"I routinely score >140 in online IQ tests. "
not to underestimate your intelligence, but those online tests are a joke. I can easily score above 135... grossly overrated, I am not a genius... trust me

Even before my accident, I never put too much store in the whole IQ thing. Some of the stupidist (lacked common sense, social skills, etc...) people I ever met had high IQs. Now that I've had my accident, I'm glad that I was always someone who tried to look at the whole person and never (as my posts show) took myself too seriously.

Yeah, I can't do the NY Times Crossword anymore, but I'm still kind, generous and honest.

I do, however, understand needing to be in certain place before one can be ready to hear the full extent on one's injuries. It was over a year after I woke up before I had my neuro-psych. Had I had it in the first few months, I would have lacked the insight to believe it. Up until around the year mark or so I was battling so many physical injuries that one more piece of bad news might have thrown me into an emotional tailspin. I still have moments of disbelief, anger and depression, but, overall, I'm doing my best to move forward.

Cheers

Hockey,

I never could do the NY Times crossword. My word recall has always been my week point. Even my Verbal SAT was always a struggle. I have come to realize in the past decade that my verbal processing has been much less that my abstract and technical (hard science/math/physics) skills. I believe it has been a result of my concussions. Yet, even in the period just after my bad concussion at 10 years old, I always lead my classes in reading speed and comprehension.

btw, My 84 year old mother still does the NYT crossword in pen. She can finish it through Wednesday. Thursday usually gives her a struggle. My neuro believes I get much my neuro genetics from her heritage of Northern Europeans. He noticed genetic traits in my qEEG wave forms. I don't know if he is a racist, too or just a researcher who noticed strong patterns in Northern European brain waveforms.

With my struggles with verbal mental functions, I would have made a horrible attorney. They can get so wrapped up in convoluted words. I like a simpler verbal structure.

The best test of intellectual capabilities I have ever taken was the Armed Forces Exam. I took it in high school when they were doing research with it. Today it is called the ASVAB. It includes a lot of spacial relations and other non-academic skills. I can still do quite well if I am not rushed, especially if I can jot things down to help with my memory struggles.

I got my neuro-psych report about 14 months after my injury. The timing was about right for me too. Earlier, I was still too confused.

I learned an important fact about brain injury the other day. After a minor brain trauma, imaging needs to be done on the third day. If it is done sooner, the mild injury will not yet be visible. If it is done too long after the third day, the body will have absorbed the damaged cells and filled the area with the existing good cells from the adjoining area.

I watch lectures from University of Washinton and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute on the Research Channel. Neurology is a common topic. I learned that there are over 5000 different classes of neurons. The complexity of how the brain develops and specializes makes any hope of broad use stem cell therapy for brain injury to be a far off dream.

They will need to learn how to turn on the specific specialization signals so that the new grafted cells will have the correct specialization. Then, they will need to wait as these cells make connections to the correct adjoining cells. It is a very complex network structure of binary development.

A comparison would be writing computer software in binary. It has taken the industry decades to add to the binary codes developed starting in the 1940's. Each level of new binary coding doubles the combinations in the network.

"Now that I've had my accident, I'm glad that I was always someone who tried to look at the whole person and never (as my posts show) took myself too seriously."

Very nicely said... a sure sign of high social intelligence .

Interesting comment about 'social intelligence.' Brain injury often leads to limits in social functioning. High social intelligence would sound like it is a desired characteristic.

The study of social intelligence appears to be exactly the opposite. It appears to create categories of function that serve to discriminate against the person who has a limit in their social intelligence. The appears to be a goal of attempting to cause all people to be homogeneous in social intelligence.

It is like the study of IQ. It tends to label people in such a way as to divide them. I have never looked at IQ as a differentiating characteristic as far as personal value goes. I see it as a differential as to the responsibilities of various persons. Just as I know that I am not a very creative minded person, someone who is not of a high IQ is no less valuable. The defining factor is what a person does with their strong skills versus their weak skills. If the high IQ person tries to lord over the lower IQ but highly creative person, the former is deficient in that personal characteristic.

My Senior Prom date was 3rd ranked in our class. She went to Smith College, then Georgetown Law. She is an intellectual snob by her comments at our 20th class reunion. This creates the elitism that limits valid discussion. It appears that many of our government leaders are intellectual snobs.

We need a way to help society understand the value of understanding from all levels of accomplishment. I'd rather be stuck in a hurricane with a back woods person from Kentucky than with most college professors.

My brain injury has caused me to become even more aware of the limits but value to society of all people. I was taught this as a Biblical concept as I was growing up. Now, with a change in how I can receive information, I better understand the frustrations of others. Rather than me pushing others to accomplish to my standards, I know that the desired standards vary from individual to individual.

For years I have wanted to create a method for testing these capacities without the indepth psychological intrusion common in our schools. Last night I watched a show called Boss Undercover. It had the President of Waste Management working at entry level jobs in his company. His eyes were opened wide by what he observed. His empathy for the work environment of his employees grew exponentially. Rather than seeing them as employees numbers and statistics, they became humans.

I have observed that our educational system tends to try to force all brain functions through the same square hole. Add a brain injury and the system breaks down and fails miserably.

What can we do about this?

I do not believe that my 'social intelligence' are compromised with my PCS, but my abilities to use my social skills are underutilized due to the physical limitations i experience at the moment. This fact is a very difficult to accept.

My social skills have suffered since my injury. I am not that great at censoring what I say and I can have explosions of temper over nothing. It's both terrifying and depressing to feel so out of control.

I also find that my other TBI symptoms like speech difficulties, mobility problems, noise issues and just plain old fatigue, undermine my social skills and my social life.

Frankly, I prefer to be alone now.

Cheers