New member intro

[Cindy]

Hi, I'm a new member and am in a very dark place right now. I'm hoping for some encouragement. Twenty yrs ago (dec23j, I was in a car accident which left me with a severe TBI and AnBI, along with many broken bones and a collapsed lung. Exactly 2 years and 1 week after my accident I had twins and already had a 2.5 year old. Because I was raising 3 kids, I was unable to grieve my old self and get the much needed TBI support that most patients get upon their release. I now have 4 kids but have more time to research support etc. I feel as though my 20 yr old TBI is a brand new injury. Hence the deep depression. I also have a question, but will ask after this all gets digested!��

 

[Daniel E.]

Welcome, Cindy!

:welcome2:

 

[Cindy]

Thank you

 

[forgetmenot]

Hi Cindy welcome to Psychlinks

 

[Mari]

H! Cindy

:welcome2:

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Welcome to the forum, @Cindy.

I am familiar with the abbreviation TBI for Traumatic Brain Injury but what is "AnBI"?

 

[Cindy]

Anoxic brain injury. My brain was without oxygen for 15+ minutes before help arrived and because I had a fully collapsed lung on my left side and a partial collapsed on my right.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Ah... thank you. Just wasn't familiar with that abbreviation.

Regarding this part

Because I was raising 3 kids, I was unable to grieve my old self and get the much needed TBI support that most patients get upon their release. I now have 4 kids but have more time to research support etc. I feel as though my 20 yr old TBI is a brand new injury.

I had something similar happen to me many years ago.

I had just moved to a new city, bought a new house, and started a new job. My mother died on Friday over in England just about a week after I started the new job. I had family obligations and we had no friends or family in town. I had no time to grieve my mother's death and there was no way I could attend her funeral. I had a weekend to grieve and then it was back to work.

Several years later, about 7 or 8 years, after that marriage ended, I now had some alone time between visits with my children in shared custody. During that alone time, the grief regarding the loss of my mother hit with full force as if it had just happened. It felt like it had been waiting all those years for me to process the grief until I had the strength and the time to process it.

What I learned from that is that grief doesn't just go away. In fact, it doesn't go away at all until you process it and come to some sort of terms with it, as it seems to be doing in your case right now..

 

[gooblax]

Welcome Cindy
Hope you find the forums to be useful.