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Ask HN: How to navigate the world as a brain-damaged 17 year old?

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Re: Ask HN: How to navigate the world as a brain-damaged 17 year old?

#61

Post by lusus_naturae »

I think given enough recovery time you can get back to your previous state or better. It's important not to set unrealistic expectations that could lead to burn out. There's both a physical and emotional trauma aspect to this, I think you need therapy for both.

For physical trauma related to the brain, it's hard to say what is most effective. Typically, good nutrition and exercise seems to help--there's a body of research on this that I encourage you to look up.

Secondly, don't worry about how you used to be. I would rather just focus on the future and what you can do with your current state. If all else fails, there's solace (perhaps) in knowing that intelligence isn't necessarily required for success--to me it appears to be more a combination of luck and charm (kind of joking here).

Lastly, don't let your perceived loss become a self-limiting factor.

Re: Ask HN: How to navigate the world as a brain-damaged 17 year old?

#62

Post by lordnacho »

Ckirby wrote: post #57
lordnacho wrote: post #3

First of all, Oxbridge is not that big a deal. I went there, it's just a bunch of people studying the same stuff they study everywhere else. Second, what medical help are you getting? Seek out professional advice on whatever condition you've got. You seem like you're still brighter than most people in your cohort. Don't be disheartened. If you can code, there will be things for you to do. But find out about your cond…

Oxbridge is a huge deal, maybe not so much for the education, but definitely for the connections

IMO professional connections are more valuable. Friends from uni will end up doing all sorts of things, most of them unrelated to you.

Re: Ask HN: How to navigate the world as a brain-damaged 17 year old?

#63

Post by Llamamoe »

Most people with traumatic brain injury suffer from pituitary dysfunction[1], most commonly growth hormone deficiency, which causes severe fatigue and cognitive difficulties. You should make sure you're checked for that.

Also, don't let specialists stop at brain scans if they're alright, make sure you get someone to take a look at your spine and ceberal arteries.

If those yield nothing, get checked for Craniocervical Instability, a condition in which your spinal disk joints are unstable which can result in nerve or artery compression. This often causes fatigue, headaches, hearing ringing or your heartbeat

You could also try neurotrophic substances, which promote both neuroplasticity and repair from injury- in most countries, cerebrolysin is available as medication. Failing that, you can get 7,8-DHF and its 4'DMA-7,8-DHF cousin from nootropic vendors. Both are highly selective and thus unlikely to have undesirable effects.

I hope any of this helps.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6000755/?report...

Re: Ask HN: How to navigate the world as a brain-damaged 17 year old?

#64

Post by iamflimflam1 »

The guy who runs the strange parts YouTube channel suffered a severe concussion and found some treatment that seems to have helped.

I would definitely do some research on this, but these are the people who helped him:

https://www.cognitivefxusa.com https://neuraleffects.com

Re: Ask HN: How to navigate the world as a brain-damaged 17 year old?

#65

Post by iamflimflam1 »

contravariant wrote: post #13

I'm not sure what the situation is like in the UK but is this all stuff that needs to happen now ? Because you don't sound like you're doing too well. You're studying drugged on caffeine and painkillers and then wonder why you don't retain information well. From what I've seen first hand a concussion like this needs time to heal. Your brain, the organ responsible for processing information, has been harmed and needs…

Agreed. In your shoes I would take a year out to recover. University is not going anywhere. A year can seem like a long time when you’re 17, but it’s really not.

Re: Ask HN: How to navigate the world as a brain-damaged 17 year old?

#66

Post by ghomem »

> I am now below average intelligence

The very fact you were able to write this post in such an articulate way already puts you ahead of 90% of the population. Have you seen how people write? I've been managing teams and projects in the last 18 years and I can promise you that written communication skills, along with patience to use them, are as important as coding skills, if not more important.

"Intelligence" per se is overrated. Work performance comes from a mix of intelligence, patience, communication skills and persistence. In real life, documentation and traceability (from well commented tickets) are as important as lines of code.

I hope you recover soon to full capacity. Just wanted to let you know that I'm not used to such fluent writing, neither from 17 year old people nor from the average colleague at software companies. You have that on your side.

Furthermore, please sue the idiots if you can.

Wish you a fast recovery!

Re: Ask HN: How to navigate the world as a brain-damaged 17 year old?

#67

Post by phyalow »

Ckirby wrote: post #57
lordnacho wrote: post #3

First of all, Oxbridge is not that big a deal. I went there, it's just a bunch of people studying the same stuff they study everywhere else. Second, what medical help are you getting? Seek out professional advice on whatever condition you've got. You seem like you're still brighter than most people in your cohort. Don't be disheartened. If you can code, there will be things for you to do. But find out about your cond…

Oxbridge is a huge deal, maybe not so much for the education, but definitely for the connections

Also former Oxbridge attendee, it really isnt a reputation that is fully deserved. Local unis are more than fine. What matters more is your outlook on life, openness and adeptness to exploring yourself, industries and communities - ultimately resulting in mastery of a niche (or niches) and then hopefully wealth. Can Oxbridge facilitate some of this? Sure, but your local uni can too.

Re: Ask HN: How to navigate the world as a brain-damaged 17 year old?

#68

Post by tbison »

Hi.

I'm deeply sorry to hear about your tragic situation. School is shit, and being a teenager is fucked up for the people who get bullied as well as the bullies. High school is quite an emotionally unhealthy place (at least in the US).

When I was 6, my father was in a car accident (head-on collision) which resulted in a TBI to his temporal & frontal lobe. He was 46 at the time. He's 70 now and he struggles every day.

My brother was in a car accident with a train when he was 24. He also suffers from a TBI, but his recovery has been incredibly remarkable. He's 33 now & 99/100 times after a conversation with him, you wouldn't have a clue that he suffered from a TBI.

What's the point of me telling you this? Brain-plasticity is very real and based on the small sample size I have personal experience with, it's a function of age.

One big caveat I'll mention: my brother isn't particularly academic and hasn't been in the classroom since his accident, and I'm not sure how he'd fare under the pressure of coursework. But that's not an apples-to-apples comparison anyways.

I feel as though you're putting a lot of pressure on yourself. As a self-motivated individual, I empathize with you. But, there's actually some adverse effects from that pressure & stress: it negatively impacts your decision making (https://news.mit.edu/2017/stress-can-lead-risky-decisions-11...).

What's interesting is that over time, this appears to have an exponential impact on cognitive function:

"While stress can shrink the prefrontal cortex, it can increase the size of the amygdala, which can make the brain more receptive to stress" (https://www.tuw.edu/health/how-stress-affects-the-brain/)

What's my point? Take some time to de-stress: the stress and pressure you're putting on yourself is actually making you more stressed and increasing the pressure.

You're young. You're bright. You have an incredible future which you will determine (in due time). Your brain will adjust. Focus on learning how to learn again & seek ways to improve cognition rather than worrying about work (if you have the privilege to do so, whether via family means or societal/governmental). Don't get lazy, but don't crush yourself because you're not who you were before this bullshit happened to you. Work will always be there. Focus on the pillars of your health (physical, cognitive, emotional).

Would love to connect with you and hear more about your journey if you'd like (I'm a software engineer & happy to share anything I can about my experience working in the industry).

Re: Ask HN: How to navigate the world as a brain-damaged 17 year old?

#69

Post by laurieg »

Sorry about what happened to you. I can't imagine how that feels.

I would first suggest learning to accept your limitations. This is the hardest thing in the world right now. All you want to do is fix things. You want to find that magic cure and set everything right. Of course, work with your doctors and do everything you reasonably can to improve your situation. But also realize that not accepting these new limitations is doubling up your anguish: once for the medical issue and then again for your reaction to it.

I suffer from working memory issues. It has affected my career, but I still do have a career. There are many useful assistive technologies. Smartphones, smart speakers and so it. It's easy to have reminders come up pretty much anywhere you are. Keep things in your visual field if you need to remember them (sticky notes on the monitor is a trope for a reason). Keep pen and paper (or tablet etc) and use it religiously. It will become second nature.

As for your career situation, you still have a lot of options. You say your chances at for getting into a top university are low. Of course it isn't easy to get into these great universities. And most people aren't dealing with missing 6 months of school!

I'll leave you with one thought:

> I had to drop an A level (further maths), which made my already infitesimal chance of Oxbridge zero

My rather small, rather ordinary school didn't offer further maths as an A-level. I applied and got an offer anyway. Maybe things aren't as dire as you think?

Re: Ask HN: How to navigate the world as a brain-damaged 17 year old?

#70

Post by afarrell »

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #65
contravariant wrote: post #13

I'm not sure what the situation is like in the UK but is this all stuff that needs to happen now ? Because you don't sound like you're doing too well. You're studying drugged on caffeine and painkillers and then wonder why you don't retain information well. From what I've seen first hand a concussion like this needs time to heal. Your brain, the organ responsible for processing information, has been harmed and needs…

Agreed. In your shoes I would take a year out to recover. University is not going anywhere. A year can seem like a long time when you’re 17, but it’s really not.

Also, a year at university when you have good health habits will result in much more learning than a year when you have poor habits.
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