Author page: Anthony Aquan-Assee

"When your Past becomes your Present." This is an additional layer of trauma that a Brain Injury Survivor has to deal with. It results in the person focussing endlessly on all the changes and challenges in their life. "Brain injury, it’s the last thing on your mind…until it’s the only thing." It is not so…

Recovering from a Brain Injury is very difficult, but it is possible. 🙏 Suggestions:  (1) Set realistic and achievable goals for yourself each day. (2) Be in the now and go through life one moment at a time.  Eventually your goals will become your accomplishments, and you will be climbing up the ladder away from…

The doctors had told my family there was little chance of my survival and that I wouldn’t wake up from the coma following a horrific motorcycle accident.  Even if I did, I would be a vegetable for the rest of my life and would need someone to take care of all my needs. There was…

Brain injury is the leading cause of death and disability for Canadians under the age of 40. An acquired brain injury in Canada is 44 times more common than a spinal cord injury, 30 times more common than breast cancer, and 400 times more common than HIV/AIDS. Every single hour, twenty Canadians will suffer a…

When you change your perspective, you change your life.  "Looking at life from a different perspective makes you realize that it’s not the deer that is crossing the road, rather it’s the road that is crossing the forest." ~ Muhammad Ali There is great fear and anxiety as a result of what is reported in…

Many of us may have a side that we keep hidden from the public. We are all very unique, regardless of the challenges we face. A Brain Injury is an invisible disability, and often results in very unique challenges for a survivor, making it difficult for a survivor to fully participate in society.  Coping and managing…

Spirituality and trauma are interconnected. Spiritual practices can help build resilience when healing from a trauma which in turn supports spiritual growth. Trauma looks and feels different for everyone as our lives are very unique. Spirituality is the belief in one's own higher power and it has to do…

When your life changes because of a Brain Injury you search desperately for anything that will help. Your life has changed so drastically and you feel that you have lost everything that was important to you. You feel lost and terrified. Everything that you used to know has changed or is gone, and you don’t…

Guiseppe Penone is an Italian artist and sculptor, known for his large-scale sculptures of trees. In the attached picture, Guiseppe Penone carves out a young tree with an older tree to reveal its past, showing us what once grew inside so that it may now “live in the present.” I am really interested…

There is a lot of attention on the Olympic games. Rightfully so as these athletes have all trained very hard to cope with some extreme challenges.  Many brain injury Survivors might also feel as if they have had to compete in an Olympic final every day since they sustained a brain injury.  Similar to an Olympic…