Writing By Laura

Well, #TBIthursday has turned into #TBIsunday… and I’m not inspired to write. I have written before about what it’s like to overextend myself post-TBI and I certainly ran into that last week. I was working on a project that required me to spend a lot of time on the computer. I was making Christmas presents. And after a few days of that my brain felt like an overheated car pulled off on the side of the road with the hood up and engine steaming. My cheeks were even very red as I appeared to be overusing and overheating my brain! So instead of COMPLETELY ignoring my blog, I thought I would turn my overheated brain into a lesson for the holidays.

I’m choosing to use my experience with brain fatigue as a learning experience. So instead of waxing on about why I overextend, I am just going to chalk it up to the season (i.e. Christmas). This year with the worldwide pandemic it seems more people are overextending themselves (I just imagine that Work From Home means work constantly to some people). So while I’m tailoring my tips for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), they can certainly be adapted to fit anyone.

How to manage an overheated/overused/overextended brain during the holidays

To prevent the feeling that my brain is overheated, I plan to do the following:

1. Plan: Plan out my time and tasks that need completion and sort out how long it takes to complete a task and spread it out over a manageable period.
2. Don’t procrastinate: This speaks to planning so you don’t run into overextending yourself. This is hard for me.
3. Pay attention to your body when it tells you it’s done too much: As someone with a severe TBI, I know my body sends me signals I need to pay attention to.
4. Rest: When your body is sending you signs that it’s tired… Pay attention and rest! You’ll be much more productive and efficient at completing your task if you’re well-rested.
5. Manage your time on the computer, mobile devices, etc. I use Apple devices and am using the screen monitoring feature to manage how many hours I can use my iPhone and iPad collectively. I don’t have my computer factored in there and usually, I am not on it often enough to matter. This week was a heavy computer usage week when it normally isn’t.

I will say this was a real learning moment for me. Just because I CAN doesn’t mean I SHOULD. I have grown and changed so much in these 4 years post-TBI but I still have plenty to learn about how to live successfully with a TBI.

A Selby Sweetie Conclusion

Since this week isn’t really a typical blog, it’s hard to conclude it… That’s where Selby comes in handy!