When people have had their brains “manipulated” as the doctors call it, they have strange dreams. Mostly, they are “sorting” dreams or “collecting” dreams. One lady told me that she dreamt she had to collect balloons in a basket. With me, I would be in the middle of an old fashioned post office, the floor littered with wooden post boxes. All night I had to pick up the boxes and place them back in the right spot. Sometimes, the dreams had me crossing a mine field as I gathered bricks and placed them in a pack on my back. The worst dream was the one where I climbed up a cliff face made of glass. I woke every morning more and more tired.
It doesn’t make any difference how your brain gets hurt. A stroke, a motorcycle accident, a roadside bomb, a tumor. Your dreams will be confusing and chaotic. It gets better. You will make your children lunch for school and make them a sandwich with nothing in it. It gets better. You will laugh at the wrong time in a conversation. It gets better. Your brain has backups and will access them over time. Therapy,medication and time helps.Family helps. My children taught me to use the computer. I started painting again. Listen to your therapist and slug through your exercises. I learned to knit lace patterns because I had to count in my head and stitch the stitches with my hands. I made some of the ugliest pieces of knitted lace on the planet. Not the point. Forcing your mind and body to learn a new task will force your brain to forge new pathways and make new connections. Try learning skills that engage your body and mind at the same time. How well you do them is immaterial. You can get better. It’s 12 years and I’m still knitting patterns. They’re still ugly and my children wear them.
Hey, one of those knitting projects helped me get a job, kiddo!