Self Awareness and Brain Injury

For my more  personal thoughts on this subject, please go to my other Blog: http://www.braininjurylifecoaching.com/

Yesterday, my 26 year old niece said "Maybe I'm not as good as I think I am."  That one comment caught my attention as it pertains to people with Brain Injury (BI).  How "self-aware" are people with BIs of all kinds?
     To my surprise, there are many internet sites that pertain to this question!  Here are a just a couple of links that will lead you to many articles on the topic of impaired self awareness:   http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?as_q=Impaired+awareness+and+employment+outcome+after+traumatic+brain+injury.http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?as_q=Impaired+awareness+and+employment+outcome+after+traumatic+brain+injury. 

http://www.mendeley.com/research/impaired-sustained-attention-and-error-awareness-in-traumatic-brain-injury-implications-for-insight/

     An (unscientific) quick survey of many of the sites seems to show that, generally speaking, groups made up of other people with BIs work better to impact self-awareness than individual sessions.  This may be counter-intuitive to people without BIs, as they may prefer to be "corrected" in private.
      My experience with a program that Denver Options www.denveroptions.org/ runs called the
Brain Injury Survivor Series http://ctat-training.com/brain-injury tells me why people with BI may prefer to receive helpful feedback in a group.  All of us who attend are glad to be in a room filled with people just like us; it's comforting.  We make jokes about our "short-comings," e.g.  "Tomorrow, I may not remember having been here, but it sure is fun right now."  or "Give me a few hours, and I'll answer your question."  Speakers at the meetings always present useful information in a way that even people with more severe BIs can understand.
     I attend as both a survivor and a professional, since I have a small business coaching other people with BIs.   http://www.braininjurylifecoaching.com/  I get the most benefit from the "survivor" part of my life.  For example, I'm comfortable asking others for feedback regarding my tendency to stutter or not be able to find the right words (aphasia) in this setting.  In a setting with "normal" people, I wouldn't ask for this feedback because I'd be concerned that they thought I was "milking" my TBIs  for sympathy, or that people are pretty sick of hearing about my BI symptoms.

Happy Thanksgiving!