NeuroTalk Support Groups - What can I do to improve my recovery?

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- - What can I do to improve my recovery? (https://www.neurotalk.org/traumatic-brain-injury-and-post-concussion-syndrome/162136-improve-recovery.html)

Wakey,

Can we just agree to disagree? Any disagreement you have with the religion you were raised in is particular to your personal situation. I am sorry for you in that you appear to have been seriously negatively impacted by that experience.

This is not a forum for arguing the different points of the value of religion as it regards PCS and anxiety. People have the opportunity to choose how they believe about this subject. Nobody is forcing anybody to believe a certain way.

I would like to discuss your response to my comment about anxiety
<Anxiety is a combination of physiological events and emotional and thought events. Medicine alone cannot resolve anxiety. Spiritual strength can enhance emotional strength.
**This in an empirical claim. There is no evidence for it.>

How do you see anxiety impacting PCS and recovery?

When you said <**This in an empirical claim. There is no evidence for it.> Was this just referring to my comment <Spiritual strength can enhance emotional strength.> or did you mean something else?

BTW. Empirical evidence is the starting point for much of scientific investigation and is a part of the foundation of any research.

Maybe you meant **This is a subjective claim.

Anyway, how are you doing with your PCS?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ginnie (Post 837541)

I got a bit lost on who it was that didn't have anyone to admisister B12 shots. Actually you can learn to do this. I have alergy to bee stings and a number of other things. I self admisister the epi pen. and for sure diabetics do it all the time. don't be afraid of doing this to your self. Once you do it the fear goes away. ginnie

Hi ginnie,

I'm not afraid to inject myself, quite the contrary.

Yes, I have an epipen too and I know that it is administered in the thigh. I have had years of allergy shots as well.

I have spoken to my neurologist about self-injecting the B12 shots and she would prefer it if someone else administered them for me and will not allow me to self-administer them. She says it can only be done in the buttocks or the side of the arm and that I would be unable to do it myself. I don't know if her opinion that I can't do it myself is based on the level of cognitive functioning I have, including my dexterity (because all were affected with my injuries) or if she just believes that of all her patients regardless of their apparent functioning levels.

EstersDoll,

Have you had your B12 levels measured by a blood test? If your sub-lingual B12 is keeping your B12 blood levels where they should be, there is no reason for injections.

I was on weekly B12 injections for 8 weeks many years ago. They helped immensely. I continued with B12 tablets with no noticeable difference once the crisis was over. I take 380 mcgs of B12 daily in tablet form and my B12 blood level is at about 1000 pg/mL which my doctor thinks is just right.

The empirical evidence gained from a blood test should over-rule any personal preferences of injections vs sub-lingual vs oral tablets.

As noted, B12 is a necessary part of the BCAA processes.

faith healer question

Several years ago, I went to a faith healing service at one of our local Christian churches. Everybody was lined up to receive the laying on of hands and prayer over you. There were people in back of all of us, to catch when we fell over. I watched in amazement as people fell backwards into waiting arms. When they got to me, of course I wanted the prayer, but I did not fall over. Nothing happened to make me faint, or colapse. Everyone looked at me as if there were something the matter with me. I am always for prayer, but I don't fake it for anybody. If others have this exotic moment I am glad for them, but it didn't happen to me. I was grateful to receive the prayer, and that was all. This was my experience. Was there something the matter with me for not feeling this extasy of healing others felt? Just curious as I have seen this happen on TV before. ginnie

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark in Idaho (Post 837401)

wakey,

You just proved my point.

You said: <Even if these phrases have been used as part of some larger meditation or prayer framework, it's not clear why reliance on the Bible itself is necessary. Indeed, cherry-picking phrases that seem to have benefits while ignoring the rest does not aid one's recovery or one's understanding of the Bible

I did not cherry pick the verses and take them out of context. They are just a small part of a much larger message.

(or whatever document they are reading). One may be able to find a good way of dealing with pain by relying in part on some Bible verses. Indeed, if one is forced to cherry pick phrases and interpret them onto a theory, one wonders why those phrases are relevantly part of the exercise at all. The theory itself seems to do the work in these cases.

I don't understand why "[t]rying to explain the power of prayer to a non-believer is next to impossible." I think I understand it quite well.

Your denial of my explanation shows your inability to understand the power of prayer. Faith is an essential component of Christian belief. Those without faith will struggle to understand and believe.

Anxiety is a combination of physiological events and emotional and thought events. Medicine alone cannot resolve anxiety. Spiritual strength can enhance emotional strength.

It sounds like your experience is with the charlatan 'faith healer' and 'pray it away' self proclaimed 'minister.' I can understand how such an experience can challenge one's ability to relate to a believer's comments. I am sorry if you have had such an experience. Religious leaders of all varieties can be both helpful and damaging. I have seen both sides.

I understand what people are trying to do and what they think they are doing. I have (prior) personal experience in the matter, just like you. I think the exercise itself can be useful, but the method for doing it often presupposes a grandiosity that it simply does not require and does not exist.
>

My position still stands. There is valid help available to believer's through spiritual counseling. Since anxiety can be such a large part of PCS, believer's should be willing to consider the value of spiritual counseling to strengthen their understanding of anxiety.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark in Idaho (Post 837615)

"Can we just agree to disagree?"

That sounds like the best idea. My PCS has not improved. Still a struggle, like for everyone out there. Trying times, to be sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark in Idaho (Post 837466)

EstersDoll,

Of all of the natural sources of BCAA's, pork is an excellent source of balanced BCAA's.

The Lumosity programs are designed for cognitive enhancement but have not been researched nor shown to speed up recovery from mTBI's. As such, you should be cautious to not overdo you time spent with the programs.

I have the complete set of Posit Science software and know that it can be easy to over-exert my brain working the exercises. Both Lumosity and Posit Science can tend to show improvements due to the learned ability to improve with the exercises. By that I mean, you learn how to do the exercise and get better because of that learned ability, not from an improvement in cognitive ability.

There is also an enhancement of under-learned cognitive functions. By bringing these cognitive functions up to a normal level, the subject notices an improvement. The value here is enhancing the brain's ability to implement work-arounds and other accommodations.

I have learned new ways of accessing visual memory that are very different than the previous "mind's eye" visual memory where I could visualize in my mind and thus remember. Now, I have learned how to use a non-visual and more intuitive visual memory. It is like I have to ignore any attempt to visualize and instead use a more blind intuition of what I saw. It is like I see on the computer screen a shadow of the object in its proper location that I am trying to remember.
I don't know it this is a visual remnant on the retina or a remnant in the visual processing center of the brain. Either way, I find it works.

Both programs are designed for the aging community and even younger set that have become fearful of Alzheimer's Disease. The research shows that the exercises do not delay the end deterioration but do delay the onset of disabling symptoms. The progression is delayed until the end when it takes place over a shorter span of time. A worthwhile gain but not an extender of lifespan.

What ever way one works to improve, getting some level of improvement is what matters. I knwo that my measured abilities are the same as they were many years ago. But, my abilities to use other skills and functions to work at a higher level has allowed me to overcome many of my dysfunctions during the good days. My bad days do not seem to be any better or worse.

Yes, Mark, I know you don't think the exercises are beneficial and you have brought up some excellent points to be considered (as usual!)

But I think lumosity is beneficial. Some of the exercises are similar to the ones my speech therapist does with me and I think that working with her has been the most beneficial thing out of everything I've been doing in an effort to heal myself due to this brain injury other than the spinal tap that relieved the pressure that was continuing to damage my brain!

Not only does lumosity make me feel like I am working towards getting better, which improves my mood a great deal. But I also get very bored and it is something for me to do!

I can also see HUGE improvements over the course of the last 8 months or so that I've been playing them. I can't say that lumosity is the cause for those improvements at all; it's most likely just the natural healing that would have occurred with my brain. I am significantly better than I was six months ago. I am driving again and working 20 hours a week! I can handle conversations better, etc. And lumosity has at least tracked my improvements in some way. Not only because I learned how to play the games, but also because I'm just getting better than I was.

Again, I don't know if lumosity has helped me to improve. But the other day I was having difficulty communicating with my BF who is my primary care taker and I couldn't explain what was wring with me, and I played some games and noticed a distinct decline in some of them and realized because of the game category that something was wring with my logical reasoning, which is what happens when I'm very tired! And so I was able to stop playing, let him know what was going on with me in a way that he could understand (because when I just tell him that something's not functioning as well he doesn't get it, when I say there's something wrong with my logical reasoning - which I couldn't put to words before playing the game - then he gets it and we get along better.)

And I do understand getting fatigued over playing too many games! But personally, I do not only need to watch my fatigue, I need to try to increase my stamina. This most likely has to do with me being in severe pain and on bed rest for about six months which is rare for people who acquire mTBI, and it's a fine line, so playing the games might be a good way for me to do that too.

And playing the games can help me recognize that I am fatigued, because sometimes I won't even realize it until I start playing a game and I notice a significant difference in the way I may have played them a few hours before or the day before and then I will rest. I used to work about 60-80 hours a week on stage, so I was very used to ignoring being tired and pushing through it and a game like this helps me not to do that.

Also, I've read that some neuroscientists believe that learning new games and playing video games that a person didn't know before acquiring a head injury is good for healing from one.

Whenever someone asks what they can do to help themselves I'm always going to recommend lumosity. And you will probably always out in your two cents - which I think is good. I think it's good for people to be as informed as possible.