@viscache1

2 years ago

Almost 30 years ago I was climbing in the Alps and suffered a fall with severe hip, knee, shoulder, spine and brain injury. I could no longer climb and after 6 solid months in a neurology ward in a hospital 6000 miles from home, learning to walk, talk and cope with my new reality, I was told I could never return to my medical career. Upon returning home I did not remember my wife or children…I started all over again. I was so bound to my career and my climbing accomplishments that my first decision was to commit suicide. But I couldn’t drive to the mountain where I decided to die. I experienced severe anxiety for almost 10 years. I had to unlearn the centrality of my work ethic to my ‘personhood’ that I had created. I had to learn to be honest with myself. Jordan Peterson said something profound that altered my way of coping. “Strive to be good. And if you are happy along the adventure of your life you are very fortunate”. I had to stop being all the jobs and persona’s that I wanted people to think of me as and start simply being honest. Within weeks my anxiety, panic attacks and constant agonizing stress vanished. I am not who I was. I am who I am. I am what I say, do and think now. Today. I still suffer memory loss and aphasia, time loss and constant migraines… I become foggy after several minutes of concentration on any task. I am not the same person. But I am intellectually intact. I am still married, now 40 years, my children and grandchildren love us. But above all I am now honest. Julie is right…we have to change to survive. We have to develop coping strategies that are successful…not convenient. We have to seek out the best things that are an honest reflection of who we are. This was another great video! Thanks much for another thoughtful analysis.

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