>> THIS IS DELIGHTFUL! I love everything about this! <<
Yay! I'm happy to hear that.
>> I'm going to check out those PCS more thoroughly links later too. I pretty much established my own protocol for recovery because (browsing for info was hard and) most info was just about rest. <<
Rest is important but often insufficient. Think about if you twist your ankle, there's RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. Each of those things treats a different part of the problem. After the acute phase of healing, then you have to reintroduce motion, gently at first. A challenge is that humans don't know nearly as much about how the brain works as how other parts of the body works. That makes it hard to fix.
>> My protocol involved learning to play a musical instrument, and radically overcoming several lifelong patterns of thinking/behaving by assuming this was the perfect, and hopefully once-in-a-lifetime, chance to change my entire brain wholesale. <<
That sounds like you stumbled onto the "creative change" approach, so definitely look more into that one. Brains are plastic; nerves are stubborn; these two things are equally true. Also, music is often helpful because it has its own little corner of the brain and is good stimulation.
>> All of that got me through the rough year when I couldn't paint or write at all, but I do still have some speech, writing, and memory problems, so I'm really excited to see some of the stuff mentioned in the resources. <<
I did find some good things. I have also researched brain injuries for several other characters. There is a lot about it in Love Is For Children because of Bucky, starting with "No Winter Lasts Forever." (I'll warn you his is pretty bad at first, because HYDRA.) There is some scattered through Shiv's thread due to extensive child abuse, plus odds and ends elsewhere.
Speech issues -- If you haven't tried consulting a speech therapist, practical linguist, or voice coach yet then those are options to consider if it's enough to bother you. Knowing whether the problem is in the nerves/muscles of the mouth or in the brain might help figure out how to work around it. A quirk of brain damage is that sometimes it'll impair speech but not singing, which is one way to distinguish. If there are also eating difficulties, that's more often mechanical damage. Some of the solutions are pretty interesting; one option is to practice sounds while watching wave files of your voice compared to a target pattern. The visual feedback makes it easier to get the changes right. If it's a word-loss issue, that's often from damage to the filing system rather than the vocabulary itself, so focusing on recreating links can help.
* Writing -- Again, it's helpful to know whether the problem is mechanical (hand, arm, etc.) or neurological (either the transmission of the signal, or the brain just isn't processing "writing" information properly). Useful in general, some people have found practicing calligraphy to help. I'd consider a Zen board for practice because it's so reusable; you write with water.
* Memory -- Meditation changes the brain. It's one of the few direct access routes we have, and the least risky or invasive one. Depending on how much effort someone puts in, the effects range from modest to developing superpowers like monks drying wet sheets with body heat in the snow instead of dying from hypothermia like an ordinary person. Meditation is good for memory, but even better for focus and attention span. Another option is hypnosis, for people who are good at that type of trancework; think of it as a way to access your mind's operating system so you can adjust settings as desired. It's very popular for studying. If you like utterly ridiculous games, then I highly recommend We Didn't Playtest This at All. There's a feature where sometimes you have to remember to do something, like say "Aaaa! Zombies!" before your turn; it's harder than it sounds, but a very fun way to practice something that is a notoriously hated exercise in mindfulness (the traditional one is called the Doorway Exercise).
A general factor is whether the damage is widely distributed (e.g. from oxygen loss or high pressure) or concentrated in one or two places (e.g. from blunt trauma or a penetrating injury). With distributed damage it's little bits of loss everywhere, easier to patch but harder to route around. With concentrated damage, there may be areas of total loss and others untouched, so harder to patch but easier just to move the functions to an undamaged and not highly used area. Problems in specific functions, like language, tend to happen from damage to the part of the brain dedicated to those functions. If other things are fine then it's likely a more concentrated issue. Some people have used biofeedback in attempt to move functions mindfully -- I don't know how common that is -- and the brain's general plasticity shows evidence that it tends to rewire itself naturally, better in some cases than others.
Brains are complex and interesting. Brain researchers have come up with some really far-out ideas to try. So if you're exploring ways to fix your brain, that's a good idea; the stuff actually offered tends to be pretty conservative and not necessarily helpful, but the cutting-edge stuff offers all kinds of things you might like to try. Use common sense about what seems safe or promising to you.
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dancing_serpent
Thank you!
Date: 2022-01-13 04:55 am (UTC)Yay! I'm happy to hear that.
>> I'm going to check out those PCS more thoroughly links later too. I pretty much established my own protocol for recovery because (browsing for info was hard and) most info was just about rest. <<
Rest is important but often insufficient. Think about if you twist your ankle, there's RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. Each of those things treats a different part of the problem. After the acute phase of healing, then you have to reintroduce motion, gently at first. A challenge is that humans don't know nearly as much about how the brain works as how other parts of the body works. That makes it hard to fix.
>> My protocol involved learning to play a musical instrument, and radically overcoming several lifelong patterns of thinking/behaving by assuming this was the perfect, and hopefully once-in-a-lifetime, chance to change my entire brain wholesale. <<
That sounds like you stumbled onto the "creative change" approach, so definitely look more into that one. Brains are plastic; nerves are stubborn; these two things are equally true. Also, music is often helpful because it has its own little corner of the brain and is good stimulation.
>> All of that got me through the rough year when I couldn't paint or write at all, but I do still have some speech, writing, and memory problems, so I'm really excited to see some of the stuff mentioned in the resources. <<
I did find some good things. I have also researched brain injuries for several other characters. There is a lot about it in Love Is For Children because of Bucky, starting with "No Winter Lasts Forever." (I'll warn you his is pretty bad at first, because HYDRA.) There is some scattered through Shiv's thread due to extensive child abuse, plus odds and ends elsewhere.
Speech issues -- If you haven't tried consulting a speech therapist, practical linguist, or voice coach yet then those are options to consider if it's enough to bother you. Knowing whether the problem is in the nerves/muscles of the mouth or in the brain might help figure out how to work around it. A quirk of brain damage is that sometimes it'll impair speech but not singing, which is one way to distinguish. If there are also eating difficulties, that's more often mechanical damage. Some of the solutions are pretty interesting; one option is to practice sounds while watching wave files of your voice compared to a target pattern. The visual feedback makes it easier to get the changes right. If it's a word-loss issue, that's often from damage to the filing system rather than the vocabulary itself, so focusing on recreating links can help.
* Writing -- Again, it's helpful to know whether the problem is mechanical (hand, arm, etc.) or neurological (either the transmission of the signal, or the brain just isn't processing "writing" information properly). Useful in general, some people have found practicing calligraphy to help. I'd consider a Zen board for practice because it's so reusable; you write with water.
* Memory -- Meditation changes the brain. It's one of the few direct access routes we have, and the least risky or invasive one. Depending on how much effort someone puts in, the effects range from modest to developing superpowers like monks drying wet sheets with body heat in the snow instead of dying from hypothermia like an ordinary person. Meditation is good for memory, but even better for focus and attention span. Another option is hypnosis, for people who are good at that type of trancework; think of it as a way to access your mind's operating system so you can adjust settings as desired. It's very popular for studying. If you like utterly ridiculous games, then I highly recommend We Didn't Playtest This at All. There's a feature where sometimes you have to remember to do something, like say "Aaaa! Zombies!" before your turn; it's harder than it sounds, but a very fun way to practice something that is a notoriously hated exercise in mindfulness (the traditional one is called the Doorway Exercise).
A general factor is whether the damage is widely distributed (e.g. from oxygen loss or high pressure) or concentrated in one or two places (e.g. from blunt trauma or a penetrating injury). With distributed damage it's little bits of loss everywhere, easier to patch but harder to route around. With concentrated damage, there may be areas of total loss and others untouched, so harder to patch but easier just to move the functions to an undamaged and not highly used area. Problems in specific functions, like language, tend to happen from damage to the part of the brain dedicated to those functions. If other things are fine then it's likely a more concentrated issue. Some people have used biofeedback in attempt to move functions mindfully -- I don't know how common that is -- and the brain's general plasticity shows evidence that it tends to rewire itself naturally, better in some cases than others.
Brains are complex and interesting. Brain researchers have come up with some really far-out ideas to try. So if you're exploring ways to fix your brain, that's a good idea; the stuff actually offered tends to be pretty conservative and not necessarily helpful, but the cutting-edge stuff offers all kinds of things you might like to try. Use common sense about what seems safe or promising to you.