The difficulty for non-brain injury survivors to understand. He and most brain injury survivors don’t want people to feel bad or pity them. They just want empathy. That’s why it’s great to connect with fellow survivors because they really understand how it feels.

Memory issues like how he used to be able to memorize lyrics really quickly and now it’s a lot more challenging.

Questioning yourself is hard like when Joe suffers from dissociative episodes as a result of his PTSD and he thinks he’s reacting well, but finds out that he didn’t. It can make you like you do not know yourself and make you question whether you can trust your own brain when recovering from brain injury.

Joe reflects on having a great time at Coachella, but questions if he really did as well as he thinks. He wore earbuds the whole time to help block out noise to prevent overstimulation. It was nice having fellow stroke survivor, Rian, reach out to ask how he was coping after Coachella.

Shares a story from comedian, Mimi Hayes who suffered a brain hemorrhage, about how she hides things from herself by accident. Joe also hid his Apple Watch from himself by accident. Discusses the frustration of their post-brain injury brains playing tricks on them.

Joe doesn’t want to just survive. He wants to thrive and live his best life. The more he gets better, the more he wants and that’s why the mental deficits are exhausting emotionally and mentally.

The importance of routine for brain injury recovery.

Meditation helps Joe balance out especially through overwhelming experiences. Helps him focus and be more mindful.

Discusses how multi-tasking is difficult for Joe now post stroke.

Sometimes Joe and other survivors, may lash out on those closest to them when frustrated from deficits and how both sides cope.

Its a long and lonely journey so Joe is very proud of his brain injury survivor community. The brain injury survivor community inspires Joe to keep going. Everyone sharing their stories helps to inspire and motivate each other. That’s what YouSoRock spotlights on Joe’s blog is all about.