When you talk to your doctor/dentist/psych etc. do you give them more respect because of their academic accomplishments? Or do you just talk to them like their a regular ‘Joe’ on the street?

@latenightsurfer that is much like my relationship with my neuropsych. We are very friendly, I sent her my songs and poetry and we stay in touch through email as well as phone calls occasionally

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Is neuropsych different from pdoc?

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@latenightsurfer yes, a neuropsych is a psychologist who specializes in brain injury. They can’t prescribe medication, but are very knowledgeable about the link between brain injury and resulting psychological disorders

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Oh ok… here in india we just call them psychologists.

I just call them you, I never used their name or Dr lol

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Do they specialize in brain injury?

It’s nice that your pdocs have a good discussion with you about your knowledge on meds which they don’t expect from us… Even I have experienced this.

I told my older pdoc about the first gen meds and second gen meds and he was shocked as to how I know all this as though I am some illiterate guy or something … But in india if patients do too much Google talk the docs get offended.

One hospital even has a board that says " if you speak from Google research u r not allowed here, thank you".

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No, the brain injury guys here in india we call them neuro surgeons.

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What does your neuropsychiatrist do for you? I wanted to see one after my brain injury, but my insurance wouldn’t cover it. I am curious what I am missing out on.

She made do an intelligence test like an IQ.

My neuropsych is much like a traditional therapist, but can explain the link between the area of the brain that’s been damaged and the symptoms you are experiencing.

For me, my brain injury is front left lobe, smack dab in the middle of what is called the executive Control Function area. Which means I have a hard time with organization, making clear decisions Etc

This was all well before I developed schizophrenia, though the symptoms can seem quite familiar. In a brain injury, the brain attempts to reassign the tasks to different parts of the brain, but it is far from perfect

Oh I see. In that case, I think I am glad I didn’t go. It sounds like the neuropsych doc mostly helps you see what areas will be hardest to recover. I have the type of personality where if I know in advance something will be incredibly difficult, I don’t bother to try. If I have no idea what I’m getting myself into, I can usually work it out and find ways to work around it. I am not a quitter, but I am one heck of a procrastinator. I think most of my recovery happened because I didn’t understand enough about my injury to realize it was “impossible” to recover from. If I knew then what I know now about the brain, I probably would have given up driving and reading.

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I’ll usually just call any doctor by their title of “doctor”
Seldom do I use their last name.

I don’t know how appropriate that is.

The Ninjastar model of brain injury recovery: Hm, I sure want to do the thing. Okay, let’s do it! ::fails:: Okay let’s try a different way! ::fails:: Okay let’s…

564 tries later:
Hey, I did it!

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@Ninjastar I love a challenge. When I first came out of the coma, they told me I would never walk again… ■■■■ that I said, and I proved them all wrong

If you believe it’s impossible, it becomes impossible. If you believe it’s doable, you can do it. At least to a very large degree

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Fully agree. I found out after getting discharged from the head injury clinic that they were fully shocked I made it that far. They thought I would be a lifer lol but at a certain point I was like “Okay what’s next?” And the doctors said “Nothing. There’s no extra steps. You are at 100% functioning level.” I tried to convince them to keep treating me anyways, to see if I could become even better, but they said insurance wouldn’t cover it and I couldn’t afford to pay OOP

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Glad you stuck with it :+1::+1:.

A friend of mine just had a stroke a few months ago. He read somewhere that there was no recovery… God I hate when people say things like that. I told him if you don’t do anything, guaranteed you won’t get better. But I gave him a few exercises which, thank God he followed, and now he has recovered almost completely

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Our doctors are in charge of our medical care,

I give them all sorts of respect.

It’s not like we met at a cocktail party,

They prescribe my medication.

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Yeah. I am so glad I had no idea about what the current literature said about adult brain injuries when I was injured. Now the data says something new, in part because of the case study my doctor published on me.

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Very cool. My neuropsych always tells me how much my insights have helped her other patients.

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