Accepting Myself when Family and Friends Can Not Part 1
Posted by Second Chance to Live on July 10, 2012
Hello and welcome back to Second Chance to Live my friend. I am happy to see that you decided to stop by to visit with me. You are always welcome around my table. As I have shared before, my traumatic brain injury occurred in 1967 when I was 10 years old. In 1967 there was nothing in the way of traumatic brain injury rehabilitation. Consequently, once my external wounds healed from the car accident and no physical signs indicated that my life was being impacted by the ripples from a traumatic brain injury, my traumatic brain injury became an invisible disability to me.
Nevertheless, I found myself running into one wall after another wall. For many years I internalized my running into walls as an indication of my inadequacy and inability to get along with people and be successful in life. Little did I know, there were other factors beyond my traumatic brain injury and my invisible disability that contributed to my running into one wall after another wall. In my exasperation and pain of running into walls – because of what I did not understand or fathom – some one I knew encouraged me to start attending 12 step support meetings.
He told me that attending meetings had helped him and thought that attending meetings might also help me.
Through attending meetings, listening to other people’s experience, strength and hope, working with a sponsor, working through the 12 steps and being honest with myself I discovered that there were other factors that contributed to my running into walls. Although I was still in denial concerning the impact of my traumatic brain injury, attending 12 step support meetings, listening to people in the meetings, working with a sponsor, working through the 12 steps and through being honest with myself I began to realize that the difficulties that I had and was experiencing were not all about me. I began to realize that I was not alone in my struggle to accept myself. I began to realize that I had the power to choose.
In my experience, I found hope — that I did not know existed — as I started to attend meetings. In my experience, I found the courage and the ability to accept myself for myself, as I started to attend meetings.
Please read Part 2 of this article by clicking on Accepting Myself when Family and Friends Can Not Part 2
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This entry was posted on July 10, 2012 at 2:53 pm and is filed under 12 Step Recovery, acquired brain injury and feeling alienated, Acquired Brain Injury and Suicide, adult children of alcoholics and traumatic brain injuries, Adult Children of Alcoholics living with traumatic / acquired brain injuries, brain injured soldiers, Brain Injury Education, Caregivers for people with traumatic / acquired brain injuries, celebrities with brain injuries, combating brain injury isolation, Families impacted by brain injuries, Finding Your Significance, Fulfilling your Destiny, Harnish Your Adveristy, Learning to Accept Yourself as a brain injury survivor, Learning to Love Yourself as a brain injury survior, life challenging experiences, living life on life's terms, living my destiny, living with a brain injury, Living with a Invisible Disability and feeling shame, living with a traumatic / acquired brain injury, Living with a traumatic brain injury and feeling shame, Living with an Invisible Disability, living with meaning and purpose, messages of hope and inspiration, Military Personell impacted by Traumatic Brain Injuries, Military Traumatic Brain Injury Support Meetings, motivation, Motivational / Inspirational Speaker, No Longer a Victim, Overcoming Societal Stigmatization, Parents of children with Acquired brain injuries, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Post Traumatic Syndrome and Suicide, Revealing your Destiny, Self-Respect and Significance, Soldiers and Marines who sustained traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injury, stroke, tbi adults, tbi children, tbi families, tbi veterans, Traumatic Brain Injury and being Bullied, Traumatic Brain Injury and Comfort, Traumatic Brain Injury and Learning, Traumatic Brain Injury and Significance, Traumatic Brain Injury and Suicide, Traumatic Brain Injury and What is my Destiny?, traumatic brain injury feeling alienated isolated, traumatic brain Injury in adults, Traumatic Brain Injury in children, Traumatic Brain Injury Self-Esteem and Self-Worth, Traumatic Brain Injury Support Groups / Meetings, Veterans Living with Brain Injuries. Tagged: Accepting myself as a brain injury survivor, Changing the way I live, finding hope, learning to accept myself, No longer in Denial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
