Concussion Is Brain Injury: Treating the Neurons and Me

Shireen is an artist, author, and blogger. She earned a B.Sc. in psychology from the University of Toronto, launched into writing and computer programming, and slammed and somersaulted into the unknown life of brain injury in the year 2000. She emerged from the car crash still walking and talking, but the person she had been was forever gone. Although no one knew it at the time, she had sustained a concussion. The repercussions of that injury have shaped her life ever since. Many believe a concussion is a mild injury, when in truth it is a traumatic brain injury in which the brain bangs about inside the skull. If not identified or treated within the first 48 hours, the injury can lead to secondary symptoms (euphemistically named post-concussive syndrome) that require years of rehabilitation. Traditional rehabilitation, involving cognitive therapy and rest, were ineffective. In addition to lost neurons, Jeejeebhoy was quickly losing her social connections and relationships. The concussion was threatening to cut her off from the world. She wanted this hidden injury healed; she wanted the plethora of problems from it, especially the cognitive ones, treated. She wanted to return to society. And so began her long quest to find effective treatment. She found it and improved dramatically. In Concussion Is Brain Injury, Revised Edition, Jeejeebhoy shares this journey, her discoveries, and the latest research to give hope to those who have suffered from concussions and the people who care for them.