This is a link to the website of Jill Bolte Taylor. She is a neuroanatomist who had a stroke and fully recovered. She is extremely eloquent of mind/body/environment and what you need to do to recover from brain disease/damage, applicable well beyond stroke.

http://www.ted.com/speakers/view/id/203

This is the site I actually meant to post:

http://drjilltaylor.com/

The interview with Oprah is really worth a watch.

Also see New Scientist interview below, 19 April, 2008, No. 2652, pp. 42-43, excerpts in quotes -

On her method of recovery:

"My number one recommendation is sleep. The brain needs sleep. These cells have been traumatised. The person is totally burned out and fried, and they want to sleep. In our society, generally what happens in a rehabilitation environment is that wake-up time is at 7am. Everyone gets awakened. If you are a stroke survivor and are zoned out and don't want to be awake, you will be pumped full of amphetamines. Stimulus is stuck in your face, often in the form of a TV set in the room, sometimes literally a foot from your face. It's pure pain.

And then we keep these people awake through dinner. After dinner they're put back to bed. The idea is that if you're going to recover, you have to act like a normal person. If that had been my experience, honestly I would have chosen not to engage. There's no question in my mind that we're not treating stroke survivors effectively."

She attributes much of her recovery to her mother:

"I was in hospital for five days. On the morning of the third day my mother came to my side. Now, I didn't know what a mother was, much less who my mother was. She came in, acknowledged everyone in the room, and then immediately picked up the sheet and crawled into bed with me. I didn't know who this person was. I didn't know what this person was. All I knew was that this very kind woman just crawled into my bed, wrapped her arms around me and started rocking me, like I was her baby. And I was her baby. She just recognised that I was an infant again and that was that".