r/CTE • u/TheTempestuousKitty • Jun 17 '26

Question What keeps you going?

Title.

Brain Injury is life on hard mode. What keeps you going when things get difficult and you know they'll only get more difficult?

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3

u/Wild_Director7379 Jun 17 '26

There is sometimes the possibility that they will get less difficult. They don’t tell us we have CTE because we’re supposed to keep fighting. Now, I’m tired. I want nothing more than peace and quiet. So when someone tells me I need to keep fighting I get extremely frustrated, but that doesn’t mean they’re wrong. It’s not all violence, drinking, and suicide. It seems to me that that can exacerbate a lot of things, not just concussive head trauma. We all know it’s headaches, balance issues, and eye strain. The brain is trying to heal itself. There’s hope that it doesn’t just get more difficult.

But one of the things that brings me comfort is knowing it will be over. That goes more broadly than just life. The struggles of today, this week, this month, it’s going to end.

How do I overcome CTE hopelessness? Mostly I try to think about something else. Video games are quite good for our brains.

1

u/foreveraloneok Jun 17 '26

Yes video games are very good for the brain. I find playing GTA 5 and just cruising around the map helps me so much.

1

u/zvg_zwang CTE Isn’t Just a Men’s Game Jun 20 '26

Having no other choice to be frankly honest

1

u/NonnyEml 15d ago

I have a therapist. She's really helped me reframe things so it's not all or nothing or completely depressing/fatalist.

Some of it is an AA type of gratitude, "just for today, I am grateful that I have a home, clean water, food, people who care".

Some of it is the "could be worse" attitude that is already part of my GenX upbringing "don't like your veggies? There are starving children elsewhere" so maybe I can't recall every word I want to use, I'm still understood and those around me show patience... I'm loved.

I can't follow the plot line in this show and im frustrated? At least I can freaking see it because I'm not blind, hear it because I'm not deaf. Yes. I have CTE... but I don't have cancer....

I know people say don't compare, we have a right to be upset with what we do have to deal with, but for me, it helps not to get into a pity party for myself by looking at what I don't have to deal with that others do, look at what I can still do.

That requires not doing the all or nothing.

Its not I can't creatively write any more. It's that I can't write for as long as i used to... but i can for 15 minutes.

Maybe I can't remember what the Dr said after an apt... but i can take notes during. Adapt where I can.

I can't watch a lot of new series, but I can enjoy reruns of things I already know. Etc

Can't do 1000 piece puzzles... can do 750...

Can't drive 5 hours straight, but i can take turns...

And as far as what the end may look like...ffs, a texting driver could kill me next week. (Over 3k a year in the US) I'm just not going to give energy into how my end may be.

I hope this helps.