At my brain injury support group meeting last week, we had a very interesting speaker. He is a neuro-psychologist who explained how the brain works post concussion.

The important point to remember is that the brain works differently. I have told people many times that we usually need to learn new ways to learn. He added to that. The research shows that the average brain learns short cuts throughout life that make it very easy to take on complex tasks or multiple tasks.

It's like driving a car. When the car in front of you slows, you use a brain short cut to apply your brakes. Back in your early days of driving, you would have had to process the information as : That car is slowing down (sight to cognitive) I'm going to run into it (more cognitive) What should I do? (cognitive) Oh, I should apply the brakes (cognitive) Move foot from the gas to the brake pedal and push (muscle control/motor function)

The practiced brain has a short cut for that that goes directly from sight to motor control. There is no or very little cognitive involvement. They can observe these shortcuts with qEEG brain mapping.

The injured brain often looses these short cuts. For many, the short cut will slowly return to function or will be relearned/re-stimulated. For others, we lose the ability to access these shortcuts.

It's like that foreign language learned in high school but has not been used for decades. For some, they can quickly regain access to those old skills. For others, they would need to start over to learn that language.

The important point is this. When you return to work, you will be tempted to try to function just as you did prior to your concussion. Some may be able to do this. For those who struggle, they need to develop new ways to do things that were so easy previous to the concussion.

For many of this, we need to learn to Stop to Think to give our brain time to get the task done without trying to force the shortcut.

an_also, I would encourage you to start spending time on your computer doing the same tasks as you will do at work. Maybe a make-believe project. "If the Red Cross needed to promote issue XYZ, how could we develop a campaign to do that." Or analyze and redo poorly done ad campaigns you see around you. There would be not pressure to meet deadlines or other demands so you could take you time to learn how your brain works in this environment.

An example. We have a doc in the box chain of clinics that uses negative issues to promote their clinics. After seeing each ad, my wife and i come away with a negative sensation, not toward the clinic but as a result of hearing the injury or illness. They like to use people's irresponsible actions to create the need for a visit to Primary Health Clinic.

You could redesign the campaign as a "This is how I would do that." project like you likely did in college. The tasks are the same. The intensity would be lowered so you could learn your new ways of processing and executing the task.

Writing things down vs trying to remember will be important. If you meet somebody in the hall and they tell you something you need to remember and follow though on, even though in the past, you would remember and get it done successfully, now you may need to tell them, Send that idea to me in an email or text.

I suspect one of your struggles will be keeping up with verbal only communication. Using more written communication will solve most of that problem but you need to tell you coworkers that you need the written communication.

Start slow. Learn your new ways to work and you will be come a stronger person and able to accomplish much. If you try to force your new square peg brain into the old round peg brain hole, you will struggle and frustrate yourself.

Been there. Done that. Learned hard lessons.

My best to you.