A Lifeline for Walking Through PTSD with a Traumatic Brain Injury

By Akasha

  Akasha demystifies the alternative healing modalities that will help you recover from a traumatic brain injury and move out of the space of PTSD, into a calmer more peaceful existence. The extraordinary journey the book takes you on; through the chaotic experience of post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, will tou

• Language: English
• Publisher: Akasha
• Release date: Oct 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781641844710

Book preview

A Lifeline for Walking through PTSD with a Traumatic Brain Injury

Alternative healing modalities

Akasha

Paperback:

978-1-64184-470-3

Ebook:

978-1-64184-471-0

Dedications:

This book wouldn’t exist today if it wasn’t for the incredible support I received from my friends.

My heartfelt gratitude goes to:

Patti….. for being the best buddy a gal could have

Lynne….. for the belief in me

Jack and Emily….. for being so gracious

Nancy….. for knowing what I needed most, making things happen and not allowing it up to chance

Maggie….. for the patience & endless hours of typing the book

Ken….. without your phenomenal support, I wouldn’t be where I am today

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Important Messages for Recovery

Advice for Caregivers, Family and Friends

Appendix

Epilogue

About the Author

Introduction

I chose to share the experiences of the epi-sode, the name my friend Patti gave to the wrong route injection of epinephrine, in an effort to help those who may be on the path of PTSD or Traumatic Brain Injury. The pronunciation of epi-sode; epi (like an epi pen for allergies) has the i sounding like a long e, with the accent being on epi. Hence the reason for the hyphen. Having worked in the alternative health field for more than thirty years, I am very familiar with the many different healing modalities available. The path through my healing has incorporated the majority of the alternative techniques. I used what worked until it didn’t or reached a plateau, and then moved on to the next one. Each aspect of the alternative healing system brought me one step closer to homeostasis; doing no harm while helping to bring back a connectedness that had been ripped away from me. I was developing a sense of empowerment that allowed me to feel more in charge of my healing, along with an expanding self confidence in what I was able to perceive.

Finding my way through the terror, pain, chaos, and confusion firsthand, has granted me the tools and knowledge necessary to guide those who are still lost in trauma. I know what it’s like to try so hard to show a facade of being okay, of interacting with others easily while you are holding on so tight, afraid to let go, afraid if you do you may lose yourself and never be able to get back. All the healing work I experienced, helped. A little at a time, I was able to loosen my death grip, trusting I would be okay, sometimes tightening again for a little while when I would go into overwhelm, always remembering, the first M.D. that I saw, Dr. Clark Gaither’s, words:

You have gone five miles into the woods and now you need to walk back.

As I get closer to the end of the healing, the woods aren’t as dense, and I can see more light. I may not know exactly what to do at every turn but more often than not I find my way to the next piece that needs to be healed or reconnected.

When I first started this healing journey, I was so dysfunctional I didn’t know the extent of the damages. As time moved on, I discovered more and more imbalances, impairments, and dysfunction. I’m glad it came a little at a time or I may have never have found my way out of the chaos. My personality didn’t start to come back for three years. I muddled my way through, doing as much as I could, relying on others to help when I needed. I tried to be brave and not succumb to the fear that permeated my entire being.

When the epinephrine was injected into my vein it felt like I got hit by a freight train. The top of my head felt like it was blown off and my heart squeezed in a vise. Not being able to breathe while I was having the heart attack caused a hypoxic injury to my brain. The blast of epinephrine fried my neurocircuitry. All my systems and organs went out of synch and into chaos.

Afterward, I spent years in constant pain and overwhelm, trying to make my brain work again; it was beyond comprehending the damage done by that one shot. The healing journey this took me on has been full of obstacles and potholes. It also has brought a group of friends together to help me, as I blundered through. Without the financial, emotional, mental, and physical help they provided, I don’t see how I ever could have made it through this. I have tried my best to walk this path with belief and what grace I could muster. I had to step forward when fear was all I could feel. I made myself drive to therapy when my body was exhausted to the point of collapse. I played simple games, without being able to get answers. My memory was so glitchy, I couldn’t recall eighty-five percent of my knowledge base.

When I lost myself and didn’t know where I was or how I was, it was quite a challenge to show a good front, for deep fear silently lurked within, waiting to show its face when I least expected it.

At times I appeared remote to others, but I was trying to reconnect with my Self. I couldn’t keep up with conversations and couldn’t find words to communicate any longer. It is not that I didn’t care, but I had lost the ability to express myself. I may have appeared disinterested, only because my mind was so numb. At times, I wandered around aimlessly, trying to figure out what was going on inside. I appeared detached, because I was – detached from myself. My affect was flat, my emotional body had been blasted apart, with the pieces lying skin deep, waiting to be triggered. This was so different from who I had been.

I was learning all over again. I had to learn how to learn, and things that should have come easily didn’t. I was learning about my body, how it should work, and how it was incapable of functioning correctly.

The challenges were hourly, or sometimes every few minutes, they just kept coming and coming. The more I did, it seemed like the more there was to do. A constant barrage of daily challenges hit me over and over. Sometimes I overcame them, at other times I did not. But I never backed down. For me there was no other way. No matter how much pain I felt, no matter how awful I felt emotionally; if there was a door open, I went through it, open to experience, hungry to achieve, desperate to succeed.

I had to recognize the emotions that kept rising, emotions of overwhelm, anxiety, and fear. I had to be open enough to allow them to run through, trusting that one day they would dissipate, and I could get on with my life once again.

The unstable emotions of the PTSD were just as difficult to maneuver through as the intense pain in my head, the constant ache of my body, and the chaos of my organs and governing systems. The experience of living with PTSD was as debilitating as the physical and mental disabilities. The unreliability of my body was troublesome. I couldn’t plan anything, and my work was suffering. I quit making appointments to do readings and the inter dimensional healing work, that I had done for years, for I never knew how I was going to be feeling. I tried to work but had to cancel so many appointments I started to feel discouraged. I started to only work with people who knew me before the damage. They knew the appointment could be cancelled right at the last minute. Sometimes I would have to stop in mid-session. For remote healing,