Internal Something: You Look Great! - Inside A TBI

INTERNAL SOMETHING

You Look Great!
Inside A TBI

This installment is not technically about me, but is about a film and a book by a survivor of TBI, or Traumatic Brain Injury.

First, to get records straight, what I am personally dealing with, while very similar to TBI, may or may not be specifically that. TBI is a form of ABI, or Acquired Brain Injury... and much like how all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares, TBI is a form of ABI. Brain injury is acquired through many means, and physical trauma is one of the most common. Many people just lump them all under the banner of TBI, but I wanted to make the distinction here.

I say that my personal experiences may not be TBI because to be brutally honest, I am still not entirely sure what happened mid-September that set these wheels further in motion. While I have sustained many head injuries throughout my life, what I know for a fact about recent experiences is only that my brain suffered a loss of blood, leading to a definite ABI. Whether, in September, my head was physically impacted in addition to my spine/neck is really beyond my recollection. The memory is just not there.

So I will merely go with walking a fine line between ABI and TBI, while recognizing that that line exists... The catalyst is different, but the results and effects are similar, if not the same.


Now, about the film. Below is a truncated six-minute video from a survivor of TBI, putting into words and visuals many of the things that I have been wanting and intending to write about here in my blog. Not all of the experiences are exactly the same as mine, but enough are close to have put me to tears while simultaneously smiling from ear to ear. Someone else knows. Someone else realizes that other people don't.

While I still plan and need to get my own experiences out into structure and words, I highly recommend this film to anyone who may or may not have any desire to "get" what I and many others have been going through.

The full 55-minute long film can be seen on YouTube in 6 separate parts, or at the following link: https://vimeo.com/25150928


As for the book, it is filled with many more details, and was written as a helpful resource for survivors and carers alike to help assist them through awareness, acknowledgement, acceptance, and hopeful recovery through an experience that is typically very confusing, frustrating, frightening, and equally amazing. It is compiled from the experiences of survivors alone, and not medical professionals who often have never experienced life with a brain injury.

It is available in physical form and also on the Kindle app (how I am reading it) and it is well worth the time and small amount of money. I have set out to highlight every aspect that jumps out to me as something I can relate to or have wished to express to others, and I honestly don't think I've ever highlighted so much in a book in my life.

The book can be obtained here: http://www.amazon.com/You-Look-Great-Strategies-Living/dp/1463621248

I am only personally 14% through the book, but I am already highly recommending these to everyone. I hope to hear from anyone who might watch or read, survivors or carers alike, and I would definitely like to thank John C. Byler for putting the effort and struggle into creating these wonderful resources. They are much needed.


"Let me show you the world in my eyes..." -- Depeche Mode, "World In My Eyes"