After hearing the recent news from Brian May that he had what they called a minor stroke, I got thinking about a few things stroke survivors have to engage with as they move along in life after the fact. Firstly, the term minor stroke is a phrase fraught with possible misconceptions. Did Brian have a stroke with a small radius of damage? Or a stroke with a large radius of damage but around a location of the brain that possibly produces minor symptoms? Or did Brian have a TIA? Brian told his public that he can still play guitar and has use of the affected arm. This is all good news, but the problem lies in how stroke is perceived by the greater public who have not experienced this wretched event in its most debilitating form. Brian was a wee bit dismissive of the whole event, as if he had merely sprained an ankle or was stung by a wasp. The video he put out, felt like that to me.
I started thinking of stroke success stories, and even disability as a whole. I think everything from the Paralympic Games and see the ability and not the disability is all good, positive fodder for societies that can sometimes be cruel and prejudiced. However, there is a repercussion of this one way street that gridlocks the minds of the general public, governments, and social services.
There exists a mindset that potentially punishes the millions of brain injury casualties for not fitting into this model of brain injury survival. The millions of people who have crippling and obstructive physical and psychological repercussions, causing pain and functional stress throughout their lives as a result of brain injury. A case in point, recently, I spoke to someone from PIP, during a mandatory reconsideration phone conversation, she said about herself, āI had a stroke, but that was many years ago, so Iām fine nowā. Well, my interpretation of the remark worked on three levels, the first was a positive response to her rehabilitation, the second was reassurance that I was speaking to someone who might provide empathy, but the third was that if she could recover so well, perhaps she expected the same of all stroke survivors.
Politicians, seeking to reduce social service expenditure, are turning to the disabled and trying to figure out how to make a workforce out of them. In my personal view, this is a fundamental shift in the custodial responsibility of communities, seen in examples of child labour or extended legislative retirement sanctions on the elderly. For a start, most workplace infrastructure and ethos isnāt adapted for disability, especially when considering the range of workplace options accessible to someone with brain injury or another disability. Anyhow, all that is another topic, but what I am highlighting is this misunderstanding that a person with a brain injury should be able to just pull themselves together and make good.
Social welfare is vitality important, it proves we care for one another, whether children, elders, or those who find themselves mentally or physically disrupted or incapacitated. The perception that stroke is a temporary illness or injury is both naive and insensitive. There are some great stories out there of people with brain injury and disabilities overcoming the odds but there are also many stories of those who havenāt, just like in war, those who come home and those who donāt.
, being neutral is however a minimum and happiest when they are a facilitator, supporter and advocate
. Itās an uphill struggle for many.