Sleep Disorder Common Malady of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

December 8, 2008: According to my experience, mild TBI (traumatic brain injury) began early. I do not doubt that I was quite two when, in a fit of anger, my brother - aged 3 - took the hoe he was using to play in the tiny sandbox we had in the yard.

Since then, there have been numerous mTBI, including a fall down the stairs around 5 years of age, smashing my left temple on the corner of the stone fireplace...

Later in school I once bumped into a fellow student in Grade 2, and got a nasty gash on the back of my head. The fellow who bumped into me, DK, grew up in poverty. His family life was one of deprivation and squalidness.

Years passed. I developed insomnia as a result of antihistamines used for hay fever, and was quite exhausted by age 8.

Recently, a mTBI in July 2004 resulted in a lot of chaos that went away after I became roommates with my ex-GF LJ and her new BF TN.

My guess is, these mTBIs may be the root of my inability to form long intimate relationships with the opposite sex. There just isn't depth to me for a woman to tolerate me for long.

I say it's the TBI combined with the Japanese upbringing. For there appears to be a wall which comes up when I am asked to open up and truly communicate.

It's frustrating though, and yet I carry on, mainly because this blog is the best means of communication for me.

So too is Facebook, especially its ability to use a smartphone's camera to send pictures to the Albums section.

Yet pictures may paint a thousand words, but true communication demands face-to-face communication. Computers do not provide that, even with a webcam.

Only activities which help one to talk with other like-minded people may do that. So I will try to make Meetup meetings when my schedules allows it.

In the meantime, I am happy taking pictures on my KODAK EASYSHARE C763 Zoom Digital Camera.

Update: February 2, 2013

Currently I use my Samsung S II HD LTE smartphone as my main camera since my KODAK camera stopped working. This began during the summer of 2012.

I mainly use the default camera app.

Regarding my sleep disorder, I use flexeril and gabapentin as sleep aids since they both are safe and effective when used as directed.

Compassionate Communication by Marshall Rosenberg

At an early age, most of us were taught to speak and think Jackal. This language is from the head. It is a way of mentally classifying people into varying shades of good and bad, right and wrong. Ultimately it provokes defensiveness, resistance and counterattack. Giraffe bids us to speak from the heart, to talk about what is going on for us - without judging others. In this idiom, you give people an opportunity to say yes, although you respect no for an answer. Giraffe is a language of requests; Jackal is a language of demands.

During non-violent confrontations, Jackal comes to us in the form of denial, distractive strategies, and dismissive behaviors. Usually the confrontations do nothing to remedy a situation slowly going awry.

In a sense, it's like Jackal controls the tongue even though Giraffe controls the mind. However, he always gives you a second chance, repeatedly.

Resolution of this form of applying non-violent confrontation is to speak Giraffe. If one's heart is embraced by Giraffe, then one's tongue should speak from the heart with patience and love.

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Original post: February 21, 2007 2119H
Update posted: March 8, 2013 1907H

References:

Giraffe and Jackal Ears Exercise: http://seedofpeace.org/?p=815
Jackal and Giraffe: http://giraffeincblog.com/2011/02/25/jackal-and-giraffe-language/
Jackal Dictionary: http://www.wiseheartpdx.org/jackal-dictionary.html