Targeted Search

Use the filters to browse the information we have available or to narrow your search results for a specific audience (e.g. caregivers, military, children), a preferred type of content (e.g. videos, blogs, articles), or by topics of interest (e.g. family concerns, legal issues, symptoms).

You have selected:Personal Stories and Blogs

Renewed Gratitude

BrainLine's blogger Abby Maslin asks: Can you be mostly grateful but still wish this terrible thing would go away?

A Bridge to Thanksgiving

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

Can We Really See Through Another's Eyes?

Can We Really See Through Each Other's Eyes?

Maybe, says Rosemary. If we could learn to truly see through each other’s eyes, we could better understand one another, and that understanding would spark meaningful discussions without the kind of judgments that lead to criticism and disagreement.

Life After Brain Injury: I Have a Secret

Most anyone living with a traumatic brain injury already knows this secret: not all is as it appears. .

Life After Brain Injury: Dead Man Walking

For David Grant, seeing the crash that caused his TBI through the eyes of others was quite surrealistic.

One More Thing TBI Takes from You, and How to Get It Back

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.

Seriously, It's Not That Serious!

"One way to take a problem and blow it away like the fuzz off a dandelion is to laugh at it, and if it’s too traumatic and serious to laugh about, laugh at everything surrounding it, or at yourself."

Living with TBI and PTSD: Military Caregivers Share Their Best Advice

Military Spouses and Family Members Share Their Best Advice About Caring for Service Members and Veterans Living with TBI and PTSD

Few people are more qualified to offer military caregivers advice and encouragement than others who have walked in their shoes. Hear advice and thoughts from TBI caregivers.

Caregiver to Caregiver: Words of Advice and Hope

From Caregiver to Caregiver: Words of Advice and Encouragement

Few people are more qualified to offer caregivers advice and encouragement than others who have walked in their shoes. Hear advice and thoughts from TBI caregivers.

Mike's Story

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls the butterfly.” September 4, 1982 was the day Mike “Pedal Monster” Heikes left his caterpillar life forever and began his wild adventure as someone who survived a TBI.

Parenting After TBI

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

Are You Holding Back?

As a caregiver, Rosemary believes that "it’s not speaking the truth that’s problematic; it’s the way we speak the truth."

Letting Our Virtues Guide Us

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

Five Ways TBI Caregivers Can Enhance Environmental Enrichment and Why They Should

Can increased physical, social, and cognitive stimulation during recovery from brain injury help outcome? Caregiver Rosemary Rawlins thinks so.

Listening to Advice Doesn't Help Unless You Take it!

Listening to Advice Doesnâ€™t Help Unless You Take it!

“You need to take care of yourself.” For a while after Hugh's injury, when Rosemary heard those words she wanted to scream, cry, and stamp her feet!

Pebbles of Progress

The key to making progress — in TBI recovery or toward any goal in life — is to take it one day at a time, stick with it, and celebrate each step along the way.