely different. It’s folk who have had it happen to them too.

They know how difficult it can be. How people can’t physically see that you’ve had an injury and therefore it makes you, yourself, feel lonely. They get that.

They know how after having a brain injury it makes you feel as though you’re a different person now. Almost as though you don’t know who you are anymore. They get that.

The long time it takes after the injury to redefine who you now are, along with accepting the person before your injury is still part of the person you now are. They get that.

So why am I writing this? It’s simple. All those people who have replied to me today have made me feel better. Understood. They’ve empathised with me. Thank you to all of them.