Greetings.
This is Gary Klugiewicz.
We are doing a lot of work with Joel Lashley learning how to improve communication skills with persons who have brain based disorders. These types of injuries are becoming more prevalent; caused by sports injuries, traffic accidents, and, increasingly, to our returning veterans caused by their battlefield injuries.
Here is another audiotape from http://www.radiohealthjournal.net that explores the impact these injuries have on relationships.
I hope you find this program as interesting as I did.
Best Wishes.
Gary,
I think of brain-based disorders as something one is born with or maybe incurred during war. The introductory story in the audio is about a man who suffered a severe brain trauma due to a bicycle accident. That says that we are all only an automobile accident away from an injury which would not only injure us, but injure all those around us. The wife of the bicyclist became the guardian of her husband after the injury, his legal guardian. The day before she had been his partner. What a traumatic disruption a brain injury could be for relationships, particularly for the life partner of the injured person. The wife said the best advice she received after her husband’s injury was to let her old life with her husband go, grieve for it, and start a new life with new rules for interaction, expectations, etc. The 12-minute audio did a great job of showing how hard it can be to sustain a relationship after one of the partners experienced a brain-based trauma. The healthy spouse in the story was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder because of the pressure her husband’s injury brought to bear on her emotions. Powerful 12-minute audio.