Hello and welcome back to Second Chance to Live my friend. I am happy to have you around my table. I recently received a comment from a reader asking, “how family members reacted, accepted, or if they realized your condition before you did?” As I have shared on my About Page I had no idea how the severe traumatic brain injury injury that I sustained when I was 10 years old in 1967 was connected to the difficulties that I experienced in relationships and work settings for many, many years.
Per some background:
In 1998 the determination was made by the department of vocational rehabilitation that I was unemployable. In 1999 I was determined to be disabled by the social security administration. Although I was determined to be unemployable and disabled, family and friends remained in denial. Although I was determined to be unemployable and disabled I continued to have a difficulty accepting that my life, relationships and my ability to stay employed were being impacted by a traumatic brain injury that remained hidden.
My bewilderment continued for the next 4-5 years until I began to accept my reality.
In my experience, I had a very difficult time accepting myself for many, many years because I looked “normal” and was able to achieve beyond all reasonable expectations. In my experience, I had to reach a point in my life where I could no longer deny the reality of how my life was being impacted by / from the severe traumatic brain injury that I sustained in 1967 at the age of 10. As I grew in my acceptance of my reality, I became aware of what I was actually experiencing when I interacted with family and friends.
In August of 2007 I wrote 2 article series. These article series helped me to explore what I was experiencing when I interacted with family and friends. These article series helped me to understand and grasp why I struggled to accept my reality as a traumatic brain injury survivor. The awareness’s that I share in the 2 article series helped me to begin to detach myself from what other people choose to believe about my reality. What I share in the 2 article series, helped me to grow to accept myself and learn to live in my own skin.
The Article Series:
The first series is My Struggle Living with an Invisible Disability and the second series is Having an Invisible Disability – The Consequences or Denying my Reality. Because of the length of the series, I divided the article series into parts. The first series has 4 parts and the second series has 2 parts. While looking through the my Site Map for my You Tube Video Presentations I noticed that I have not yet created a video presentations of these article series.
The Video Presentation Series:
Consequently, I will begin creating video presentations of these 2 article series tomorrow. Because of the detail that I have included in each part of the article, each part of the video presentation will be a little longer. My encouragement to you would be that you take your time and listen to each part of the article video series completely. I believe that by taking the time to listen to each part completely, you will grow to accept yourself and learn to live in your own skin as a traumatic brain injury survivor.
In the event that you would like to read the article series, Here are links to both article series: My Struggle living with an Invisible Disability and Having an Invisible Disability — The Consequence of Denying my Reality
As you watch, listen to or read my article (s) and questions come to mind, please send those questions to me. All questions are good question. In the event that you would like to leave a comment, I would love to hear from you. You may send your question (s) or comment (s) by clicking on this link: Contact Page
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