Hi, I had a TBI a year ago when I was hit by a cyclist and am still off work with migraines and some cognitive issues. When I saw an occupational health doctor last week one useful comment he made was that “immersive activities” can help with recovery from the sort of emotional trauma that I have experienced with the accident and recovery from it. He mentioned things like crochet, art, gardening, playing a musical instrument, anything which means you can’t think about other things for a while.
I agree with him; however, a big migraine trigger for me is spending more than half an hour or so concentrating on reading or any close work- so unfortunately knitting and crochet (which I previously loved) and reading books are definitely out. I am considering learning a new musical instrument but wonder whether too much reading would be involved, and as well/ instead wonder about some kind of craft that doesn’t involve too much close concentration with my eyes. I love anything to do with fabrics, colours, etc.
Does anyone have ideas or suggestions about what activities have worked for them post TBI? Of course, things are limited at the moment in terms of going to classes and I should say that attending a class on zoom would also unfortunately be a migraine trigger, though I can spend a limited amount of time online looking things up or ordering things. I can watch YouTube or other instruction videos on my TV which is much more tolerable for me.
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ClaraJ
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Hi ClaraJ. I did loads of activities to reprogram my automatic functions. Target your activities to the things that you find difficult, or have lost. eg balance and spatial awareness, draw the four basic shapes, circle, triangle, square and cylinder. Draw in 2D then get creative and start drawing 3D and assembling them together into 'weird' pictures. Accompanying this do balancing exercises. I 'tightrope' walked along an old railway track. Doing both of these together every day for 8 weeks blocks really helped.
For writing coherent sentences and paragraphs and short term memory, learn a new communication skill. I learned to touch type and then would journal my everyday things I had to do in the morning. Later in the day write all the thought patterns that come to mind for you. Do this every day and eventually you remember automatically what you need to do in the day, ie wash, laundry, chores etc. This keeps expanding and a whole world is created that makes sense and is in order and functional.
You just have to do it, be dissaplined and focused and never give up. Choose wisely.
I think the key is relearning all the basics and then learn what you want your life to be. As the saying goes 'you become what you do'. I was incoherent 2 years ago with speech, jumble brained, poor short term memory, bad vision and spatial awareness etc. Now I'm in Uni doing a masters to learn and hone higher skills and learning how to program the brain through my subject. I'm finding that there is a big gap in the understanding in the taught program and in the reality, makes for an interesting masters, not theory but reality.
You can be or do anything you have the capacity for - 'you become what you do!'
Hope that helps.
Oh 'The mild traumatic brain injury workbook' by Douglas J Mason has puzzles and attention training techniques. Also check out Donalee Markus brain training. She's the one from 'The ghost in my brain' book by Clark Elliott.
Hi Clara, do what you can as you can. You sound as if you have a creative streak, think of simple activities, card making, painting, things you might have done as a youngster that you might have enjoyed doing. New activities, might be too taxing to start with. Little steps. Immersive therapy doesn't mean that you have to be immersed.
Contact Headway. They can offer you support and activities, they will arrange funding if required.
Hi Clara, that all makes sense. My thing since my TBI, has been learning to do watercolour painting - I hadn't specifically done watercolour ever before. I've found the local library service is good source of books to work from (ours are doing click and collect still so it's a matter of going through the catalogue online and reserving the books you want).
My gut feeling is that anything we can concentrate on with pleasure (and without a headache) has to be good for our brains. I taught children with statements of special needs years ago, and one strategy (out of many) is to use computer-based learning in the form of games, to increase the amount of time a child can concentrate for - and that ability to concentrate for longer periods does seem to spill over into other areas of learning.
Making greetings cards is a wide brief, it would allow you to try out different techniques, and see what you preferred - lots of tutorials on YouTube too. I find the small scale of cards useful - it limits the time you need to work on something.
What about some crafts for Easter projects to get started too?
The other thing is modelling with polymer clay like Fimo?
Hope you find something lovely you enjoy doing - and let us know what you find?
A lot depends on money, what you have access to and most importantly what you have an interest in. In the prev Covid world you could explore the volunteering or "have a go" schemes. Sadly, these are going to be quite thin on the ground for a while.
With any of the activities you choose you want something that stops all the random thoughts and rumination going on so that you can concentrate on your project but still keep yourself safe. Last week there was a TV feature on people whom litter pick during lock down. Which is a great idea. However, there were two ladies litter picking in some bushes on the edge of a very large public space and guy whom said it helped him switch off as he walked down a country road with his back to the traffic!
For me recommendation was to do more DIY. Which was a real issue because I had even problems standing. For a while, I just hammered nails in pieces of wood. Which is surprisingly hard and good at the same time as getting the hand eye co-ordination back was quite difficult. What I also discovered is that if I am making the noise then the disruption doesn't bother me.
Cooking was another thing, surprisingly hard when you can't follow instructions! My first attempt was a cottage pie which took around 3.5 hours to make. Eventually got as far as making posh pastries before moving on to something else.
Forget all the sciency stuff and just go out and find something you want to do Pinterest.co.uk is a good source and i found this forthefrills.com/boho-croch... from a link there.
What ever you do take some pictures notes on when you start. So that in the future you can see how far you have come from when the phase of your journey started.
I still find things that ‘divert’ my attention are good. But all in moderation. I am not artistic, but preparing and decorating a wall in short bursts, is good. I have progressed to some more technical stuff, but again ensuring it can be done in small time frames. Taking the camera phone along during a walk and being creative with that too. Its all good, but pace yourself to avoid exhaustion. Set small targets though so you can monitor progress and congratulate yourself. Even with painting a wall, doesnt have to be all done at once, but it is great to relax the mind. 😀
How about pottery? You can get clay which doesn't need firing in a kiln. My husband's therapist said it was really good for him to use his hands, I think shaping soft malleable clay us really good.
Thank you so much, everyone, for your very helpful suggestions! Really good to hear from others in a similar situation.
I have ordered a block printing kit for fabrics/ cards to try something different and hope that it won’t be taxing enough in terms of use of my eyes to trigger headaches. I will see how I get on with that in the first instance!
That's great Clara (and sounds interesting 😊👍) I gave myself headaches at first painting actually - one strategy is to set a timer on your phone to remind you to take a break - even if you might not want to! Tweak the times to work out what you can do without headache or fatigue setting in. Good luck!
I'm going to have a bash at blowing and decorating eggshells for Easter 😊 x
Me neither, but there's lots of lovely ideas on the web and Pinterest 😊 ( Best case scenario I have lots of pretty eggs, worst case is I have a messy hour or so!) x
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