Phil version 2.0

“Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting”  (George Harrison 1969)     OK – so much for my tales of misfortune!  Things now start to brighten up a little.  As I’ve alluded to before, it is a “long and winding road”, but I’ve taken the first few steps along it. I wouldn’t go so far, as yet, to say: “Here comes the sun”, but indeed, “ice is slowly melting”. There – that’s quite enough Beatles quotations for today!   So where is the road taking me – what am I trying to achieve?   I think it would be foolhardy to set my objectives too narrowly.  Ongoing flexibility is important in order to mitigate the risk of a sense of debilitating failure. If something isn’t going to achieved or starts to look unlikely to be in my best interests, then I need to think again.  Narrow objectives don’t easily lend themselves to this, as a change of tack can feel like failure to achieve that target. Far better is a wider goal that is capable of being achieved in more than one way. So, if some course

  “I’m the changing man  Built on shifting sand”     (Paul Weller 1995)       As you might have guessed, from my last post, I have failed to keep the initial “bad things that have happened to me” posts, to three in number. This could be construed as dishonesty, but it was really not pre-meditated and I humbly, beg your forgiveness?     As you will have noticed, it’s all rather  cheerless  so far and this post is even more so! I do promise, though, that things will start brightening up, next time!    You will see my use of the past tense, below.  True – in the sense that I have moved on, from the extreme position described - but I’m not there yet (whatever “there” might mean – see next post).  I haven’t put all my difficulties, absolutely behind me.  Rebuilding, such as it can happen, is a far from smooth journey.  As I have previously alluded to, it has been commenced but it has its ups and downs and there is still a fair way to go!   Before I talk a bit more about my post-accident emo

“As you get older three things happen. The first is your memory goes and I can’t remember the other two”  (Norman Wisdom)   As you are probably aware, we are in possession of a number of  psychological function s.  Two big ones are  cognition   – thinking; and  emotion  – feeling.  There are others, including behaviour.  If you’ll forgive me, I’ll leave

As David Bowie sang  - “ch ch changes”! In my previous post, I mentioned the significant circumstantial, physical and mental outcomes of my accident and it’s now time for some elaboration.  As I also mentioned, psychological difficulties have been, and to an extent continue to be my biggest issue.  I will therefore leave them to be the sole subject of my next post.  As that will be the end of my introductory, background posts, lets see them as top of the bill. For now, I’m just going to mention a few of the circumstantial and physical changes arising from my accident – which, perhaps needless to say, have contributed to my mental state. Without further ado - a few important  changes to my personal circumstances: Prior to the accident I lived with my wife and three children in a family home.   I now live alone .  Before too many tears are shed (!), I am still married, live nearby and remain in regular contact with my family.   10 years ago, I was a senior – and

10 years ago, my life was fundamentally changed! I survived a very serious brain injury.   As you can see from this picture, I was feeling a little under the weather! Even after months in hospital and subsequent periods of residential rehabilitation, the ongoing consequences of my accident – circumstantial, physical, and mental are very large and far-reaching. This blog will provide some elaboration – watch this space! Suffice to say for now, my biggest issues have been brought about by damage to my psychological functions and in particular my emotions. The effect of this has (certainly, at first sight) been very negative. I have considered myself to be a substantially changed person – Phil v2.0!  and I haven’t really liked Phil v2.0. I have considered him to be a shadow of his former self and one that I deeply wished he had not become.  My regrets and misery have been immense and at times, overwhelming. Needless to say, something needed to be done about