Translation of my blog post from november 19, 2013.

Hi Everyone!

I have written about my cognitive impairments and my limited energy in an "academic" way. Now, I want to write about it a in a more earthy / casual way that anyone can understand. My cognition doesn´t work the same way as for a person without brain damage. I start the day with half the energy compared to a  person without brain damage(sometimes even less than that). Everything I do takes both gives and takes energy, so I need to find a good balance between these things.

You can think of my energy in the form of teaspoons, like this:

Get out of bed 2 tsp

Eat 2 tsp

Get dressed 3 tsp

Sit by the computer 2 tsp

Hang out with friends 4 tsp

As you can see, this requires an energy of 13 spoons, but what if I only have 11? I can not use teaspoons (energy) that I don´t have. Spending time with friends is something that gives me energy in terms of being social ., but takes mentally in terms of concentration (my concentration is bad), sounds ( I can´t  shut out sounds I don´t want to hear, I´m  taking in everything ) and visual perception disorder (difficulty with visual stimuli, such as people going back and forward carrying things).

A person with good cognitive functions,  a brain that works "as it should" have an extra battery to take from when the energy level is at the bottom, for me it isn´t the same . I can´t get more energy by resting / sleeping during the day, but what I do is that I save a bit of my daily energy , so that I, hopefully have enough energy to for example brush my teeth in the evening.

Before, I forced myself to for example be social with friends even though I didn´t have my mental energy. It ended up with me crying later in the week, because the energy wasn´t there.

I can build up  a small extra battery , but it will never be as big as for one person without cognitive impairments. To build up this extra battery  it requires longer periods of rest. From several days to one year.

Thanks for reading!