ABSTRACT
“Emotional disconnection is another side effect that I have been discovering over the years, and, I think, also recovering from to some extent”.
“I have been told that in the first few months I suffered a kind of affective anaesthesia. This surprised those around me, because before the accident I was quite an expressive and affectionate person”.
After a period of affective anaesthesia and not being aware of it, I felt like my emotions were waking up a little. I was not aware of my emotional inexpressiveness until I saw myself in a video or heard myself on recordings. Now I feel emotions more, but this does not mean to say I express them. I sometimes exaggerate the expressivity to compensate.
I still don’t handle it well when I feel very sad but I can’t cry. I found it a great relief to meet ABI survivors who experienced the same thing, even though it is a much more common side effect to have emotional lability, which is difficult to handle in social situations.
I want to stress the importance of and need to pay attention to the emotional process, both for the person affected by ABI and for their family, from the outset.
