Peter's Blog: How dysphasia has affected my family
Posted by Martina C on July 05, 2010 at 02:50 PM
In this entry l would like to talk about how my acquired brain injury has affected my family. I am married with a wife and 3 children. I suffer from dysphasia.
Dysphasia is a condition where a person cannot communicate what they want to say. They have difficulties with reading, writing, spelling and speech. This happens as a result of damage to the left hand side of the brain. The commonest cause of this, is a person suffering a stroke, it can also result from any acquired brain injury or dementia.
l am currently receiving Speech & Language therapy in Peamount Hospital on a weekly basis, which l am finding very good .
My wife spoke about how my dysphasia has affected our social life "everyday things like going to the shops or just having a conversation is not possible now.
Friends avoid us as they find the situation embarrassing because they cannot understand what my husband is trying to say to them. People don't understand dysphasia and are inclined to think that the person is stupid or drunk. Shop assistants think they are rude when they point to what they want to purchase. These situations make the person feel isolated and rejected".
My wife also spoke about how our roles in the family have changed."Your role changes, you become the care, protector, provider, counsellor, organiser, and peacemaker. With all the new challenges you have you are also trying to deal with your loss. You lose most of the support, and the opportunity of shared opinion and discussion and companionship you had".
My children have also experienced a lot of changes. They have suffered hurt, fear, loss embarrassment and anger. Hurt and anger as to why this has happened to me. Why I the parent who protected and cared for them is now aggressive and they don't realise that I cannot help it sometimes and need support myself. The loss of communication between me and them is difficult. Also the embarrassment of what their friends reaction will be on meeting a parent with dysphasia.
I would like to return to work but this is difficult for me because of my speech. It would be hard for me to communicate with managers, supervisors and colleagues. This has put financial stress on us as a family.
All I can do is to keep on trying. I just hope that one day my speech will return.
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