The man who used to shrug – one man’s lived experience of TBI

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Stress is common to the experience of TBI. Stressors challenge physical and psychological coping abilities and undermine wellbeing. Brain injury constitutes a specific chronic stressor. An issue that hinders the usefulness of a stressbased approach to brain injury is a lack of semantic clarity attaching to the term stress. A more precise conceptualisation of stress that embraces experienced uncertainty is allostasis. OBJECTIVE: An emerging body of research, collectively identifiable as 'the social cure' literature, shows that the groups that people belong to can promote adjustment, coping, and well-being amongst individuals confronted with injuries, illnesses, traumas, and stressors. The idea is deceptively simple, yet extraordinarily useful: the sense of self that individuals derive from belonging to social groups plays a key role in determining health and well-being. The objective of this research was to apply a social cure perspective to a consideration of an individual's lived experience of TBI. METHODS: In a novel application of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) this research has investigated one person's lived experience in a single case study of traumatic brain injury. RESULTS: Paradox, shifting perspectives and self under stress, linked by uncertainty, were the themes identified. CONCLUSIONS: A relational approach must be key to TBI rehabilitation.

Self-Ascribed Paranormal Ability: Reflexive Thematic Analysis

“…Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is one method particularly well suited to further exploring these idiosyncrasies (see Wilde and Murray, 2010 ; Drinkwater et al, 2013 ), the lived experiences that were noted in the present research, because: One, IPA is committed, in an idiographic manner, to the in-depth analysis of the lived experience concerning the phenomena on which it is focused. Two, IPA is a method focused on how experiential phenomena are understood from a particular perspective ( Drinkwater et al, 2013 ; Walsh et al, 2020 ).…”

Demographic Characteristics, Motivation and Perception of Change as Determinants of Memory Compensation Self-Reports After Acquired Brain Injury

“…There is an increased risk of developing perceived stress post-TBI. Indeed, stress is a common experience of TBI ( Walsh et al, 2020 ). de Frias et al (2003) demonstrated that anxiety was robustly related to an increase in self-reported use of compensatory strategies.…”