Learning by Accident

"Caregiving is stress personified. It’s anticipatory stress, stress in the moment, and stress that feels never-ending," writes Rosemary Rawlins. Here she brainstorms some stress busters.

Caregiver Rosemary Rawlins talks about why exhaustion was the most difficult physical reaction she had after her husband's brain injury.

"After Hugh's crash, I felt as if I had lost my emotional North Star, the connection to my alter ego, and the person who knew me best," says Rosemary Rawlins.

Here’s one simple way that caregivers can help their family members with TBI: just listen.

"I learned that 'trying was a form of therapy,' even if Hugh’s trying felt so exasperating to me that I wanted to bang my head on the steps!"

People often make resolutions as the new year arrives and the previous one recedes. But sometimes, as Rosemary explains, it takes a serious wake-up call to make those big self-changes.

Can Rosemary forgive the woman who hit Hugh with her car when he was riding his bicycle?

Rosemary talks to her twin daughters about what life was like after their father sustained a severe TBI and the years that have followed.

"On Thanksgiving, we are called to look around the table at those we love with new eyes."

After her husband’s injury, Rosemary said they did not hold on to all of their friends, but she explains how they managed to stay in touch with many of them and rebuild or restructure some of the friendships that lapsed.

Rosemary feels that her daughters lost both her parents on the day of Hugh's crash.

Rosemary wonders how caregivers can benefit from Benjamin Franklin's strategy of cultivating virtues like compassion and understanding.