TRIGGERED in a BIG WAY!

https://anchor.fm/dr-timothy-speicher/episodes/Kelsey-Boyer--Professional-Snowboarder--Shares-her-Story-of-Brain-Recovery-egnbse/a-a2morjn

A friend sent me a link to this Podcast.
I start to listen
I had to stop.
I cannot believe how bad I am being triggered by this!!!! I want to type all this in caps except I know that can be annoying to read. But I have to process. I have not been triggered like this is  awhile. I did not think it was even possible anymore. but I am sick. shaky. knotted throat, crying and ANGRY!!!
I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ANGRY. I cannot escape it and it takes me a bit before I even realize what I am doing; I am irrationally pacing while my hand is trying to pound some sort of solution into my forehead...
I need to process this. I cannot listen right now. Maybe never. But
THE SHIT I WENT THROUGH IS HAPPENING TO OTHER PEOPLE!!!
I can't even listen long enough to hear how the story plays out. I am furious. AND I am so angry about the lack of support and help from friends, family and coworkers that I had. I am so angry that I had no-one speaking up for me. I am so angry that this is happening to other people like this lady and like me. It's so bad it is even happening to people who have a voice and some influence. How many more are there, like me, who are nobodies?
I am so ANGRY that the ONE place in this WHOLE DAMNED state that REALLY SHOULD KNOW BETTER IS DOING THE SAME SHIT AS the doctors who "might not know as well"
At one point her internal voice said, "your brain is bleeding" but then I hear her say, when the professionals told her she was fine she believed them.
SHE GETS IT!!!
When the "experts" tell you that you are fine you believe it even when you know you are not.
SOMEBODY ELSE GETS IT!!!!
She even "seemed fine" and passed their stupid little concussion tests well enough the way I did.
My head feels like it is going to explode now and I am both excited and terrified.
MOSTLY Terrified and also
hurt again
because I am so very alone
no matter how positive I am, no matter how much credit I give.
I have been tooo damn alone in this insane battle for my brain.
When I knew something more was happening. When the institution that could have found this and helped me through it was betraying me because I am of no significance... I was too alone
My friends and family just don't give enough of a shit to help me get the help I need.
They don't care enough to care. And many will even make me wrong just to ease their burden of conscience.
WHAT A FREAKING SHIT SHOW!
And right now, in this moment, I have to be very very careful because I want to blow up on a whole lot of people in a very big way that will only prove them right for being such shitty friends... So why the hell not?
I don't want them or need them!
....
I'm having to work real hard to talk myself out of sending a lot of angry words.
So I suppose I will tell you why the hell not: because it will always hurt and it will never satisfy. They will never care, they will never listen, they have me pegged and nothing I can do will change that. It does not matter to them that I have been literally fighting for my life, my brain, my stability, my sanity, even my family, they don't care and will not see. They will just spread more bad words and be even bigger jerks, justified no matter what I do.
But I know they are not.
And it hurts
a lot
over and over again
but I will not stoop to their level of apathy or ignorant disregard for a person who has been their friend.
Those friends are not likely to read this and if they do I doubt it will change anything but in the event that one or two might, YOUR WELCOME for not blowing up on you or being the pain in the ass you think I am or have even accused me of being. Your welcome for not pointing out how shitty it for a nurse friend that suspected mania, to say things like “I can’t believe your still talking about this” when I come to you for help as it is first  dawnsInt on my manic broken brain that I may have been being groomed and that may have been part of why I was still so screwed up and hung up on things
Your Welcome to all of you that this anger applies to for not blowing up on you and for exposing how shitty you can be.
But  if you are a friend or family that Actually does care please consider reaching out to help me fight this problem that is bigger than just me. Please lend some support where you can to help hold the Neuroscience Institute accountable and to educate the "experts" so that we, people with TBI's, can actually get the help we need before further damage is done AND so that the harm that is being caused by the medical and psychological providers stops!
...and maybe I won't be arguing both sides...  I already tried. I already tried to give them the benefit of the doubt 1000x10 times, but all they have done is use it against me.

Arguing Both Sides

So here is something I have noticed about people: They often work like pendulums, often erring too far in the opposite direction to try and compensate for mistakes they have made. Or, maybe even more common, they swing to far the other way to try and compensate for mistakes others have made that they felt had a negative effect on them. Which often, ironically, leads to the very same outcome or something at least as "bad;" sometimes even worse.
I find that I pendulum swing.
At one point I was having a conversation with my husband about how I have been so insecure and how I have far too often allowed myself to be treated as a second class citizen. I told him that I hope I don't pendulum swing too far in the other directions as I try to figure out some of these very delicate psychological, psychological, social and cultural balances. He said, "you will." the following conversation proved that he was not saying this to be snide but rather letting me know that it was to be expected, allowed and even okay. He also expressed his confidence in me and my solving skills because he knows that I'll not stay too far one way but will continue to work to find an appropriate center. This conversation meant a lot to me.
And as I allow the pendulums of me to swing I think on
This innocence thing... and Occam's razor...
*
I can honestly argue both sides and I have. But what it really seems to come down to is that the term "ethical" is treated, within the industry and from people in positions of power, as if psychologists and doctors have exclusive rights, so what ever they deem is ethical is unquestionably accepted as such regardless of whether the taken action really is ethical or not.
Truthfully, if all were playing fair and according to the spirit of their laws, (not the easily convoluted the letters of the laws), they all know I should not have been treated the way I was, blamed and shamed, or accused of "behaving inappropriately" -which, by-the-way, is also quite stupid because they also have it documented that I was not being terminated for doing anything wrong.
...and considering what I was dealing with, handling and managing through, the only thing "inappropriate" about my behavior was that I wasn't "inappropriate" enough to keep them from being able to deny what I was physiologically going through and trying to manage.
It was so convoluted. and I don't want to dig up too much, but I have some things that are running through my head again that I think are worth writing about. Some of those things point to deviant and others point to not-so-deviant.
And I wonder if there was some pendulum swinging that led to Dear Dr. He's possible deviance with me.
I know my pendulum has been all over the place and while body chemistry is not swinging so wildly anymore I still have many troubles to balance out and as I try to compartmentalize and move on some things are nagging. There are issues here that are significant and relevant to more than just me. My situation exposes problems that need to be addressed on a much larger scale than just me and my situation.  And as I try to figure out how this is to be done I feel it important to share a few of the remembered phrases that beg to be explained (not listed in order except the last):
"I do not believe in forever anymore"
"I told you not to try and solve this."
"You only see what I allow you to see."
"I could lose my license because of you"
"I wonder if sharing this [painting] with me is like exposing yourself to a lover for the first time?"
"I am not meant to be with just one woman."
"You love me?" (inflection of significance)
"I am a snake?" (inflection of significance)
"Do you want a hug?"
"I have tested your brain in ways you don't know"
"I don't do well with blurred boundaries"
"I do not need more friends"
"At least you have that outlet"
"I am good at connecting with people"
"I could never really open up and be vulnerable with you because I would always want to protect you"
"because of how easily we connected and you being an attractive woman I will never have anything to do with you outside of therapy because I could see myself falling in love with you"
"Unfortunately their is still a human element to all of this"
"Why, are you a stalker?"(inflection of significance)
"I would have to be okay with that"
"I am going to let it burn out and I suggest you do the same."
"I am okay with being wrong"
...
So many things said, this is not a complete list, and one could say, "Well taken out of context..." but they are also indications of deviance considering his knowledge and training.
Now I am going to make people uncomfortable with some common knowledge that common folks don't necessarily have but therapists do:
1. It is not uncommon for TBI survivors to become some level of promiscuous after TBI. People who work with TBI survivors know this.
2. TBI, especially in my specific locations, can affect impulse control.
3. One of the very common symptoms of mania is increased sex drive
.... And, dear friends, I have exposed enough of myself on this here blog and eluded to enough that I might has well be straightforward on this topic and openly confess that this was one of my symptoms associated with my mania. And it was intense. I am very lucky I did have an outlet. It may have even been the silver lining that saved my marriage.
I also have significant sympathy for those who have not been as fortunate as I in outlet and upbringing. I cannot even begin to imagine trying to manage that kind of hyper-arousal without a willing and able partner and solid standards and boundaries.
I believe because I was raised with strong and clear values and boundaries about sexual activity and because I do not have the psychological mess that comes with sexual abuse (that far too many girls have) my level of deviance in this area has not been very high after either TBI. My teen years were tricky, but I am proud to say I was a virgin until marriage (at the rip old age of 21) and I did not do anything sexually inappropriate with Dr. He (or any other man/person) even when the odds seemed stacked against me.
So could Dr. He, being a neuropsychologist and a psychologist/therapist before that, really have innocently said and done the things he did? Considering how he "held all the cards," was in a position of power,  knows those 3 common symptoms, implied serious attraction (slyly neither confirmed nor denied but rather implied), and he asked if I wanted a hug, aka physical contact....
...Obviously he was not innocent or he would not have been concerned about loosing his license.
 Yes, he knows better
and processing from stability makes it very clear, which also makes the avoided diagnosing, testing and treating accurately all that much more suspicious and deviant. My guess is that with my intelligence, experience, and my stability was much more threatening to them then my instability. In other words keeping me unstable made hiding their mistakes and deviance easier if I had been stable and/or stabilized. I didn't stand a chance going up against them in my instability, but in my stability I did. Does not matter that all I wanted was help in stabilizing and I was not interested in pursuing any type of action against them for their mistakes.
hmmm, the entire institution then appears to be deviant to an almost incomprehensible level, don't they?

And yet I still would give him the benefit of the doubt, had they not compromised my safety by denying mania and continuing down the path of misdiagnosis when those manic symptoms should have alerted them to what I had been trying to tell everyone all along; that there was something more going on with my head and that I felt I was manifesting better than my brain was really doing. MRI and doctors that are not trying to deny and hide have confirmed this.
But,
even still,
maybe due to the bizarre form of a Pollyanna that I am,
and having lived being me and not me due to head injury,
I know that things are often not as they seem and sometimes people really are much more innocent than they are manifesting ...
-and I even still, in spite of all that he has proven to me about how little regard he has for me, my health and my safety, I am trying to protect him and feel bad sharing so publicly the things he said that could get him into trouble, even though I know these conversations need to be had. Is it sad and silly that I would still wish to protect him and make amends with them? aah the oddities of human psychology-
sooo
My next blog entry will argue the other side
....Duhn Duhn Duhn...
to be continued...
 *PLEASE NOTE: I would rather, and I have made every reasonable effort I could to, have the following conversation with Dr. He, and the Intermountain Neuroscience Institute, however, they have not only refused to allow any conversation about this or clarification on diagnosis and prognosis, but have also retaliated by tainting my medical records, terminating me form the entire facility and have a lawyer threaten me, using false allegations, in an attempt to quiet me about what happened to me there.

Dr. She and telling this story

Conversation with Attorney Friend has me processing all over again, which, honestly is kind of annoying, but still somehow helpful.
I talked with Dr. She today. She explains what Attorney Friend does not understand about my situation: that under the circumstances of his profession and training there is no such thing as innocent flirting. The only innocence can be from my side of things and they are trained to handle that. They know that not only is no flirting allowed but that it can also be very harmful to the client.
 It is good that she explains this to me again and I see that, even though it is annoying, processing this again from my current mental state it is actually not a bad thing. I even had explained this without realizing how accurate I was to Attorney Friend; that ultimately as the rules for his profession stand they imply that any form of flirting by the therapist is a form of grooming.
I have a very clear understanding of this now and my processing is helping me still.
AND
Most exciting, I am not a mess. I can actually handle it this time and there have been no or almost no tears. This time my heart is still whole and my confidence holds.
I AM SO HAPPY about these details.
I point out to Dr. She that I have had to process this from so many different places, stages and phases.
And I also point out how the betrayal feels so widespread because of how vulnerable I really was and how unwilling anyone was to help or report. And why is that? Basically because it is so incomprehensible to people; therefore they would rather make you wrong.
Hell, I was even doing it to myself; constantly looking for reasons to believe and trust them when my best interest was the last thing they cared about.
Through fresh eyes, and armed with the power of knowledge and experience, I now KNOW he was very deviant in his intentions with me... He knows far too much to be able to claim innocence.
My intuition and many years of experience and education from the other side of the couch are not insignificant and should not be ignored.

Occam's razor - The Complexity of over Simplifying

Innocent and debatable....
maybe I am continuing that.
But holy crap, and other not so nice exclamatories,
what a mess I was in those days of the breaking of me by D -ea- r. Perri Cherie (Dr. He).
It was not at all fair.
...
I am writing again, The attempt at a book about my adventures in that Weird Wonderland.
I am very pleased to report that the burdens have lifted significantly. My review, to help lift the heavy burden of the need to warn others, has worked and is holding with minimal efforts.
I am glad for that.
And it is making it possible for me to write about out my very bizarre mind altered experiences without being triggered or breaking apart emotionally.
I am letting go.
While and by doing something about it.
But it has not been easy and when I go back and read the things I wrote at that point in breaking time it is very clear why.
...
Occam's razor
Attorney friend mentioned with the thought that maybe it really was as simple as he "was attracted to you and it is just not that hard to believe"
But Occam's razor as described by the wikipedia link is that the solution is simple. That would have been the problem, not the solution.
It is possible that was the main problem. And if the problem was that simple they may have oversimplified their solution to the problem: get rid of me.
Which, unfortunately, becomes very complex for me because that was not my problem, nor why I was there.
Honestly, in looking at it from the problem perspective and not the solution, I think this situation may be opposite of an Occam's razor in that the problem was not simple, but rather complex simply because of the sheer number of issues that came into play:
1. I had a TBI that was misdiagnosed or under diagnosed and this was still unknown or being denied at that point in time
2. I was dealing with a very real form of PTSD which
3. had me processing this head injury from both a childish and adult place
4. I was having memories return
5. Dr. He had some of his own emotional baggage he was dealing with
6. transference
7. countertransference
8. he had blurred boundaries with me
9. I did not realize #7 or the extent or reality of #8
10. I loved and trusted him maybe too much and for many reasons
11. He was not just a therapist for me but also a medical provider
12. He had developed feelings
13. He was scared and acting on his fears
14. I was paying for his services
15. My patient rights were denied but I was still expected to pay for services that I was not allowed clarification on
16. I was, in fact, manic and NO that is not debatable if the definition is what it is.
17. the simplicity of a therapist being attracted to a client is not allowed and is forbidden and taboo in the industry or psychology. It is also handled really stupidly in an overly simplified way that is simply abusive to the client. It is a perpetuation of problems, abuses and harm they have likely experienced in their past.
...
I am sure their are more
but my point is, it was not one simple problem which means utilizing the standard of one overly simplified solution was not likely the best or most responsible solution; that overly simplified solution being: the expectation of immediate termination it a therapist has not kept countertransference in check (as mentioned in problem 17).
A simple solution, yes. A good or responsible solution? HELL NO!
However, I do believe the best solution, especially if only one is allowed, was very simple:
Listen to me and treat me for the symptoms I was experiencing. They even have this as a solution as listed in their Patient Rights, but they refused to honor those for me.
That very simple solution would have made a world of difference. It would have ended the insanity quickly which would have brought me to this point of stability much quicker and with much less pain and trauma to myself, my kids, my husband, the institution itself and probably even Dear Perri Cherie.
and in all honesty
I think the solution is still rather simple, the Neuroscience Institute could actually respectfully try to talk with me and consider utilizing me and my expertise. They could learn, I could learn, and we could all work together to make some seriously needed and beneficial changes that could help them treat more people more effectively and really improve the outcomes for TBI survivors.
It really can be just that simple.
But alas, they have not allowed it to be, and have vilified me, which suggests that true simple problem really is deviant and their most simple solution was to cover and hide.
So, as much as I love this idea of the problem simply being an innocent attraction, it just is not so and,
going back to what I actually originally came on here to write about,
my documenting of what was happening to me, my "Self discovery report" proves this easily because I was clearly not of sound mind and not being treated correctly by the experts that had a responsibility and obligation to help me.
...
As far as the writing goes, that crap is intense and bizarre.
And as I try to write the book, about that time in my life, I realize, regardless of how embarrassing it is, I am going to have to include some of that crap in my book. I will need to include it because, in my right mind, I am incapable of effectively illustrating that level of intensity and insanity and any attempt will fall short in helping people to see the reality of what someone is truly experiencing when they are broken like I was.
...Yet, apparently, from an outside perspective I was managing well enough. ???
Psychologists and doctors still have a lot to learn and a very long way to go
and
It is not until they start listening to the other side, stop stigmatizing and negative stereotyping their patient/clients, and until they stop punishing, vilifying, ignoring, and/or feeling threatened by people who are actually managing their mental health/illnesses well that they will truly start progressing, improving diagnosis and treatment options, and helping people on a larger and more consistent scale.
And if Occam's razor applies to any of this, maybe it is in that way, because the most simple solution usually starts first with first seeking to understand (Covey). 

Innocent and Debatable

Innocent
Unfortunately their is nothing innocent about how I was handled.
And the worst part is I have to constantly remember this. It is the battle my little brain and heart have to constantly duke out.
I cannot allow the tempting thoughts of innocence to creep back in
Because it breaks me in so many ways
that people just cannot understand unless they have experienced it.
There are a couple of haunting thoughts that are lingering.
1: this idea of it being a somewhat innocent flirting scenario. Sometimes I am so naive that I forget what this suggests about me; that I was there flirting and playing with that man. This subject can be debatable. I am playful and maybe I flirt more than I realize. My Peruvian friend had a name for this that I can't recall but that is given to women who are either really bad at flirting when they try to flirt and/or are super flirtatious without realizing they are. It was suggested that I may be the latter. Considering some of the things I was appalled to learn that my husband thought about me and my motives prior to marriage, I suppose I just might be that Peruvian slang term that sounds something like Gila monster but I don't remember.
However that, in a therapeutic relationship, is where the innocence ends. With me.
Therapists are not supposed to flirt. That is against their training and ethics. They are also supposed to be able to identify the different types of flirting and reasons for it if it is coming from their clients. I wonder how good the training and information on this is? Or if their training is heavily bias and it is something more akin to my previous blog entry titled "the Seductress" resulting in therapists mainly believing that a client is up to no good if they think the client is flirting. This may be the main interpretation within the industry, which in all reality, (and I will speak my opinion as if it were fact) is stupid.
To me, I thought of that man as a friend. Once upon a time I knew better, and fundamentally I knew better, but my brokenness and vulnerability had him pegged as that to me. I also did not consider myself to be any sort of threat or temptation. It was not until I broke, after he put distance between us after I spoke of how our work together had helped me in my relationship with my husband and he left me heartbroken and in tears with "unfortunately their is still a human element to all of this"  that I ever even considered there might be something more there for him than a therapeutic relationship. I knew I was getting attached but I also knew (or thought I knew) that it ended there, being only reflective of my own feelings, his previous "flirtations" or suggestions nothing more than innocent playfulness or his professional testing of my feelings toward him. It never occurred to me that he may have actually been flirting or planting suggestions.
That moment that broke me was a beautiful and tragic moment that altered the course of everything. Now I realize that even in spite of ones training and expertise people do make mistakes, and I was genuinely okay with that. For this reason, even though he was trained to know and behave better I did believe it may have had some level of innocence and sincerity
but
I cannot now accept it as that because of how I was treated and handled. Even in that very moment. He was breaking me and he saw that I was hurting but he proceeded down that path. It may have been anger, fear, jealousy, self-preservation, or some other emotion that he was acting on, but ultimately I was being punished for his pain and suffering and that is where any innocence ends.
ESPECIALLY when that person is a medical provider and/or in a position of power over another. And his position of power over me was compounded and compounding as I was breaking. I was highly vulnerable in more than just one way, I loved and trusted him, he was a professional paid for service, he has a PhD - is trained and regarded as a specialist in his field, and the specialist that was especially relevant to me. He also is with an institution that has significant power and influence. IHC power within our state just may be to the degree of "absolute power corrupts absolutely." Therefore, flirting from his position with me was not innocent. And he knows it or he'd not have ever been concerned that he could loose his license because of me.
This is working out to be longer than I thought I needed it to be.
This means these thoughts and my innocent affections for him are wanting to be reinstated and entertained again and I am fighting to keep them at bay, because, as we have already established, they are neither wise nor healthy.
So I'll let this blog entry processing be. Even when so stable I have to keep fighting to keep my heart together and my mind free of the hauntings of He.
I will move onto haunting thought #2:
Attorney Friend said something about how the mania I experienced is debatable. Now I understand his point was that in a court and legal settings the Neuroscience Institute would bring in their own "experts" and make it debatable, but in reality people believing that mania is debatable is so completely stupid. I know because I was thinking along those same lines while I was living it. The reason I was thinking along those same lines was because Dear Dr. He missed or dismissed it and then in their "investigation" (to be read/said with the utmost sarcasm) they made it debatable.
AND there in lies the problem, trying to make an actual physiological and physical conditions debatable.
I was so jacked up. And I knew I was too much. I could physically feel my body chemistry surging. I was not sleeping, I was all kinds of crazy. It was fun, exciting, exhilarating, and beautiful at times, but those same things that made it feel like all of that were also very dangerous and bodies cannot maintain those kind of highs; whether they are happening biologically or as a response to artificially introduced chemicals, your body will burn up and burn out. Mine was not drug induced, it was biological broken brain and possibly careless therapist induced and insanely intense or intensely insane. But ask my husband and my kids and they can tell you it was not debatable.
It is stupid and obnoxious that people will try to label it as such. It is like saying diabetes is debatable, or even childbirth. Childbirth, I know, seems like a incompatible comparison here because childbirth results in the very-solid-evidence-form of a child, but I don't think it is so irrelevant because my mania resulted in the birth of a whole lot of physical evidence too... emails, this blog, some videos, the books worth of obsessive processing and writing that I brought with me to my last appointment with Dear Perri Cherie, to make sure "it," whatever "it" was, was not missed, my art, an expensive yellow Italian leather purse, Italian traffic tickets etc... There is physical evidence that was not there before and that does not come with or from a stable me. I mean really, who gives a crap about an Italian leather purse made in Italy? Maybe a lot of people do but I really don't, at least not at that price.
So while you or others may think it is debatable I know that it is not. I do not have the luxury of thinking or believing it is. To do so puts me in a very bad place.
In fact I believe making that kind of shit debatable is what leads to things like Laurie Vallow.
Just because a person is intelligent and can visibly manage the insanity of TBI, mania and/or other brain dysfunctions does not mean that the actual physiological problem does not exist or is debatable. If we are having psychological problems/symptoms don't try to make it debatable, Look into it and TREAT US. That is what an innocent man and institution would do.
Is that debatable too?
Maybe if we stopped making it so, then people would start listening and treating honestly.

Tools and Toys

Tools
I think it might be worthwhile to dedicate my entries to tools. The tools I have and that I utilize that make me a success story in the world of Mental Health and TBI.
I also think I may need to explain the reality of my mental health related and TBI issues but I don't want to devote too much time to that today.
And I still like the idea of using this blog to continue to help me process as I write out some of my experiences, emotions and thinking.
So maybe todays highlighted tool is the tool of writing it out. It can be a very helpful process in sorting thoughts and feelings. When I allow myself to write it out it really helps me see and sort what I am experiencing internally. I can also use it to guide me into a direction. I can let it out and then turn it around. I can write to real and/or imagined audiences. I can be noble or selfish and all shades in between in my aspirations. etc. etc.
Today I met with my accident attorney who also is an old casual friend from junior high and high school. I am grateful to have him as my attorney. He is honest and forthright with me. He tells me the reality of the situation from what he knows on his side of things. He has also been quite patient with me when I was rather lost in alternate realities, when I was suspicious and untrusting of him as well, when I was sure I was going to need to dump him and try to settle things with the insurance company on my own because my whole world was falling apart and I felt I could not trust anyone nor afford them because I was certain I would be entirely alone soon. I am grateful he was patient and understanding as much as he could be when I later realized the errors of my unstable thinking and distrust of him.
Today I got to meet with him in person and we had good conversation. I love good conversation with people. We covered a lot of ground. Some relevant to my case with the car accident, some relevant to the malpractice pursuit and other just-conversation-stuff that wove in and out of relevance to why I was there.
At one point he asked if it is possible that what happened with Dr. He might have been mostly innocent. My friend gave me a bit of the male perspective, explaining how stupid men can be when they are ... not sure how to word this, I supposed sexually driven is the most direct route; but attracted and other words were closer to what he used. He wonders if it was a more innocent flirting kind of situation and that maybe, deep down, Mr. He hoped would go somewhere physical.
Here is where psychology gets funny, stupid and interesting.
I find myself testing this friend with words like, "do you really think I hold that much power?" "Do you really think I am that special? And that I am the only one?" and "Do you really think I am capable of breaking a neuropsychologist to that level?"
Intellectually we all know better than to believe this if we break down the reality of the situation and look at the level of his power position over me.
Yet men will suggest to me that I hold this kind of power.
Which, I have to admit, is really flattering. Especially coming from a ...hmm gotta think of a name for  attorney friend... He is attractive, extremely intelligent and was always well known and well liked... And I can't seem to think of an appropriate name so I guess Attorney Friend will have to do.
... so; Especially coming form an Attorney Friend.
SO, naturally, (or not) I later found myself questioning my motives a bit. Was I fishing for the compliments? Was I fishing for his comment about how some women really do underestimate their appeal?
Maybe a little I was. I think if I am being completely honest I am certain that came into a subconscious play. But I was also truth seeking. Am I more than I think to men? I have come to accept that, at times, I probably am.
And it is tempting to believe that maybe it was that way with Dear Perri Cherie. That maybe it was pretty innocent and I really am all that and a bag of chips. I want that to be the truth.
but
but
But
Those are the motives I really have to question; My motives in believing that. First why would I want to believe that and second how does it benefit me in believing that?
1. It is flattering and fun to believe that about oneself.
2. I want to believe in the good in others and I want more than anything to believe that Mr. Cherie is all that I felt and believed he was.
3. I loved him and maybe if that is true there is still a chance that things can be worked out for the best for everyone... Maybe I really can get resolution there and with the Neuroscience Institute. Maybe I really could help them and they me. Maybe, if I try again, in a different form, they will listen this time...
and already do you see the slippery slope this kind of thinking and flattery absorption can start heading me down?
So what is the benefit in me believing that?
Believing this maybe can get me out of the burden of conscience that tells me I have to report him.
Other than that, in all reality, I don't think there are any other benefits to thinking that way.
However there are a whole lot of problems that come with thinking that way, especially considering the intensity of my feelings and perceptions and my trust and faith in him (and his institution).
So, though it may be tempting to allow myself to be so flattered, I do not think that is a good rabbit hole to head down.
So I counter with the facts and what I know from personal experience and research. And I find it is important to remember that he has shown time and time again, that he does not care, that it was not as I perceived it to be and that he will do anything, no matter the expense to me, to protect himself from the mistakes HE made with me (even though I was never a threat).
In reality I know I was simply a toy for him. When I broke from his games, he was scared and he did not care about what happened to me. He also knew, a bit too well, how to cover and hide his mistakes. The Institution he works for did not heed any red flags on my behalf. They did not listen to the symptoms I was manifesting, they jumped on the denial and trying to pass me off to others without a clear picture of exactly what they were passing off for and why. It was all a cover up. They made me out to be things I was not and he used everything he could against me.
In reality, even if it was something so flattering, I was the one who was absolutely blamed, shamed and stigmatized by the people who had absolute power over me and my records. They have the power to check whatever boxes they wanted. They have the power to make it difficult to figure anything out at all and they did, even when it broke me more and was literally burning me out and down.
That is not so flattering.
And in reality I know that we are never the only one.
So as much as I would love to believe that this man "innocently" fell for me, I know that is not the truth or the whole picture.
and
And
AND
People need to understand that psychologist are trained to know better and behave better. Even if it was innocent, it was not at all appropriate for the fault, burdens, and consequences of his irresponsibility to fall so heavily on me and me alone. He knows better. He knows better in a lot of ways. He knows he screwed me up and if he really truly does not, then he really truly is incompetent and maybe should to be removed for his position.
Attorney Friend and I talk about some of these points, though not all, and Attorney Friend recognizes the level differences in his position of power over me. We were not on a level playing field and even if, at one point/moment, we were, Dear Perri worked hard to imbalance that power again to his favor. Thus it became, not simply misunderstanding or innocent mistakes but an abuse of power.
Even my husband, who knows I am not a willing victim, has pointed out that it was not just simple misconduct or malpractice but it was abuse. Abuse of power and authority over another. Abuse of affections. And maybe even utilizing flattery to manipulate.
I wish I could believe the flattery but that only proves to hurt me and others.
I do wonder though, if maybe he can't let go of the flattery I was to him and his ego; the flattery of believing I was simply obsessed with him. Whatever it is, it has not been at all fair to me and that is not what people do to people they genuinely care about. That is not how honest or innocent doctors treat patients that they care about.
I was a toy.
That did not play the way he wanted me to.
That is all.
and I am processed out.
.
Tools in my belt:
Thinking things through
Being realistic
Ability to forgive
Ability to speak and listen with an open heart and an open mind
Honesty with myself
Balancing the flattery and criticism
Gratitude
Standing up and speaking out when necessary.
and patient Attorney Friends who take the time to be a friend when they can.

Sorrow and Passion

Life is so full of disappointments. You think you have chosen correctly. You think you are doing the right thing for yourself or your family only to have circumstances, completely beyond your control, stop your plans dead in their  tracks.
Yesterday, while driving with my family, I noticed a Juniper looking tree that was perfectly tear drop shaped on one side while the other sides branches broke the perfect symmetry by jutting out just below the neck of the tear drop where the plump body begins to curve. Those branches took a shape more similar to fire than to water.
I thought it curious and I wanted to paint a shape like that.
Today, as I pondered our families most recent disappointment and heart break, I thought it might be a good time to allow myself to paint that shape.
This is one of my very few, somewhat intentional paintings. It is meant to be pondered.

I don’t claim talent or skill at painting, but I do believe it to be a healthy outlet and one of the more luxurious tools I am very fortunate and grateful to have in my tool belt. And I’m immensely grateful for my sister-in-law who introduced me to this tool and taught me how to utilize it in beneficial ways. 💕

A Success Story

Sometimes I have so much in my head I can't get any one thing done. Right now is like that but FORTUNATELY it is not the racing manic variety. Right now it is a matter of where to start and how to accomplish those things I feel are my life's purpose.
It is trying to keep straight all that I need to get back to, all that I need to start, and all that I have to do regularly everyday.
I have a lot to sort and make decisions about.
I need to prioritize and maybe even let go of some of my dreams and previous goals.
And sometimes that can be a bit overwhelming
especially for a brain that is inclined to be deficient in "executive functioning"
and that has lower cognitive stamina
but a whole lot of good ideas, hope, and passion etc.
blah blah blah...
So ramble, I will, because this free flow format is often more productive for me than my structured plans.
Dr. She
I like her.
Sometimes I am not sure if I can really trust her, but I keep choosing to anyway and that still seems to be most effective. Monday we covered a lot. I told her how I felt a bit betrayed by some of the wording in her  neuropsychological evaluation of me. I told her how I felt a little betrayed by how she responded to the idea of me going back to school that day. I told her how I decided to handle and work through these issues in my mind. I told her how it is possible because medication is working and because I am not the negative stereotypes reported in the whatever test that has the negative wording. I told her how I realized some of my feelings of betrayal were exactly what she warned me about in regards to the wording of that one test report. We had some very good conversation. There were moments where I think she was a little nervous and concerned that I was misinterpreting her and her intentions. Their were moments I was worried she would misinterpret me and my intentions.  But you know what? We worked through it.
Ahhh and big sigh of extra satisfied relief.
Now on to this idea of going back to get a masters or, preferably, a PHD in the field of psychology:
Dr. She has said so many things that have encouraged me and I was under the impression that she really liked this idea and even thought I could really make a difference, have an impact. This is why I felt a bit betrayed when she put so much emphasis on how hard it would be for me because of my deficits. It stung a bit. I had to make a choice.
My choice to trust her suggested to me the idea that maybe she just wanted to make sure I understood the reality.
She confirmed this in our conversation on Monday. She does not want me to go into it blind or with unrealistic expectations of myself because she fears how that might effect me. I am glad. And I am glad that her doubt was expressed because it also lit a bit of a fire as my internal dialogue boldly demanded, "well what the hell else am I going to do?"
You see, no matter what I do it is going to wear me out. That is the reality of my new norm. Any full time job is pretty unrealistic if I care to have any emotional stability or energy left for anything else. So I might as well do something I am passionate about, have a lot of experience with and knowledge about, and that I want to do.
I explained to Dr. She what I know and how I feel I will need to play to my strengths of experience. I reassured her that if that does not work then I don't want to be in the industry anyway.
She liked this idea of me utilizing and playing to my strength of experience and said something about how the industry loves a success story...
... and that there is what makes me smile
even tear up a little.
because
I AM a success story.
I have succeeded at managing and/or overcoming TBI, suicidal drives, depression, anxiety, a whole lot of negative thinking patterns, hypomania, PTSD, and mania -to name a few. None of those are small feats but the last, mania, that's an especially big deal that I am pretty proud of. Especially considering the context, circumstances and opposition I had.
And the suicidal stuff, I am pretty proud of that too because I have overcome and beat a significant many forms of that creature. Some very powerful.
And I am happy. I am grateful. I have a beautiful life, a sense of meaning, purpose, satisfaction and self.
So I am a success story!
I could end there, and maybe I should because the next point I would like to make merits its own venue and series,
but I will not end there because this next point is so important to my success I feel it should never be left out.
Over the last few days I have reflected on why and how I am a success story and I have come to find that I love my success story and how truly beautiful it is because it is not just me and my story;
My success story is a tapestry of so many people and influences.
I am only a success because of the help I have had from others.
Even when I was so very alone, I was not without assistance and I was not completely alone. I could have easily continued down the progressive path of isolation. I could have easily become absolutely alone, but I did not. Instead I continued to choose to let people in and to trust even when I knew I could not. I continued to fight to recognize the positives I had from other people past and present. As safe guarded as I was, and needed to be, I continued to reach out and I continued to try to connect with other people in positive ways. And fortunately enough people responded with enough positive regard. Fortunately I had built enough of a foundation of positive personal development with the help of others. Fortunately I had chosen to let into my mind and heart enough influence from professionals and people from so many walks of life that when I was at rock bottom I did have a solid foundation to build on, even if in that moment I really was completely alone.
There really is no such thing as an entirely self-made man.
Success is impossible to achieve entirely alone -unless being entirely alone and entirely self sufficient is a persons definition of success.
Ultimately we ARE all in this together and we need other people.
Ultimately my success is your success and that is exactly why I am a success story.
And what a truly beautiful story we are.
💕

Simply Put

If we want to actually help people with TBI and/or mental illnesses then the industries, doctors, therapist, and institutions that serve them need to stop perpetuating the negative stigmas and misconceptions,
They need to start having intelligent conversations with them,
AND
THEY HAVE GOT TO STOP PUNISHING PEOPLE WHO ARE ACTUALLY HANDLING/MANAGING THEIR MENTAL ILLNESSES AND/OR TBI WELL.

Intermountain Neuroscience Institute of Murray, Utah did not order a MRI for TBI

I went to the Neuroscience Institute for head injury and they didn't do any brain scans.
I am listening to Ted Talks, specifically this one: The most important lesson from 83,000 scans
I once read a book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, by this same man Dr. Daniel Amen, and it was actaully life changing for me. Not only did it help me understand my own brain better and how to work with it I understood my husband, the poster child for ADHD, better and how to function better with him. So when Dr. Amen talks I listen.
In addition to this here are some other things I have learned about how our brains work:
As a human grows and develops their brain learns how to function differently. With adequate resources our brains can become quite effective and efficient processing machines. All brains will develop shortcuts and there has been enough scientific research done that we know that certain areas have certain jobs and/or are more efficient at accomplishing certain tasks.
With TBI and mTBI/concussion these systems are upset. The brain gets shaken and lit up. It does not process effectively and efficiently anymore. It may be able to get back to what it was before, but if areas are damaged enough, it cannot return to those pathways. A damaged brain has to learn new ways of functioning. It has to figure out new routes and shortcuts. It has to utilize different areas to accomplish the tasks it was able to do before using the now degraded area... as I write this I am simultaneously reflecting and it is starting to make some sense why initially I actually seemed to have some heightened abilities immediately after the car accident. It is like my daughter walking home on hear broken foot, adrenaline pumped by the pain of the break and the pain of knowing her cousin caused it (thought she did not mean to). Her bodies will to utilize it's last bit of strength and life before the reality of the break set in and she could not even put weight on it without significant pain. Likely worsened by the act of walking on it when it was broken.
My damaged brain may have acted similarly after the auto accident. I knew it was damaged, I knew it was not nothing, but a deep subconscious fear of being handled the way I had been when I experienced a broken brain like that before woke me and kept me functioning to deceptive levels. The adrenaline and endorphins, the muscle memory and life experiences kept the bleeding portions functioning at max capacity for as long as they could before they faded and died.
I could be wrong but I am fairly certain something like this really did happen in my head. MRI's done over two years after provide evidence of this. Thus, the long processing, ruminating, and solving is something that I cannot shut down. It is necessary. It is how my broken brain is working to find new routes and to try to reestablish the self that it was, or to create a new self that is efficient and comfortable that I can be happy with.
Broken brains require patience and support.
...All this long processing and trying to place exactly what went wrong and why, when it is so very simple:
I went to a Neuroscience Institute for a second head injury and they did not do a brain scan. Even as increased evidence surfaced that there was more going on then previously thought and even when I kept trying to tell them this.
How stupid is that?
One ex-friend (who ultimately was just afraid to defend), insisted I need to question my own motives.  I do question my own motives, and I wish I could let the Neuroscience Institute be. But in reality? WHAT THE HELL? There is something very wrong with this picture isn't there? And then they blame, shame, stigmatize, slander, defame, and punish me for it? Yes, there is something very wrong with this picture.
And I wonder is the root of the problem with them just as simple as: Here in lies the problem with institutions practicing defensive medicine after one provider has made a mistake? Or here in lies the problem with doctors not listening to the experts from the other side of their profession? Or is it simply evidence of how lemming like people really are as they all followed suite after the first doctor made the mistake of misdiagnosing?
Maybe all three, but very clear and simple problems to address if only they would. It is by not, by refusing to be responsible citizens and acting with foolish fear and disregard for human life that harm is increased and perpetuated and societies/communities begin to break down.

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

On Monday I had the follow up after the neuropsychological evaluation with Dr. She. Nothing terribly surprising to me but a few things surprising to her, like my reading comprehension is lower than she expected. I agree and this is a source of some grief and frustration since it is a task that is still noticeably more difficult than it was prior to the auto accident. My reading comprehension has always been very good to excellent but after the first TBI I believe I had a marked decrease because throughout my life after that I have been a slower reader and much more easily distracted by my thoughts thus I often had to reread things. Yet, it has never been as difficult as it has been since the car accident. It has improved and sometimes my power of concentration on reading is better than others, but it is noticeably lower, which is annoying.
My cognitive stamina showed to be lower and my processing speed is lower. This is, again, something that I know was a bit lower prior to the car accident but is noticeably lower after the car accident. The strange thing is, immediately after, some of my processing speed actually seemed quicker for a bit. Now I am just slower.
To be clear, I am not slower or lower than the average person in most of these deficits of mine, I am just significanlty slower and lower than would be expected based on the measures of my intelligence. My verbal language something-or-other is also lower than to be expected but, again, not surprising due to the location of my injuries. I have long felt I struggle to articulate to my level of intelligence.
Anyway a bit of rambling that I did not really come to write about. I think this may be some avoidance...
So into the meat, my real purpose today.
A couple of things on the report upset me. It was the language and explanation of my results according to the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventroy test. I knew when I was taking the test what some of the questions were getting at and I was concerned it would paint me in a light that is not accurate of me as a whole, but, being the being that I am, I had to answer honestly and due to my recent circumstances I am (or was at the time of testing) a bit untrusting, to say the least. But the wording in the results is very negatively worded and very stigmatizing. Anyway, it upset me. It is bullshit spreading of misconceptions of mental health issues, particularly bipolar. It had me feeling down and I wondered if I can trust Dr. She. It had me questioning her and her intentions. I was second guessing myself and my judgement again.
but
but
But
I decided
I am done.
I am not going to let people dictate anymore who I am based on their ignorant and bias misconceptions or preconceived notions. I am also not going to hide me anymore. I get hurt by being honest, and people judge me sometimes because I share way too much. But the thing is, and dear mirror sister Renée once again helped me put it to words better, people are blaming, shaming, judging anyway, so I might as well speak out, speak up and live my truth. At least then I am standing up and speaking out about issues that are important to me and I have found that very often I help someone else by doing so.
Monday I also decided that I am done with carrying the burden of knowing that dear Perri Cherie could be a grooming psychologist and/or brilliant manipulative mastermind.
I have a lawyer (that I did not want to hire but had to to defend myself) that said  I either have nothing or a thousand things. I reminded him of the letter from their lawyer and he knows I have a thousand things. It is overwhelming. But he is working on what he can and I am feeling better about waiting to file the reports I know I need to. He does have to make it about money, it is his job and livelihood, so I can be okay with that and really we deserve to have some of our expenses and burdens from this rectified.
But waiting to file reports, waiting to try and stop or prevent harm to others is a heavy burden. Knowing how I was handled and how much harm they collectively caused burdens me significantly knowing that other very vulnerable and broken people might be being harmed as well. And it haunts me a bit because "you know others are not as strong."
So I did what I could and wrote an honest google review and a few other reviews on Dr. He. It is not what I want to do it is not what I want to believe, but as Jordan Peterson and others points out, as adults we need to put away our childish naivety... I cannot ignore all of the red flags and the deviance. I cannot keep ignoring how he has used everything he can against me and has work to paint me in a bad light just to cover and protect himself. It cannot ignore the inceptions and the twisting of my thoughts those symptoms they were denying.  Or the way things were twisted and then accusing me of twisting things that I did not (like my son calling them when I told him not to and then they have a lawyer accuse me of "causing my underage son to call"). I cannot keep giving them the benefit of the doubt when they have hurt me and my family, disregarded me, tried to discard me, used me, played games with me, etc. every time I have asked for help and clarification since the events that transpired with Dr. He that broke me.
Whatever is happening there is bigger than me, that much I am sure of, because they have worked very hard to keep me silenced and to deny any mistakes and wrongdoing even when doing so was causing significant harm and could have cost my life. They have shamed and blamed me, feigned care while ostracizing and then exiling when I could have been a highly beneficial case study for them.
And I am done blaming myself or allowing others to blame me. It is so ridiculous how all the literature, philosophies, rules and guidelines in psychology say I should not be blamed and yet in reality I am not only being blamed but also shamed, stigmatized, slandered, and silenced.
I am done being broken by this.
Medication is working and I have worked hard to stay ahead of my chemistry and the madness that was raging inside and out. I have put in the time and energy and it is time for what I have been working so hard for to click.
So Monday was something like learning to ride a bicycle;
I have been working so hard for so long, understanding the mechanics and physics of it, knowing what it is and how to do it but just not quite having the balance right to actually ride this allegoric bike.  So when I was faced with what felt like another hit to my balance, I looked at the bike and had to decide, do I want to give it up and be done trying to ride a bicycle -I'll just stick to walking- or do I give it one more try? With determination I decided to try and I got it. I was able to balance it out and ride. I let go of the tethers that have been burdening me and holding me back and I let go of everybody else's' fears, their "ohs," "ahs," and their lurching forward "becarefuls." I said, "to hell with all you all that say I should stick to walking and/or that don't think I am capable." I got back on the bike
tried again
and rode upright on two wheels without any outside assistance.
I felt positive, and happy. A happy that wasn't my chemistry pushing back against medication.
A weight lifted knowing that I have done all I possibly can trying to reconcile and address what needs to be addressed on my behalf. I have gone above and beyond trying to reconcile, giving the benefit of the doubt, and seeking first to understand. I have put them before me. I tried to do what they asked every time. I honored there positions and training. I tried to have intelligent and responsible conversations about what they were missing and what I was trying to figure out. But ultimately they are scared and dishonest when they are the ones holding all the cards. Exactly what I stumbled onto I really don't know. It is too bad they cannot see the value I could be to them, because it was the muscle memory of handling trauma and damage from the first TBI that picked up on their deviance even before I did. My brain has figured out tricks to help accommodate for things like slower processing, emotional instability, distractibility, language recall, etc. and these tricks caught them red handed long before I was willing to admit their deviance. So I am satisfied with the effort I have made and I am even proud of myself.
Happy, confident, secure in who I am. I am allowing myself to be proud of me and what and how I have managed with so much opposition.
Will it hold this time? So much of this sounds so very familiar doesn't it?
Honestly, I don't know, but also I do and the answer is not likely black and white. This time I have the stabilizing help of accurate diagnosis and medication. I also have determination. And I have the knowledge that I have done this before and I can do it again. Maybe I have not broken to that level and I have been forever altered, but through it I have learned so very much about myself.
 And I HAVE overcome before. I can do it again.
This time with new understanding and insight and even more power than before because, this time, I am overcoming powers that are far greater than me.
I got this. And I am proud of me.
I will choose to trust again. I will continue to love.  I will continue to hope and pray for the Neuroscience Institute and the providers I had their. I will continue to hope that others will see that I am not so scary. But now, if they don't or won't, then that is on them and I can still love and be happy with me.

mapping holes continued

cont from yesterdays commentary:
...And lets not forget the malevolence of my treacherous heart. The malevolence in me that would have abandoned my husband and kids for a man that was using me as a toy. So there is a form of malevolence in me that is shocking... Fortunately I was simply a toy to this man so the opportunity to shack up with him was never there because I am far too vocal and risky for someone whose intentions are malevolent.
It is a bit comical really
After the Purple Rain incident Dr. She (my neuropsychologist therapist) said my subconscious is really mean to me. It really can be, logically piecing together all the mean and negative things people have had to say to me and about me and ways I have been treated to prove that I am of no value except for in dying.
And yet, at the same time, my body and subconscious have this amazing will to live as my deep subconscious picks up on threats and annihilates them with safe guards like breaking the way I did when Dr. He's intentions with me were not what they were supposed to be. When he was playing games that were meant to satisfy him and his needs my brain reacted in a way that put so many safeguards up there was no way he'd continue down that road with me.
And I saw through his mask. He did not like that I did not only see what he allowed me to see. (His exact words were, "you only see what I allow you to see.")
and he did not like that I continued to try to solve when he had told me not to try and solve this. (His exact words were, "I told you not to try and solve this.")
And things such as this make me wonder if it really was not entirely mania and a bipolar manic situation but rather a bodies fight or flight response with heightened awareness and a brain driven into overdrive in an effort to self preserve and protect. The fight mechanism fully engaged because what was happening was far more than even a non broken brain can handle.
What was happening?
1. Flooding of memories
2. Brain fog and emotional irrational responses finally lifting enough to handle the other realities of injury from the car accident like the ankle, hip and back. And the PTSD
3. Realizing my cognitive stamina may never be high enough to effectively handle an elementary classroom full-time without compromising my health. In other words; facing the reality that I might have to give up the career I loved, was good at, and just barely getting into in full capacity.
4. Falling in love with one's therapist for the unhealthy and healthy slew of reasons (and/or relationships) for which that happens.
5. Dealing with and trying to understand the TBI that had been misdiagnosed in it's severity without knowing that at that point.
6. Trying to do it all with a lack of social, emotional, and family support as documented by Dr. He himself in his report of me. (which also happen to be attributes that make me a prime target for grooming)
So maybe an extended survival fight is a more accurate description of the mania I was experiencing? Regardless, according to the definition of mania, the shoe fit.  https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/bipolar-disorder/index.shtml

Mapping Holes to Create the Whole

I need to be focusing on my dad and my husband today because it is their day but I am so distracted by my thoughts.
My head is a bit of a mess today.
All over the place.
Trying to battle and inside of me stand up to the voices of those that have been so ...
careless, defensive, accusatory...?
I am not entirely sure how to explain but I think it is certainly more likely that the fingers they were pointing were more reflective of the three pointing back. too many people to many times...
So I try to turn it around,
Focus on the positive. The good things I have heard and the things I have learned over these last couple of years. One thing I know is that I need to love me. And fortunately I can find many things I love about me. And I even see that some of the things I thought I loved about those that now despise me were, to some degree, reflections of me while what they despise about me may be the projections of themselves I reflected back.
-and all over the place, I want to explain, on here I come, when really I haven't the time, because my time is dwindling with the distractions of my mind so it seems it might be a fair venture if I can write out the things that are holding me back and distracting me today.-
So I am trying to redirect and I think of positives, like Renée and her friend we were able to help get a wheelchair to. And I think of my hand physical therapist who said, "thank you. I needed to hear that today" when I admired the Christ like attributes of what he does. He takes on peoples pain to help them heal and feel less pain. It causes him pain, but he does it with regard and concern for his patients everyday.
I am grateful for moments like this, when I can help people see just a glimpse of their value.
...it is a trait about me that I love
and it is a thing about God that I love -how He can and will work through us
Yet it can also be heavy
and that seems to be what I am feeling today.
I know I need to warn others of the trouble that Dr. He can cause, of how he played with me and then twisted it to make it appear that I was behaving "inappropriately." He did it so well and so easily that any intelligent person knows it is highly unlikely I was the first or the last. And my mind just won't let me escape the burden I feel of the need to report... But my treacherous heart keeps looking to justify, excuse and even give him opportunities to prove that this knowledge that I hold of him is wrong...
And this, that observation of my heart -even still being treacherous, may just be the link to what I have learned recently about PTSD according this guy https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/transcripts/transliminal/
It is not just the malevolent acts against me by people that we, as a society and culture, believe to be the most benevolent among us, but it is also my own internal struggle with my own malevolence and benevolence -and probably my naivety as well. My own internal workings are struggling still to find that balance between what is good and benevolent and what is malevolent.
 One thing I don't think people really understand is that my just "accepting" what happened to me and "letting it go" feels malevolent against myself and any other victims that may be out there.
 I don't believe it is at all benevolent for me "let it burn out" when "it" was me and I needed the help the Institution was supposed to be able to provide. I needed accurate diagnosis and honest discussion. I was trying to be benevolent by withholding information that could get Dr. He into trouble which was increasing harm to me. And while I was trying to be the benevolent person he knew I was he was using that very benevolence against me in malevolent ways. He twisted and turned things to make himself appear to be the benevolent one, which would have been very easy to do since that its how they are all viewed anyway.
The malevolent acts against me were thus strengthened by my own duality and malevolent acts against myself in trying to benevolently protect the man who had malevolently used me, discarded me, and was then keeping me from getting the help I needed from the appropriate providers by denying what had really happened and what was going on with me.
so this writing out journey today has been an interesting one and as I watched the first part of the aforementioned video, I find it especially serendipitous that "writing it out" is a method Jordan Peterson uses. By-the-way I have only watched about the first 5 minutes of this video and know very little about this man. I just happened across a comment about him on Quora.com and a link to a snippet of the above mentioned video where he talks of PTSD being the result of becoming aware of the malevolence in the world and oneself. It was an interesting idea to me, especially in the limited snippet I initially watched. A more full explanation makes sense and I will eventually watch the entire video. For now though I want to focus on my writing out process to try and get out what I need to and then refocus my mind... It has been helping, I have come and gone from this one multiple times today and likely gotten more done than I would have considering how all over the place and distracted my mind is today.
I am not entirely sure why today. I think I just want to get things over with but I am still at a loss as to how. I also am waiting on others that are taking an eternity, probably because it is as I noted to the Neuroscience Institute in the first place, because for the lawyers it is all about money, and they want to go for what will benefit them most financially... It is all about  money to everyone it seems.
Dr. Peterson criticizes naivety and childlike trust in this adult world. He calls it weakness...
This is also interesting because I was processing a lot from a very childish place with Perri Cherie (Dr. He). The PTSD of then was due to the TBI of my youth being minimized, marginalized and not handled in a way that was very fair to me then, by the adults that I loved and trusted. I was expected to be understanding and supportive of them and their trauma from my situation. I was expected to be miraculously healed, so therefore the very real consequences and troubles that I had because of the TBI were basically seen as character flaws and I was simply seen as a difficult teen.
...Strange how the situation repeated in many ways and maybe that is why I am bothered today of all days, because the therapist takes a type of parental role in ones life and that one got really warped.
And it was especially damaging and condemning to me because I so desperately needed this TBI to be handled differently. I so desperately needed the love, acceptance and help that I did not get with the TBI from my youth this time around, but instead similar mistakes and more were repeated to a higher degree and by those that are qualified and paid to know better.
Dr. Peterson says that I can only control the 5% and thus my take away needs to be first becoming aware of the holes so that I will not fall into them again when I see them... I actually thought I had gotten pretty good at that. And really I had in some areas, but I sure did not realize how naive and trusting I have so often been and I have only done so-so with avoiding those holes. Or maybe I am seeing the holes but I keep giving the holes the benefit of the doubt?.. and hoping that they will choose to conform to my childish faith in humanity and ideals that I just don't want to give up on?..
hmmm...
 I feel as though I am becoming quite knowledgeable about this field of psychology because I like to explore all the damned holes I come across

And the only reason I am writing about this at all is because of the PTSD style reaction I get when I start exploring this idea of going to graduate school to become a psychologist myself. It actually physically effects me; my heart speeds up, I am visibly shaky and I have a hard time focusing on what I am reading. I feel nervous and insecure and I distrust the professors automatically... which is probably why I am avoiding it. It is beyond ridiculous but it is what is happening and it is what it is. No point in beating myself up over it. Instead, I am hoping as I dissect irrational reactions like this I might keep inching closer to whatever it is that I am destined to do with this bizarre life of mine and to whomever it is that I am meant to be.  

No Pain No Gain: when to push and when to back off

Dr. She says she is not surprised that I don't remember the medication. She says considering all the stress I was under and the medication itself it is not surprising or even all that concerning that I don't remember it.
I do feel better about it after this conversation.
We also talk about pain.
Renée and I talked about pain yesterday. I am so glad for that conversation. Renée calls me her mirror  sister because there are so many ways we mirror each other. It is funny that she has problems communicating and finding words at times because often she helps me find and/or remember mine.
Part of this pain theme that was discussed with both parties is the need to feel pain and that pain is a form of communication. We need to listen to what the pain is telling us. Sometimes it is telling us that something is wrong. Sometimes we need to push through while others times pain is what lets us know that we need to back off. Sometimes allowing ourselves to feel the pain is how we purge our system of the trouble that pain is an indication of. The pain I am feeling from rejection by people I love and care about is kind of like this. Even though I care about them they do not care about me, which hurts a lot, but also lets me know that they are not really friends or healthy people to have in my life. They reinforce negative core beliefs I have had about myself and this needs to be purged. Renée has beautifully taught me this.

Right now my hands, especially my thumbs are a good illustrations of pain, how it communicates to us and how to handle it. I am doing physical therapy now and the guy I am going to is amazing. If he were a horse trainer he'd be considered a horse whisperer, so I sometimes refer to him as the Hand Whisperer.
He has been causing a lot of pain to my right hand, it is still painful a lot but it is at a point in its healing that the pain needs to be pushed. He does not want to mess with the left hand much because it is still very broken. That break you can see on the x-ray. The right hand injury is older but amazingly it also did not break any bones, just a ligament or two...or more. The pictures is what it looks like today. Hand Whisperer taped it to help retrain and to help encourage swelling to go down in some areas that are still swollen. I am seriously amazed and impressed that through the stretching, exercising and a technique called myofascial release I have had instantly increased hand strength and less overall pain. It is most fascinating because the exercises and myofascial release techniques are painful. He is a causing pain and discomfort to both decrease pain and discomfort and increase strength and the results are amazingly fast and obvious. I have only had two PT appointments with the Hand Whisperer and already I can open things again using my right thumb and index finger. I could not before within the same day.
He is working wonders.
However if he did not have proper diagnosis and was pushing my left thumb the way he is now pushing my right thumb it would not lead to positive results but could very likely cause significantly more damage. And if you notice, although it was bruised at first it looked about the same as it does in the picture I took of it today when they took that x-ray.

This is what broken thumb looks like today

And this reminds me a lot of other broken parts I have that have experienced significant pain lately. Proper diagnosis really is crucial. 

One Thing Broken Brains do Right is Fight

While going through our medicine cabinet I found a prescription for Abilify (generic version) written to me from June of last year.

I found this very troubling.

It's been about two weeks... and it is still quietly nagging somewhere in the back

Because I don't remember it. But I do remember that Dr. She mentioned that medication having not worked for me in the letter she wrote to the psychiatric PA when she realized I needed that help and fast. I remember telling her that I had never taken that medication, at that point I did not know why she included that in the letter, where she came up with that idea....

This is really bothering my head. 

Because obviously it had been prescribed but I don't remember that and I don't remember if I tried taking it at all. 

It had been prescribed by my family practitioner PA. The one the noted "possible mania" the day after my last appointment with Dr. He, just before we were leaving to Italy. 

So I asked for the medical record notes from the day it was prescribed... but even with that, I don't remember her prescribing it or the conversation about it. 

There are 27.5 out of 30 10mg tablets left in the bottle. Which means I took 2.5... But I do not remember taking it at all

And this really bothers me.

I was such a mess I don't remember it.

I vaguely remember the appointment. She was the only provider I had left that was at least trying to help. But I think at that point I also thought she was not the "right" doctor for what was going on with me... I was still, somehow, insanely trusting the things said by Dr. Concussion -especially that I need a psychiatrist and neuropsychologist. In my brain (and most other people) they, meaning those at the Neuroscience Institute, were still the more qualified and appropriate doctors. I am not sure if that is why I only took 2 and 1/2 or if I really responded badly after only taking 2.5 tabs... I can not even pretend to know because I can't find the memory... And I was working a new job, and that was going badly. 

This bothers me.

I already feel broken and beat down. 

And I have to keep reminding myself that I am not as worthless as I feel. I have to keep trying to find the good and the positive in spite of the beat downs, lack of support, lack of concern, lack of friends, lack of a job.... and reminders of how screwed up my head really is. 

Today I am not winning.

And I am trying to remember how to pull out of this... But also realizing that maybe I have never been that good at it because I keep loosing...

loosing friends, loosing family, loosing confidence, loosing jobs, loosing ability and loosing with the people who say they are there to help. 

the common thread 

is me

Yes, I see

no need to point it out. 

No need to reinforce

I already know.

...and yet I still try to be kind and I still try to help and love others... even those who don't love me.

And I know that I am far better off than so many people in this messed up world...

But so many people, too many I know, are better off without me...

and I am tired of "getting it" 

maybe I am mad

maybe I am sad

or maybe I am bad

for not being what they all really want me to be

Gone

...

and I want to end there. I did. but my resilient and defiant broken little brain just yelled at them, "shut the fuck up you jack ass mother fuckers." 

Sorry, no edits this time. My brain is fighting for me and I am going to let it win even if it is ugly and unacceptable, even if it is angry, even if it isn't what everyone else wants me to be -even if it's not what I want me to be, look or sound like...

Because at least my brokenness is still fighting for me. 

Dear Doctors, TBI? DO AN MRI!!

So there are many things that many people don't seem to understand about my situation, including and most damaging, the medical providers. Here is the main thing:
I am still trying to piece together what really happened to me. What really happened to my brain and when.
Some people seem to think the "what really happened and when" doesn't or shouldn't matter. They think I need to look at it as "this is the brain injury you have, so now you deal with it."
Well, I am trying to. You would think that much would be obvious.
But even so, I sometimes feel very angry that they expect me to just accept that "we don't know" because the reality of the "we don't know" is that WE COULD HAVE KNOWN. We could have known exactly what the damage was from if they had done an MRI immediately after the car accident. We could have possibly known if the next two doctors I saw about it had ordered an MRI. And AND this is really kind of a big deal, WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN right away because the fact that I have permanent scaring suggests I was at very high risk for complications that were not being monitored.  Dr. Reddy (Concussion Dr. at the Neuroscience Institute) was wrong to not order an MRI herself even though it had been 4 months since the car accident before I could get to her, but she was right about one thing: I should not have been working (which led to my being fired from that job in a very unfair and traumatic way).
And honestly this is as far as I go tonight... I am tired of trying to figure it out and what to do about it and yet it seems so very important to figure out.
Soooo many things could have been prevented if that first doctor at the North Ogden IHC Instacare would have ordered an MRI... Actually, maybe first fail was with the ENT ambulance drivers that gave me the option to go in the ambulance or not. Don't expect a person who was clearly hit in the head, is overly emotional, confused, and is struggling to make a decisions, to make the decision about whether or not they should be taken to the hospital to have their head checked out.
And if you or anyone you know is ever in this predicament, please get your head checked out!

Turning points and tough decisions.

the chemical ups have definitely subsided. I am much more stable...
but I feel as though I am loosing some of that stability again because anger is exploding from me a bit...
I AM ANGRY
And not just about me and my shit but about the shit that too many people handle and how we are all so damn shitty at helping each other....
I AM MAD
I am mad that I am so powerless to do anything about the inaccuracies, false accusations and even straight up defamation in my medical records.
I am mad about how my kids have been effected. I am mad that my son is alone and lonely, that this experience has resulted in him feeling and becoming somewhat isolated. How the hell does a 13-14 year old boy explain to anyone the anxiety he is having because the medical institution that his mom loved and trusted had the cops sent to his house and he was led to believe his mom had committed suicide after he had an altercation with her.
It's too much for a 13 year old boy to watch his mom go manic and then fade into a depression that was so mind altering that she was not the same person she used to be, but rather a screwed up version of his mom that is in a love with another man that happened to be the medical provider that had broken her and she is trying to protect him when he is lying about her condition to those that could help her, she is unstable but trying her best to not be, and she is so suicidal from it that it was impossible to hide although she was trying her best to and to not be that also.
That is too damn much for any child
and I am sad and angry that he has had to go through that. I am sad and angry that I don't know how to handle it or how to help him now. I am angry that I know space from me is probably a good thing for him. I am sad and angry about that because I love him, he is still my young son, and he is so important to me. I am sad and angry because so many things have been canceled that finding any good opportunities with peers his age this summer is very difficult and, so far, also very far away. He wants to go. He deserves to go. ...It is expensive... but more than that, I will miss him and I will worry about him... And I want to keep him. I want to make things better... that I cannot make better... no matter how hard I try. I can not fix the way things have happened or his pain.... I cannot even seem to be able to fix my own problems. And he is loosing faith in humanity at far too young an age because of it.
...So I need to let him go, I think, and this is hurting me more than I care to admit to myself...
I am tired of handling this. I am angry that my kids having to handle this. They already had the burden of handling my broken and exhausted brain... I am tired of doctors that are supposed to help me untangle what was made a mess by other doctors. Other doctors that have done what they can to cover up the mess and make it appear like I was the one making all the mistakes and tangling things up...
I am sad about the strains my breaking and this mess has caused my relationships. Relationships that have also impacted my children. I am not the only one who has lost friends through this. I am sad about how big of a mess I was. I am sad but also still know, that then, I really was doing the best that I could. It was the first time in my life that I knew I was doing the best I could. I am not sure that I am anymore. I am stable but I am a coward and I am confused on how keep proceeding and especially on how to help my kids that have also been affected by this.
...I will miss my son terribly... I want to keep him here and plan our own adventures and work on the projects that got lost and abandoned amidst this chaos. I want to teach him and love him... But that may not be what he needs right now since he wants to rebel against me, angry about the situation,  but also wants to love me and protect me and fears how his actions affect me while feeling resentment that they do. So sometimes he pushes buttons and then feels terrible about it. He is a good kid and I know deep down he wants to be the good that he is, but he needs a break from me and my brokenness... Which is very sad... and I am sad... and this is not really what I thought I needed to process, but I see now that I do in a big way.
... Yet, while it is sad,
you know what,
at least we are all big enough to admit it, face it, and do something about it, in a way that is moving forward with thoughtful regard and consideration for all parties. And ultimately I hope he knows just how much I love him and how much I appreciate his being there for me and trying to do what he could when I was fighting for my life. I appreciate how strong he is and has been and how clever and talented he is. I appreciate how capable he is and that he loves and cares for others even when it is hard. And, even though I had asked him not to, and they did use it against me (and him) the way I feared they would, I am so incredibly proud of my son for having the guts to call the institution and at least try to talk to the man he knew was responsible for the breaking his mother.
I am one lucky mom.

Pain in the Ass. You want something to beat me up over? I'll give you something to beat me up over

I've had an upswing in reads on this blog. That is nice to see. And I really have to take that little victory today because I am so tired of taking hits in my realtime world.

Dr. Tangled, that was a kind of jerk at my follow up appointment with her, requested my husband schedule an appointment when he called asking for clarification. He scheduled it thinking she wanted to help correct whatever went wrong with that appointment. But it seems she actually wanted us to come back just so she could exert her dominance, accuse me of doing so many things wrong while at the sometime blaming the TBI but making sure I knew just how crappy she thinks I deserve to be treated. We did not feel we should have to pay for that appointment. But this morning her office manager called to let me know they will be charging for that appointment. Now remember my husband is the one who called them. I sent an brief email, but he called. He is stable and perceived as such while Dr. Tangled accused me of being anxious all of the time and other things, yet they chose to call me and not my husband. 

And I am so tired of feeling like it is all my fault, I am the problem, and always to blame entirely for these omnipotent providers acting like jerks.

I think some of this may be reflective of bigger cultural problems.
But I really don't want to go into that too deep right now.
Even before this phone call (and the one that followed from the next person up the line that went about the same)  I had a hard time getting out of bed because it kind of feels pointless sometimes, so this hit is at a bad time. And her office director, as nice as she seemed, had to make sure I know that Dr. Tangled does not get complaints like this. Of course she doesn't, TBI patients rarely file complaints, they usually just absorb it, feeling like they deserve it. But more than that it, I find it highly likely she is being influenced by the defamation and slandering of me in the medical records that follow me... So of course I deserve to be treated like trash, that is what I have been diagnosed as by the Neuroscience Institution that is of more significance than her practice is.

... People are so lemming like and predictable. They repeat the same stupid patterns at every level. The same patterns are being seen on larger scales with all the insanity that is happening in the world right now. The corporations and big names are jumping quickly onto bandwagons to show how much they care when in reality they are doing nothing to help and often further perpetuating harm by jumping on bandwagons that are condemning too many people who are not bad.
Like Black Lives Matter. Of course they do, but how does Amazon stating that on their website help anyone? And how are protestors glaring, shaking their signs aggressively and yelling at us in our car as they march past helping with that? I am not on opposite sides as what they proclaim to be protesting yet they were definitely making sure I felt their wrath with me. But for what?
I am tired of people so aggressively defending their misjudgments of me. Just because you want to think I am something or one way does not make me that way.
Although this type of treatment of people does often result in, or makes it appear to result in the person turning into exactly what they are being accused of. I think the movie Zootopia  covers this topic very well. People often finally give up and give in with an "if I can't beat them I might as well join them" style attitude and I see very clearly why. It is so hard to continue trying to prove that you are not what you have been wrongly labeled or accused of being especially if you know their is some accuracy and especially if the people accusing are in positions of power over you. I have mentioned this before, this happens all of the time to school children in school systems. It happens with race, it happens with poverty, it happens in families, it happens ALL THE TIME to girls and women who are sexually abused and/or exploited,  and it also happens ALL THE TIME to people with "mental illness."
The most vulnerable among us are far too often blamed more than they are helped. This experience has taught me a lot about victim shaming and my eyes have been opened to just how huge of a problem it is. So victims turn into abusers themselves. Or they continue on the path that was set for them because they cannot escape the labels and misjudgments.
I don't want to be that person. I don't want to become what they want to make me out to be. I don't want to be what I have been misunderstood and misjudged to be. But I also refuse to lie down and take it anymore.
So now what?
Celebrate my small victories, keep standing up for myself and speaking out, and (as Dr. She would say) fight harder.
Yes ma'am.
Will do.
And tomorrow I will not have a hard time getting out of bed because I obviously have a job or two to do.
I WILL NOT burn out. I WILL NOT continue to allow people to treat me poorly. I WILL stand up for myself. I WILL keep speaking up and speaking out and I WILL warn others every chance I get until changes happen that also protect and help me and until I know I have done everything I can to protect every person possible from similar mistreatment.
The man up the line from Dr. Tangled's office director said they will be billing insurance but then call after we get a bill to see what we can figure out. I can tell you this, especially considering that they are still billing insurance, that if they seriously expect us to pay after the way things went then it is very unlikely that Dr. Tangled really does not get complaints like this. If I really am the only person who she has had a problem with, than waiving that bill to be rid of me is the most likely response. However, if they want to fight with a peon like me and accuse me of being the entire problem, then we all know it's not very likely that the claim that this doctor "never gets complaints like this" is true. Or she is afraid that if she lets one person "win" she will have to let all of them "win" which is usually only a fear to those who have wronged many.
...Maybe I am going to turn into the pain in the ass I have been accused of being. Maybe I need to let people see just how big of a pain in the ass I have NOT been...
I don't know but I do know I do not deserve to be treated the way that woman treated me and also be expected to pay for it.