Shireen Jeejeebhoy

Cleaning out the upper part of my antique desk — a task decades overdue! — a photo fell into my hands. I paused; I stared at it as memory returned. Not long before the car crash that injured my brain, I began to focus on portrait photography in natural light. I took a series with my Minolta Maxxum film camera of my nephew and someone long out of my life....

Memory of Portraiture - Shireen Jeejeebhoy Memory of Portraiture - Writer Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy's post on exploring the mind, reading and writing on brain injury, and living in Toronto, Canada.

Story. Stories. Storytelling. Beats the heart of the novel. I’d never thought of how it’s the story not the writing that makes a novel a novel until I began reading on Thursday night Story Genius by Lisa Cron when I was two-thirds of the way through Madeleine L’Engle’s memoir A Circle of Quiet. A week ago, on impulse, I signed up for Plottr’s Writing Craft Book Club to study their inaugural book choice…...

Circling Story - Shireen Jeejeebhoy Circling Story - Writer Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy's post on exploring the mind, reading and writing on brain injury, and living in Toronto, Canada.

A memoir is presented as fact. Madeleine L'Engle uses this assumption in A Circle of Quiet to lead us in a certain direction, then upends our understanding of what we'd just read. What is reality? Is imagination reality?

Is Imagination Reality? A memoir is presented as fact. Madeleine L'Engle uses this assumption in A Circle of Quiet to lead us in a certain direction, then upends our understanding of what we'd just read.

I was asked to write about the holidays as an ABI (acquired brain injury) survivor. In one word, it's awful. Endless pain like a piranha’s loving maw gnawing on the flesh of your heart. The spirit of abandonment permeates each holiday.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/concussion-is-brain-injury/202312/what-are-holidays-like-as-a-brain-injury-survivor

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Brain injury is like a mystery. A grey and white thing hidden inside a roundish bony thing, the brain runs us and our bodies and none can see the damage when it's injured. They have to detect it.

But how to detect and answer the 5Ws? That is the mystery docs ignore.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/concussion-is-brain-injury/202311/brain-injury-is-a-mystery-crying-to-be-solved

Brain Injury Is a Mystery Crying to Be Solved Personal Perspective: Solving this mystery requires curiosity and persistence.

New Research Shows Reduced Serotonin in Long COVID. In 2010, I used neurostimulation to increase low serotonin after brain injury and heal some of my debilitating symptoms. On Psychology Today.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/concussion-is-brain-injury/202310/new-research-shows-reduced-serotonin-in-long-covid

New Research Shows Reduced Serotonin in Long COVID I theorized using neurostimulation to increase low serotonin after brain injury.

What is being? And what is joy? A short video on my thoughts on joy as defined by Madeleine L'Engle in her book A Circle of Quiet.

A Question of Being A video quoting Shireen Jeejeebhoy's thoughts on Madeleine L'Engle's definition of joy with a link to the latest Mind Explorer Substack.

Sarah in Left Neglected may’ve been a Harvard grad with a high-powered job, but she accepted sans question that time and rehab were the ways to heal her brain. It's why docs get away with not updating their clinical practice. My latest post on Psychology Today.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/concussion-is-brain-injury/202401/an-anniversary-view-of-fictional-brain-injury

An Anniversary View of Fictional Brain Injury Personal Perspective: What does brain injury recovery entail?

Our brains hold physical representations of others and measure how close they are to us. I wondered if brain injury could impair that closeness dimension and damage our relationships with others and ourselves? On Psychology Today.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/concussion-is-brain-injury/202309/closeness-is-a-dimension

Closeness Is a Dimension Does brain injury affect how our brains map closeness to others?

Brain injury throws the question of "Who am I?" into chaos. According to Madeleine L'Engle in her book A Circle of Quiet, the self is becoming. Not static but ever changing. Brain injury both reverses and accelerates this process. It speaks to Philosophy of Mind in that, for me, mind produces the self. And so I wanted to interrupt my Revelation study with my thoughts and questions so far.

A Question of Being Brain injury throws the question of "Who am I?" into chaos. According to Madeleine L'Engle, the self is becoming. Not static but ever changing. Brain injury both reverses and accelerates this process.

Psychology Today Post for January: Anniversary View of Fictional Brain Injury. My personal perspective on real life recovery and what fiction misses.

Psychology Today Post for January: Anniversary View of Fictional Brain Injury - Shireen Jeejeebhoy Psychology Today Post for January: Anniversary View of Fictional Brain Injury - Writer Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy's post on exploring the mind, reading and writing on brain injury, and living in Toronto, Canada.

I cannot comprehend that I have lived longer as an adult with brain injury than I did without one. My new life with catastrophic brain injury began on this day almost a quarter century ago. Fiction doesn't capture the lonely road of life with brain injury

Reflecting on Life 24 Years After a Car Crash-Caused Brain Injury I cannot comprehend that I have lived longer as an adult with brain injury than I did without one. My new life with catastrophic brain injury began on this day almost a quarter century ago. Fiction doesn't capture the lonely road of life with brain injury.

Left Neglected is a novel about an intelligent, driven, Type A woman, Sarah Nickerson, who crashes her car and injures her brain due to driver distraction. My review from a brain injury perspective.

A book review of Left Neglected by Lisa Genova, a brain injury perspective. Shireen Jeejeebhoy gave the book four stars on Goodreads mostly because after a decade she could actually read it like she used to before brain injury, albeit with visualizing and verbalizing not integrated fully like before.

A 20th anniversary edition should be a beautifully and accessibly designed integration of the original two books. Not a slapped together one!...

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Shireen Jeejeebhoy's tribute to a generous and kind friend she made through Flickr and got to visit in 2015. I'm glad I shot so many photos!

Andrew Fogg, In Memoriam Shireen Jeejeebhoy's tribute to a generous and kind friend she made through Flickr and got to visit in 2015. I'm glad I shot so many photos!

Wanting to make designing newsletters easier and much more attractive, I'm trying out MailPoet and bringing back Compositionally Shireen.

Transitioning from Feedblitz to MailPoet Wanting to make designing newsletters easier and much more attractive, I'm trying out MailPoet and bringing back Compositionally Shireen.

If doctors saw patient experience as valid medical knowledge, they would never give up on trying to build communication bridges with people in "vegetative" states.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/concussion-is-brain-injury/201907/why-doctors-must-listen-people-brain-injury

Why Doctors Must Listen to People with Brain Injury Patients always knew non-responsiveness was not a synonym for no consciousness.

Pruned by God. Brain injury is like God has taken his pruning shears and reshaped your life right back. When you're pruned, so are your friends and family and the doctors and therapists you see.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/concussion-is-brain-injury/201901/pruned-god

Pruned by God Brain injury is like God drastically pruning you and the people around you.

Visualizing and Verbalizing a Video Course. When you can watch a show or read a book with comprehension, it’s not a chore, it’s not disheartening, it’s rewarding. Like a birthday gift!

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/concussion-is-brain-injury/201812/visualizing-and-verbalizing-video-course

Visualizing and Verbalizing a Video Course What happens when you regain your reading comprehension after brain injury?

Birthdays aren’t usually a topic on my blog, but this year, the sun is out, the sky is blue, my life has been upended for over a year, and I’m musing over this ⤵️ What's the coolest thing you've ever found (and kept)? My reading. Yeah, I know “found (and kept)” denotes an object. But having the surprise of my post-brain injury life of being told I can regain my reading comprehension and in only a couple of months — after 18 years of no-can-do — is like finding a precious gift....

Birthday Gift to Myself - Shireen Jeejeebhoy Birthday Gift to Myself - Writer Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy's post on exploring the mind, reading and writing on brain injury, and living in Toronto, Canada.

Accepting my baking for what it is now, without forgetting what I could do before brain injury, marks another milestone in healing my brain injury grief.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/concussion-is-brain-injury/202208/acceptance-in-healing-brain-injury-grief

Acceptance in Healing Brain Injury Grief Personal Perspective: Restoring baking requires treating both neurons and grief.

But is it? Isn’t screen time more like social time? How do you manage screen time for yourself? I don’t have timers or use apps that block surfing or social media. I have a routine instead. Way way back, I used to take one day off from all things digital and computer because my “addiction” to it was draining my batteries....

Screen Time Is Me Time - Shireen Jeejeebhoy Screen Time Is Me Time - Writer Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy's post on exploring the mind, reading and writing on brain injury, and living in Toronto, Canada.

New Research Shows Reduced Serotonin in Long COVID. In 2010, I used neurostimulation to increase low serotonin after brain injury and heal some of my debilitating symptoms. On Psychology Today.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/concussion-is-brain-injury/202310/new-research-shows-reduced-serotonin-in-long-covid

New Research Shows Reduced Serotonin in Long COVID I theorized using neurostimulation to increase low serotonin after brain injury.

What’s in your first aid kit? The usual? Or have you upgraded it to 21st century healing neuromodulation? I have!...

A First Aid Kit Should Include Neuromodulation Devices - Shireen Jeejeebhoy A First Aid Kit Should Include Neuromodulation Devices - Writer Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy's post on exploring the mind, reading and writing on brain injury, and living in Toronto, Canada.

“Lazy days” connotes slow summertime, feet propped up, a book in hand. But is it really resting? Do lazy days make you feel rested or unproductive? In the time before brain injury, lazy days felt like a reward for a week filled with study, reports, phone calls, meetings, and meeting expectations and deadlines. They usually felt like warmth embracing me, spreading through every muscle, putting each neuron into regenerative mode as I sought out the secret guilty pleasure of reading in bed or drifting in a lagoon....

Lazy or Resting? - Shireen Jeejeebhoy Lazy or Resting? - Writer Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy's post on exploring the mind, reading and writing on brain injury, and living in Toronto, Canada.

What happens when you install solar panels under a net metering system? And, in addition, you have energy efficient heating, air conditioning, and hot water? Do you need to conserve anymore?

What's cheaper and uses less energy, too? Natural gas heating or a heat pump? What happens when you install solar panels under a net metering system? And, in addition, you have energy efficient heating, air conditioning, and hot water? Do you need to conserve anymore?

Traumatic brain injury can impair both saliva composition and production, leading to tooth decay. Better cooperation between medicine and dentistry could prevent increased damage....

Dental health after brain injury Traumatic brain injury can impair both saliva composition and production, leading to tooth decay. Better cooperation between medicine and dentistry could prevent increased damage.

Windows allow sunlight to come in and moments of standing, pondering the rain drumming the ground outside. Windows exist everywhere, and we accept the way designers have innovated them. But should we? I’m not talking about the science of keeping the indoors comfortable and the weather outside; I’m talking about how we open and close them, how we lock and unlock them, how we protect ourselves from bugs and peeping people....

Are Windows Accessible? - Shireen Jeejeebhoy Are Windows Accessible? - Writer Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy's post on exploring the mind, reading and writing on brain injury, and living in Toronto, Canada.

Twitter is Xed. My hot water tank that gushed water was replaced by a Giant-manufacturer-dented tank that the customer service supervisor doesn’t want to replace with an undamaged one since transport companies have a habit of bunging up a tank en route from factory to Toronto and so they can’t get me the energy efficient Giant model. They said replace with another brand/model…then said I gotta pay for it....

Universe Hates Me Chronicles - Shireen Jeejeebhoy Universe Hates Me Chronicles - Writer Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy's post on exploring the mind, reading and writing on brain injury, and living in Toronto, Canada.

We bought a Concept II rower back in the late 1990s, the same one athletes use for training. We both used it. Me with my blood pressure that had a tendency to drop under stress from lack of catecholamines, couldn’t do much in comparison to fit and tall him. But I was progressing up levels. As I recall I’d cycled back down to six minutes in early 2000 after I’d raised the level....

Six Minutes Rowing Since Y2K’s Traumatic Brain Injury - Shireen Jeejeebhoy Six Minutes Rowing Since Y2K’s Traumatic Brain Injury - Writer Shireen Anne Jeejeebhoy's post on exploring the mind, reading and writing on brain injury, and living in Toronto, Canada.