Hi. I’m new to this community. I am 49 years old and recently suffered a TIA. Which was pretty scary. Had 4 weeks off work. Now doing a phased return.
My concern is I’ve lost my confidence. Literally in everything. Work. Life. I’m having some counselling which is in early stages. Just generally don’t want this at all but struggling to find a normal
Time. Time is a great healer as the brain will, hopefully, fade the memory of the TIA as other distractions become priority. In my sixth year, post four strokes, I still get anxiety but nothing as acute and frequent as first after the fact. Using Mindfullness techniques help and therapy can be an effective means to help take control of the fear so that it doesn’t control you.
Thank you 
time to get control of my impatience too I think. I hope you are well and thanks for your reply
Hi @Beetlejuice & welcome to the community. Loss of confidence is pretty common after a stroke/TIA as your brain has taken a battering. As Rups has said giveyourself time - it hasn’t been that long since you had your TIA. Hopefully the counselling will help a bit too.
Yes I would underpin everything Rups advised. I have nowhere near the confidence I had before my stroke when I was working and solo travelling around the world…I wld say I was on the verge of agoraphobia at one point…now I force myself to feel the fear and do it anyway! I think to myself…what’s the worse that can happen (and that includes an incidence of falling flat on my back in the street!) yesterday I drove the60 mile round trip to have lunch with an ex work colleague…I felt quite frantic at first but calmed down as the day went on so today I feel more confident…its a small thing , but do try to take baby steps and do little tasks…you will get there!!
Hi @Beetlejuice
Welcome to the community, I’m sorry to hear about your TIA. Loss of confidence is common and will take time to build back up. It’s great that you’re having some counselling, hopefully that will help.
I hope you’ll also find this community helpful. There’s a wealth of knowledge here so please do ask any questions you may have.
If you need anything whilst you’re using the Online Community, please don’t hesitate to tag me using the @ symbol and my username.
Anna
@Beetlejuice - I echo all that has already been said. What you are experiencing is understandable especially as you’re still in the early stages of your post TIA experience.
Be kind to yourself, allow yourself time to recover and know that return to normality is not impossible. There are many examples on this forum of people coming back stronger from their experiences.
Wishing you all the best.
Namaste|
Hi Beetlejuice
Welcome here - although none of us wanted to be here my experience is this community has amazing people. Welcome.
I absolutely get this losss of confidence. I don’t think there is enough attention given to the psychological aspects of stroke. For me it was worry about sleeping going out crowded places noise etc etc. It definitely improved and ive since done a long haul holiday been visiting driving of course at times I never thought I’d be where I have got to.
Start small be kind to yourself get used to small gatherings. Family help and encourage especially for holiday which was a massive confidence builder I found. It’s gentle pushes to your comfort zone there will be setbacks but there is every reason to look forward. And every breakthrough becomes a reward. It just takes time
