Confidence and Limitations with Brain Injury

When I was growing up, I was told by my parents that I could accomplish just about anything as long as I applied myself. Their encouragement gave me the confidence I needed to be successful in a lot of areas of my life. At first, it was small things, but later much greater challenges and opportunities became part of my life. There were times I was on top of the world and could not see any limitations to my success. I tried to pass that confidence along to my boys as they were growing up. Both Larry and I would like to claim credit for some of their success. They are a true blessing.

After my brain injury in 1990, I lost confidence in everything. I know now that it is to be expected after a brain injury of any type, but that didn’t help me then. After all, I didn’t even know, at the time, that I had an acquired brain injury. We say frequently in our book, Brain Injury Survivor’s Guide, that knowledge is power to a brain injured person. I believe that to be so true. It ultimately helps with the confidence factor too.

I became confident once again when I learned how to deal with my limitations. A very large portion of the credit goes to Larry who stuck by me in bad times and good. And, we had our share of bad times in the beginning. I first had to understand and accept that I had limitations. Then, we had to find ways to compensate for what I had lost. That brings us back to strategies we have discussed before. I had to have a strategy for those things that were causing me to lose confidence in myself and my abilities.

I found out, sometimes the hard way, that I still have to remember that I have those limitations. A good example is the physical disability I was left with after the resulting brain injury from my surgery. I have no peripheral vision because the lack of oxygen destroyed a portion of my brain in the occipital lobe area. I must always be aware of that fact and adjust accordingly. Otherwise, it results in running into walls, people, and other objects. It sometimes causes bruises, but worse than that, is the embarrassment it causes if I am in a public place. Being embarrassed is one thing, but stepping in front of a car is a bit more serious. That’s where the pay attention strategy is needed. Access to these strategies and more, can be found on our websites in several forms. Check out http://www.brain-injury-online.com/ and http://www.braininjuryguide.org/

So, you can see after brain injury, there is an internal struggle between regaining confidence and recognizing limitations. But, what should not be forgotten is the fact that there are compensatory strategies that can provide a means of regaining confidence in spite of the disabilities resulting from an acquired brain injury. When feeling inadequate or even over-confident, it’s a good idea to do a reality check or get a second opinion from someone you trust to be honest, but helpful – not negative.

One way to build confidence is by improving memory and cognitive processing. Larry and I have created some fun quizzes that you can do in the privacy of your own home that will help. You can read more about them at http://www.brain-injury-online.com/cognitive-rehabilitation.html.