Emotions are a rehab killer
This is not medical advice.
I don’t have studies to prove this. It’s just something I’ve witnessed a thousand times in rehab, and can relate a few examples to real life.
The way that we normally function is that our computer brain collects information and sends out directions. If we are trying to balance, our brain has various sensors to help us do that.
For some reason, emotions disrupt that process, making things much harder.
I see people get frustrated in rehab all the time, when they can’t do something. Ironically, I see more frustration with more mundane cases.
People who have lived in wheelchairs for most of their life display less frustration, at least in front of me, than others who have it much easier. Maybe it’s a level of acceptance of the current situation.
Motor learning
I say rehab in the title, but I think it really encompasses all motor learning and memory. When I am nervous taking a test, or playing guitar live, I tend to forget things I’ve done before that were easy. I’m as guilty of frustration and impatience as the next person.
In rehab, I see people who get frustrated because they can’t do something right away. I have this cheesy reminder that, “we wouldn’t do it if it were easy.”
Most progress in rehab involves many repetitions of something where you are failing. But during the failures are corrections and new motor learning.
Family members
Family members frequently comment on how the patient should be doing something, or that they are doing it wrong.
These are tough situations involving many different emotions; guilt, worry, anger, frustration, etc.
But here’s the thing that people who aren’t injured fail to realize: If the patient could do the thing they wanted, they would do it.
Sounds so obvious and stupid, but it’s very common. That stroke patient would lift their leg if they were able to.
So piling on from the outside never helps.
Solutions?
That’s a tough one. I used to work with families of disabled children. That was the most emotional setting.
There were many cases where the emotions of the parents made the situation worse for everyone.
But I also met amazingly strong parents who didn’t wear those emotions throughout the day, and were happy and optimistic. Not unrealistically optimistic, just accepting of things they did not have the power to control.
Can we meditate paralysis away, like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill?
I don’t think so.
But I do know that emotions make outcomes much worse. Maybe meditation and/or counseling would improve progress.
