Hello, @oceanfun1 and @micekja. Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect.

@oceanfun1 — I'm glad you've been following the posts and saying "exactly right!" I can envision it would feel normalizing and comforting that there are people who "get it" in a way nobody else can, having had traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) themselves. You've described a number of very hard things I'd imagine other TBI patients in this discussion can relate to:

- Thinking you feel so much better and embarking on a task, only to be brought back to a new limitation or reemergence of an old one
- Having to forgo an event on your bucket list with the difficulty of being around noise
- Embarrassment and frustration when others cannot understand your limitations
- Stress causing your cognitive ability to go down.

I'm guessing that @lrbrush @lakelifelady @david33 @treyaj @micekja and others may be able to identify with some of these experiences.

You shared that a hour of brain challenging games or puzzles each day really helps your level of functioning, @oceanfun1. Will you share a little more about what you've seen in your functioning due to working with these?

@micekja — I can only imagine that going from having three jobs; coaching your kids in baseball, football and basketball; and functioning as a single mom to now needing help all the time since your brain damage from the tractor accident has got to be a radical change, and very difficult. Wanting to go back to work and just be a normal 33-year-old — yet not feeling that is possible — must feel incredibly disappointing.

Will you talk more about what was involved in your dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) and how that has helped you?