For many individuals with TBI, recovery is fully
possible in many important aspects of what might at first seemed
lost forever due to injury. The injured individual can recover
his or her sense of self and self-respect. Hope and a positive vision
of the future can be recovered. A sense of growth and accomplishment
and contribution to life can be recovered. A network of supportive
social supports can be recovered. Purposeful activity can be incorporated once again into life.
What may not be recovered for many is all of the individual's
pre-injury functions at their pre-injury levels, nor all of
the goals and hopes once held. For some people who experience TBI,
this is a loss that leads to chronic upset and depression. But for
many others, the loss becomes an accepted part of the stream of life
and they move on to claim new hopes, new paths, new values and new
satisfactions. For these, what others see as the 'end' of life is
a beginning of life for them.
For maximal recovery of ones old life and/or for claiming a new life,
several factors are essential to the individual with TBI (assuming
a normal course of physiological recovery):
- The person with TBI must have social supports: to
encourage him or her, to help gain access to available resources
and to build bridges to wider community networks
- The individual with TBI must gain access to a service
network that is able to address the person's individual
needs and teach the skills needed to compensate for losses
and to define and achieve his or her goals.
- The person with TBI must have access to accurate information,
responsive to needs varying over time.
- The person with TBI must be able to draw upon inner
resources and appropriate values to allow him or her to
continue on the often difficult path to living a life of positive
value to the post-injury individual.
This is a life-long process, not a one- or two-step course of action.
The challenge is tremendous, but many succeed -- in staying with the
challenge to help themselves and their loved ones. The key is finding
resources outside the self to bolster resources within.
