Article: Sharon - Are You Still The Same Person After Your Stroke?

Are you still the same person after your stroke? Have you lost your identity after stroke?

I came on this poem. It has been published in several stroke newsletters:

"I'm Still Me" 

My voice may be slow and weak

But if you let me, I can still speak

I may be slow when I move about

But I still like to get up and out

I may not remember all you say

But I like to hear it anyway

I may not do all I plan

But I plan to do all that I can

There has been changes as anyone can see

But all in all "I'm still me."  (Author unknown)

In the research literature on stroke, the majority of research stresses that people lose their identity after stroke.  Recently some of the researchers are questioning whether stroke survivors are actually saying that or whether this is what professionals believe.

I know that most people’s bodies change after a stroke.  Most people will have some degree of physical or cognitive impairment.  Impairments can range from a bit of difficulty finding words all the way to being in a wheelchair and unable to talk at all, but are you a different person because you have such an impairment?  In 1997, when John had his stroke, the neurologist and speech therapist stressed that he had lost so much of his brain that he couldn’t think in the same way nor could he ever be the same person that he was before.  Our daughter, Patty was the one that fought hardest for her dad to be treated like her dad and receive the respect he had always received.

My professional training and my conversations with the professionals treating John left me with concerns about creating unrealistic expectations for recovery and expecting John to be the wonderful father and husband he had been before stroke.  One day I said to Patty who was 11 at the time, “You know that your dad will never get better,” Patty was silent for a couple of minutes and then asked, “Mom, you have always told us to focus on what we can do, not on what we can’t. Why is Dad different now?”  That comment really made me stop and think about how we treat stroke survivors and whether they lose their identity or whether we force them to be different because of the way we treat them.

There is significant research that demonstrates that if we treat people as if they are slow and different or put them in an environment with no stimulation or completely isolate them, they indeed will become slow and different.    Indeed a very good article by Haslam (2008) suggests that social identity continuity predicts better quality of life after stroke.

You can read about our experience after John’s stroke.  It was published in the journal, Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation, The Language of Recovery: How Effective Communication of Information Is Crucial to Restructuring Post-Stroke Life or a brief synopsis is in the next article as well.

Haslam C, Holme A, Haslam SA, Iyer A, Jetten J, Williams WH. Maintaining Group Memberships: Social Identity Continuity Predicts Well-Being After Stroke. Neuropsych Rehab 2008;18(5-6):671-691.

How were you treated after stroke?  Did people assume you were the same person, or were you treated differently?  Who helped you to maintain your sense of self?  How did they do that?