My physiatrist was talking to me about the concept of "recovery" today. He said that with TBI, it's important to remember that the brain will never go back exactly to the way it was before the injury, analogous to when a person has a stroke. However, in the majority of people who have had a mildTBI/concussion, new pathways around the injured part of the brain are created to compensate. That takes time, and while we may regain function, it won't be achieved the same way as before.

It's partly because of this that we are more acutely aware of how we feel and how we are doing -- so many parts of our lives had become "automatic," and now they are less so, as we make those new pathways. Once those pathways are better established, chances are these functions will become more automatic, too.