Not all brain injuries are

visible. If you are reading this today I hope you will take that in and consider it carefully.

There is a story in this morning's paper which has also been commented on in the editorial. It is about a man who has had a very traumatic brain injury. It has left him unable to remember anything after 2019. He has no short term memory. He has hallucinations, terrifying hallucinations. At one point he thought he was a corn flake. He cannot work. His wife has to remind him to do everything. The strain on their relationship must be enormous but she has stuck by him.

He is the very sort of person our National Disability Insurance Scheme should be helping. They are telling him he is not eligible. 

Middle Cat knows a former police officer who had an accident in the course of his employment. He also has a brain injury. It was considered "catastrophic". To an untrained eye he looks normal. When he is tired there is a slight suggestion of a physical incapacity but that is all. Internally this man struggles too. The effort he has put in to retraining his brain so he can do things requiring multiple steps has been enormous. He is someone I have met on several occasions and I admire him but I know not to interrupt him if he is doing something because he cannot cope with interruptions. He needs to focus just on the task he has set himself.

We all knew a farmer who fell from a horse. His wife was a teacher at a school where the Senior Cat was once the Principal. Like the other wives she stuck by him. He recovered enough to return to his work as a farmer but when he was tired his problems were obvious too.

I know other people who have had "closed brain injuries" which have been severe enough to affect their ability to function in every day life. Look at them though and you would not be aware of it. It is not until they perhaps speak or attempt to do some apparently simple task that it becomes more obvious. This is when it can become a real problem. 

I remember the man who used to catch the train at the same time as me. One of the things we needed to do was "validate" our tickets in a machine each morning. This seemingly simple task was beyond him. He would struggle each morning. I watched him for some weeks and then I spoke to him. Perhaps because I have a more obvious problem he admitted he had a problem and why he had it. He was in danger of getting a hefty fine if he did not do it properly.  It was a cause for stress each morning. He was not considered eligible for a special pass because he was actually going to work. Eventually he was given a pass he paid for but did not need to validate but he endured months of stress first. 

It is not easy if you "look like you're okay" as this man put it. There can be very real struggles there to complete every day tasks. There can be little things that can cause big problems and trying to convince others that they actually exist can be very stressful.  

I know that. I had an example the other day. You can get by in this world without a licence to drive. I was asked, as I sometimes am, for my "drivers' licence" because it is considered to be "photo ID". I don't have a licence. Learning to drive was beyond me. I don't have the necessary visual-spatial skills. I have a "proof of age" card instead. It has a photo on it too...and I look as normal as anyone else on that. You just don't always know.