Yesterday someone found their way to this blog by typing in this sentence. And the other day, I fielded a comment from another TBI blogger who has been having problems getting support from her family.
I think one of the most challenging friggin’ impossible aspects of TBI, especially MTBI, is the amount of skepticism that the rest of the “neurotypical” world has towards the brain injured. Because they can’t see our injuries, they have no idea they exist. And they often flatly refuse to admit that they may exist.
Our struggles are seen as “laziness” or some other character defect. And if we really wanted to do some things, well, we should be able to, right? After all, we have free will, and where there’s a will there’s a way. Right?
Not always.
As one of my readers, M, recently commented quite eloquently, our brains are changed by the experience of injury, and it is vital for us to factor in that change, when setting post-TBI expectations. The will and indeed the whole personality is intimately tied with the brain, and when the brain changes, well, the personality and character of the survivor will, too.
It’s important to approach our changed brains with the right information, compassion, and non-judgment. If we don’t, it just makes matters worse. And no one is served.
One of the changes that can take place — which has been an ongoing challenge for me — is that the amount of information the brain takes in can be diminished. That can lead to all sorts of processing issues, with important bits of info getting dropped – or, at times in my case, never getting in at all. And when the brain has less information, but doesn’t realize it, then it can start to miscalculate without realizing it. This can lead to a condition called “confabulation”, where a person comes up with ideas and concepts that are only partly accurate, but they have no idea they don’t have the whole story. They may think they’ve got it all figured out, but they don’t. Yet they don’t even realize it, which is a problem, when it comes to dealing with other people, some of whom may know better.
I know that my own life has been marked by many, many instances of people thinking I was lying or intentionally misleading them about things I was saying, when I was simply confabulating. I was absolutely, positively, 100% certain that I had all the details right, I had the best of intentions, I was trying really hard to connect with them, and I thought for sure I was being intelligent and sensible and together… when all along, there were key pieces of information missing in what I was talking about.
I wish I could give a specific example, but I can’t think of one right now… no, wait — here’s one:
I was hanging out with my dad on a recent family trip, and I started talking about some new idea that I thought he’d really relate to. My dad’s a really heady guy and he loves to talk conceptually about stuff. Some kids talk to their dads about golf or baseball. I talk to my dad about ideas. So, wanting to really connect with him during my visit. I had this inspiration to tell him about a new concept that I’d been thinking about, over the past few months. My dad and I have had a somewhat rocky relationship — I never turned out to be the kid he wanted me to be, and he was pretty rough on me when I was young ’cause I wasn’t living up to his expectations. So, I’m always looking for some way that we can connect as adults, rather than as the standard-issue dysfunctional/disappointed parent/kid.
Anyway, I was totally psyched about having thought of this idea, and I was certain that another friend of mine (who is a lot like my dad) had told me about it. I went into all this detail about this concept, moving through it somewhat gingerly, so I didn’t miss any of the details or nuances… trying to sound halfway intelligent… getting kind of insecure, ’cause my dad was getting quiet like he always does when he’s about to correct me or criticize me… just soldiering on with this idea, trying to flesh it out and make it sound out loud like it sounded on the inside of my head.
My dad kept getting quieter and quieter, and I got more and more nervous, and I started talking really fast about how I’d heard about this idea from a friend of mine… Eventually, the conversation petered out, and my dad went off to do something else. He seemed like he was upset with me or something, but I couldn’t figure out what I’d done wrong. 43 years old, and I’m still trying to figure out why my dad is miffed at me… It’s kind of sad.
Well, long story short, after a few days, I suddenly remembered that my dad was actually the one who had told me about this concept I’d been discussing. It wasn’t my friend, it was him. He’d told me about it either on the phone, in an email, or during one of my past visits. And when I was going on and on about my friend and their ideas and the details of what “they had told me”, I was actually repeating back almost verbatim what my dad had told me about, as though I had good sense.
How humiliating. I had been so very, very wrong about some very key ideas, and yet I had been so utterly convinced that I was right. And there I was, a grown adult, still trying like crazy to win my dad’s approval, like some little kid who’s got no clue. And there my dad was, getting that same old look on his face that said, “Here they go again… what a liar… what an idiot… space cadet… dufus… dork. I can’t believe this is my kid — 43 years old, and still telling tall tales. When will they ever learn?”
Confabulation is no friggin’ fun. Especially in 20/20 hindsight. It’s inconvenient and exasperating for others when it happens, it’s disorienting for me when I’m in the midst of it, and it’s humiliating for me, when I figure out later that it happened. I just hate it. But I’m not sure what to do about it.
I’m not sure if there’s anything to do about it, other than educate the people around me about what it’s about and how/why it happens. The only problem is, figuring out how to educate them. Because by now, after a lifetime of this foolish consistency, a lot of people who are close to me have a hard time believing me, to begin with.
Broken Brain - Brilliant Mind 