My insomnia is reoccurring (it happens a couple times a week, within the time-periods in which it does happen) and yet my stints of insomnia are unforeseeable. I’m unable to even deduce, upon reflection, a common external or internal cause.
I heard of a synonymous experience from an external source as well: a woman who works at the cafe I frequent. (I write these blogs, on occasion, from there.) Her insomnia is unpredictable too.
Experiencing insomnia repeatedly, inspired me to research, in order to source ways to alleviate it. (Practicing research professionally, in order to offer readers knowledgeable potential solutions, is a wondrous habit I’ve adopted, to solve my personal queries as well). While doing said research, I came across the map above & was surprised to learn of the abundance of those who experience regular insomnia in America.
I refuse to accept insomnia as an unavoidable symptom. I’ll continue observing & enacting trials, to learn how to avoid it. (Just as my physical doctors as well as mental doctors I work with have enthusiastically advised).
I’ve achieved redundant success surmounting other seemingly unsurpassable obstacles, this is simply yet another trial amid this grueling, unbelievably long & complex reclamation life. But because it’s a reclamation of my life, it’s well worth it! I lose motivation (which is also a symptom of this injury, certainly when incurred to the severity which I did), but only temporarily.
The most difficult personal truth, within this hardship, is that I cannot reclaim sleep, once I’ve arisen. Despite my best efforts (lying in bed with my eyes closed, for many, many hours ((until my alarm sounds))), I’m still unable to reclaim rest.
In reality, I’ve become well aware that there is nothing which can be considered normal or astonishing about any individual’s recovery from this jury. Having exactly synonymous symptoms, with another survivor, is extremely rare.
Since everyone’s symptoms are unique = there is nothing that can even be identified as “normal” or conversely “unusual”.
This statistic reported by the National Center for Biotechnology Information about recovery from TBIs is quite telling:
“The survival rate after a TBI, severe enough to cause deep coma and low Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores, is generally poor, even in young adults. Studies show a very high overall mortality, ranging between 76% and 89%”
– https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4704482/
I was in a Glasgow Scale Coma 4 (the scale ranges from 3-15) for 28 days. My survival was unexpected, to say the least.