The information out there needs to be filtered. The total rest concept is old and not supported by more recent understanding. The mild stimulation is valuable to encourage good blood flow. The rewiring, plasticity, and neuro-regeneration all fall into the same concept. i.e. How does the brain respond to injury ? What is often missing is the criteria for each concept. More severe injuries have a potential for a greater recovery. With proper rehab, the brain will find ways to get functional.

Then there is relative levels of injury and recovery. The lesser injuries, concussions, will see improvements but not as drastic as the severe injuries. For example. With a severe TBI, the patient may recover from a 2 or 3 out of 10 to a 7 or 8 out of 10. That is quite a recovery. Wow, almost dead to able to walk and talk and feed oneself and even carry on a conversation.

For a concussion, the patient is only injured to a 7 or 8. Recovering to an 8 or 9 is common but considered problematic. We often start our recovery where others hope to finish their recovery.

Most plasticity comments are about the severely injured. Their brains find new ways of doing a function. So, they go from no function or minimally functional to able to function.

The research shows that for people like us, we attain much of our recovery by learning new ways to function. Fighting a dysfunction rarely gets us to a restoration of that function. Learning new ways to do that function can get us back to a 'sense' of normal functioning.

Neurogenesis, if it truly happens, is a slow process. It is more of a maintenance process than a healing process. The brain does not grow new brain cells to replace damaged ones. The belief is that it is constantly but slowly adding brain cells. But, that regeneration slows as we age. Plus, those new cells still need to be 'programmed.' If you think of it, most of our brain's programming took place over a decade or two, birth to 25 years old.

Most of the healing of brain cells happens in the first few days to a few weeks. By then, the brain has decided which damaged cells have healed to a functional level and which have not. Those that have not are shut down. The brain has a signalling process that shuts down dysfunctional cells.

The mild stimulation is valuable at getting good blood flow to the cells that are trying to recover.

The brain can get stagnant. If it is not used, the cells can go sort of dormant. So, this mild stimulation helps keep these cells from going dormant. Those dormant cells can be rehabilitated by use. It appears some of these cells go dormant in a sort of 'duck for cover' action. Stress causes dysfunction so they 'duck for cover' from the stress.

Moving forward from where we are is the best path. Trying to live life as we used to will cause stress and dysfunction. Having a family willing to make accommodations is extremely beneficial.