....because "that would take a whole career to study, and we don't have the time or resources". Obviously, I've incorporated a lot of that into my public writing/speaking since. I actually had a really hard time finding a brain injury population to study. I was struggling with my own symptoms...
....particularly social anxiety/isolation. So having to pursue human interaction was really difficult. It didn't help that many support groups are understandably very protective of their TBI members, and don't want them to be exploited. At the suggestion of a professor I sought out a support group
on Facebook. I was incredibly moved reading the personal stories on the site of people. It was the first time that I had encountered people who were struggling with what I had struggle with, with people who had their relationships destroyed because family members couldn't understand our experience
I was so moved that I wrote a 7300 word introduction/explanation of my experiences of dealing with changes in brain functioning/personality...while trying to navigate a Cluster B wife/divorce...and all of the pathological dishonesty/alternate realities/revisionist histories that accompanying that.
After pouring my heart out in that letter and sending it to the support group, I was subsequently blocked by the moderators of the group. It was pretty deflating. All I could think was: "My ex wife is right. I am pathetic. Even my own people don't want anything to do with me".
I could see how that’d be disheartening. To feel rejected by your in-group is tough. But it seems to me it could have just been a small subset (or even a singular person) who complained loudly to the mods. So from what you’ve written it doesn’t appear conclusive that your “own people” reject you.
Still though, it really hurts to be completely cut out of your community. I have only experienced this myself in social media circles when prominent members had decided to block me without notice or any reason (that I am aware of). Fractured the group dynamic. Not nearly as bad as your situation
But my brother, on the other hand, has experienced something at a more widespread level. We both grew up in a religion that taught ex-communication as a form of punishment for people who “willfully sin”, and he happened to turn out to be gay, meaning our entire community cut him out of their lives.
Including our own parents. Only myself and our sister remain in his life from his childhood. I ended up cutting out my parents from my life because I could see that maintaining a relationship with them, even passively, continued to hurt my dear brother who did nothing wrong.
That's awful. That had to be really hard on your brother.
Yeah, it was… it still seems to be, though not as bad as before. He’s doing great now, though. He describes that experience now as helping shape him into the kind, empathetic and emotionally aware individual that he is today—that allows him to succeed in his current life.
It never got to the group. The mods rejected it. They were protecting the group from being exploited by researchers. But it still hurt.
Ah man, that too bad. Like, why couldn’t they have just rejected the post and not banned you, since you were also a traumatic brain injury victim? Also, you’d think they’d embrace researchers who share their experience to help advance treatment options.