Quote:
Originally Posted by jamiesgirl
I was wondering whether people had trouble actually accepting that they'd had a TBI, or at least the severity of it? Did you go through a period of denial and if so, how long did that last?
Is this common? And I'm not sure how to deal with it. I don't want to agree with him, because he HAS had a TBI, but on the other hand I don't want to argue with him either. It's exasperating and upsetting.
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Sorry I feel lke I'm joining the thread a little late but I'll give my experience.
I had a feeling of denial the first several weeks after clearing post traumatic amnesia from my TBI; while an inpatient in the hospital neuro-rehab unit I couldn’t identify the year or where I was, but I still said there is nothing wrong with me and I needed to get back to work. Four weeks later when my neuro psych evaluation indicated deficits in spatial orientation, executive functions, and short term memory, all I could think about was “when are these people going to let me drive and release me to go back to work?” (I was in a wheelchair at the time so I wasn't able to drive anyway).
My wife tried to do multiplication flash cards with me to help improve memory and cognitive processing; I didn’t want to practice this because (1) I couldn’t do it and (2) I didn’t want to
admit I couldn’t do it.
When I began to realize I should be able to do certain things I couldn’t, I finally admitted I wasn’t quite ready to return to work and do all the things I used to do, I started trying harder doing the speech and occupational therapy exercises I was given. It took a while, probably six weeks total.
I think you are right that you can't agree with him, but arguing per se will be counter productive. For me,
specific examples of things I was having trouble with helped nudge me over to acceptance.