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Where Do You Put the Band Aid on an Invisible Injury?

Author: Ethel Dimont

              Where Do You Put The Band Aid On An Invisible Injury?

 

By Ethel Dimont

I didn’t need a Band-Aid.  I needed a correct diagnosis, acknowledgement that it was not me, but a blow to the head that was responsible for my invisible symptoms. 

 

Two years after a serious closed head injury, the symptoms continued to be viewed by members of the medical profession  as caused by my psychological response to a blow to my head.   Finding someone who would believe me and help me overcome the incapacitating chronic handicaps never materialized.

 

Proof that my invisible injury was psychological in origin was no more substantial than was my description of what I was feeling.  Despite this, the physicians chose a diagnosis that focused on my mind as the source of my problem.   Being told “it will go away” is  misinformation used to imply that the patient is psychologically responsible for the symptoms.

 

After two years of following my physicians’ instructions on how to handle my mal-functioning body, it resulted in not one sign of potential improvement.  My instinct told me this would make the future more disastrous than it already was.   Seriously questioning the medical advice, prompted me to ask my own questions.  The answers indicated it was the wisest thing I would do.

 

I wondered if I had been correct in my view of the “me” I believed I had been before the accident?  Was it realistic to continue believing I could recapture my original pro-active personality? I had to accept “yes,” as the answer or give up hope completely. My rational thinking always demanded verifiable knowledge before making important decisions. Unfortunately, after the accident, there had been nothing to alert me to the serious error I was making by accepting the medical information as accurate.

 

Decisions based on false premises can only result is wrong conclusions “What do I do now?”   Much thought, time, research, and patience would be required  to reach a

 

proper conclusion.  Feeling like I was living two lives, the pro-active, pre-injured “me” and the passive, post-injured “me”, I rejected the medical advice that told me this was  permanent and refused to consider I would never be the “original me” again.

 

Negative thoughts had to go.   Thinking positively about my attitude, my hopes, my needs became essential, an almost impossible task under even less difficult, more positive circumstance, but it had to be done.  This kind of thinking was not only going to help me regain my heath, but also help me overcome the death of my husband.

 

My memories were the only productive, positive thoughts I could find.  They

 

cheered me up and reminded me constantly of my husband and his wisdom.   I basked in

 

the pleasure of those memories.  I did not realize how productive these thoughts were

 

going to be in helping me accomplish what until now seemed an impossible task.

 

These memories, nestled in the deep recesses of my mind, told me the solution to

 

my problem was to reexamine the past.   Hidden, among those thoughts, was the uncanny feeling that, having been responsible for my success before the accident, they might be helpful now.  This helped give me the strength to go forward.

 

Productive thoughts are a God-send.  They led me to entertain the idea of self-psychoanalysis which permitted me to accept the idea that my husband was on “another lecture trip.”    This helped me substitute my lonely feelings with that “make-believe” idea.

 

Procrastinating helped me transfer this “fantasy wish fulfillment” to the future, hoping it would be less painful then and allow me to use my energy creatively now to encourage happy thoughts.

 

Resorting to this unscientific form of self-psychoanalysis, told me to think about returning to my typewriter, reminding me how productive that had been in relieving stress in the past.

 

My subconscious memory planted the thought that revising and up-dating JEWS, GOD AND HISTORY would be an excellent idea.  The publishers had been trying to get my husband to do that, but he wrote four other books instead.   Aware of the fact that I was not Max, I allowed  myself to toy with the idea of up-dating his book instead of finding reasons to dispel it.

 

I allowed myself the opportunity to return to my typewriter, because it had so much joy attached to it.    Perhaps the memory of that pleasure and the wonderful times working with my husband, was the rationalization I needed. In addition the task would require using my brain positively.

 

The possibility that the publishers might reject my work didn’t matter. Working on the revisions was a pro-active way of filling my thoughts, and leave me no time to dwell on the loss. Imagine my surprise when the publishers accepted my revised edition, and published it, in 1994, two years after Max’s death.

 

The success of this effort filled my future with hope, led to invitations to lecture

 

nationally, adding much pleasure to my new life.

 

Today, twenty years after my husband’s death, JEWS, GOD AND HISTORY,

 

with my revisions and updates has led to total sales of almost 2 million copies, and

 

now being considered a Classic.   I can’t help being sad that Max is not here to enjoy the

 

tremendous success of his work, but I feel so much joy in sharing the experience.

 

No matter what kind of invisible injuries come into our lives, be it a physical injury or the death of a loved one, we can overcome them with the power of possive thought and procative decisions.

 

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/wellness-articles/where-do-you-put-the-band-aid-on-an-invisible-injury-652680.html

About the Author

Ethel Dimont is a lecturer and author. In 1962 she co-author Jews, God and History, along with her husband Max I. Dimont, which received critical acclaim and has sold almost 2 million copies which the Los Angeles Times praised as, "unquestionably the best popular history of the Jews written in the English language". Because of the success of the book, Ethel, along with her husband Max, has traveled the world over, having met with heads of state such as David Ben Gurion, Menachem Begin, Martin Buber and several other Arab Middle Eastern leaders.

In 1972 a car accident changed the focus of Ethel’s life. An improperly diagnosed closed head injury caused a slow erosion of her health. She has now authored a book dealing with the struggle of a brain injury, also known as a "closed head injury."

Since her accident, she has unceasingly researched and sought answers for this often over looked invisible injury. Her book takes you through the struggles of living with a misdiagnosis, to finding the correct information that can help lead to a recovery.

Ethel is a native of New York City, but moved to St. Louis, Missouri after her marriage to Max in 1946, who has been deceased since 1992. Her daughter, three grandson, and two great grand-daughters still live in New York City.

Feel free to visit Ethel's blog: http://edimont.blogspot.com/search?q=


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