Brain Injury Survivors - Learning to be in Control of their Own Lives

For brain injury survivors to gain control over their own lives following a traumatic brain injury, they must learn ways of working towards becoming the person they want to be. If they want to realize their dreams, it will mean never giving up their fight to be that person.

In order to do this, they will have to learn specific tools and strategies to make their life more enjoyable and productive. One way to do this is to keep their brain active and involved. An active brain will grow and develop while a brain that is not used will lie dormant. It will be important for them to challenge their brain. One of the strategies is the use of lists to help them organize their life; and with organization comes planning. By becoming organized both mentally and physically it will help both their mental and physical wellbeing. Some of the ways to do this are to write down on a list exactly what they are going to do each day. By planning ahead in this way, if the unexpected happens, it can be handled more effectively because they can just go on to the next thing on the list. Having a secondary back-up plan in place will also help them to be in better control of their life.

Other areas where it will be important to practice learning to become their own masters are to work towards being calm and in developing a good attitude. Being positive is very important because it seems that things usually go wrong for the person who is consistently negative. Also, it will be necessary for them to stay focused and to be consistently determined to be the person they want to be. The big thing is to never give up.

When doing a large task, a good strategy is to break it into smaller components so that it is easier to focus and concentrate on one small part of the task in order to avoid the feeling of being overwhelmed.

Learn to communicate with others. If help is required, it is better to ask for help and admit that help may be reqired than to continue to a point where a situation may be made worse because help wasn't asked for.

It is also necessary for survivors to be able to shoulder the responsibility of their mistakes and admit to those mistakes without looking to blame others for them. Only in this way can they take control of their lives because then they can correct those mistakes and learn from them.

Joining a brain injury support group will help the brain injured survivor to become more independent because of the help he/she will receive from others who have had similar experiences. They will learn how to adapt and adjust to them while using specific tools and strategies. It will be a continuation of their rehabilitation. This is necessary for recovery because brain injuries do not go away. It will help them also to recognize and accept their limitations so that denial does not become their mantra.

The main thing for those with brain injuries wanting the abilities to be in control of their own lives to remember is to stay focused, always be determined and to never give up. If they do this, they will in all likelihood be successful.