Mental health

Looking after our mental health when living with brain injury or PKU

Follow a plan, not a feeling: Finding a way out of low mood.

Even with the promise of a better feeling ahead, it can be difficult to drag yourself into an activity when in a low mood. This is where the research meetings helped me.

Resolution redux

If you have struggled with the changes, remember that by simply paying attention to what you are eating you are already making a difference. The habits and effects will come.

Brain injuries and lack of insight

A lack of self-awareness, or a lack of insight, is fairly common in a brain injury survivor. I’ve suffered from and have written about it in my book, but how do you spot it in yourself?

Support for Brain Injury during the pandemic

The pandemic is far from over, but already there are positives to be found in understanding and treating Acquired Brain Injury.

Coronavirus, rule changes and ABI

The pivot to a Covid response has caused considerable disruption to an already strained service. There have been reports that the NHS will not fully recover for four years.

2020 - halfway through.

Our usual pace of life has gone which means I often brood on how little I managed to do this year. To help drag myself out of these moods, I drew up a list of five things I’ve achieved. It provides solid evidence and reassurance that I have progressed, despite the chaos.

Change, ambiguous loss, and spoons

Change is a constant right now. We are bombarded with new concepts and rules to understand which can then change at a moments notice.

Now it’s summer

I saw a friend on Tuesday. I hadn’t seen her since January. We judged the breeze. Where to sit so one doesn’t breathe on the other?

PKU in a time of Covid

This is a worrying time so I will start by highlighting the NSPKU Video on Coronavirus and the statement on their website.

Blogging Anxiety

I have never said that the PKU diet is easy but I do try to avoid negative thinking. It is not easy to be positive about having an inherited metabolic disorder...I don't leap out of bed in the morning and shout “Hurray! I have PKU!”