“You don’t realize how important the brain is until it gets damaged”

On my first day as a rehab worker, I was nervous and apprehensive about what to expect from the job and the clients. Nevertheless, I was curious as well.

The first person I met as a shadow worker eased up my nerves. The person reminded me of a storybook Santa Claus. The person’s injury makes them behave and talk like a five-year-old. They were excited and happy, singing made-up songs and celebrating small victories like staying still for eye drops. To my surprise, they were really welcoming towards me as well.

The injury to their brain has them wear a leg brace. However, as childlike as they are, while putting on their leg brace, they looked me straight into my eyes and said, “You don’t realize how important the brain is until it gets damaged.”

It couldn’t be more true. For everyone whose brain functions well, you get up everyday, do your morning routine, have food, go for work, talk with people, make a thousand different decisions a day, come back home, and go to sleep. All the time you think your life is a boring routine, there is an organ inside your head that works hard every second of every day to make everything happen. The slightest things you take for granted, like bending your fingers to hold a cup of coffee, is a luxury for some others.

A complex organ like the brain has different areas that undertake different tasks. An injury, such as a blow to the head, a gunshot wound, or seizures, can significantly damage one or more parts of your brain. What comes next is the sudden inability to do the tasks you were always doing, or to think or behave in the way you always used to. It strips you off of your own personality, your own agency. For the person I mentioned before, it’s their ability to walk, think, and behave as they used to do.

It is no surprise that people who lost their physical or mental abilities after a brain injury do not accept their conditions. They tell us they still do the things they once used to do, even though they haven’t done that for a decade. Somehow, their brain lets them believe the same due to memory deficits. The more we learn about brain injuries, the more we realize how magnificently valuable our brains are.

This reminds me of something my brother had once asked me. The brain does everything for us, the thinking and the doing, and whatever we do is to protect and satisfy it. So, who are we really? Are we the ones others see or are we just our brains?

~ Chintha

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