Craig Sears, Neighbor

 Welcome to my thoughts…. I am allowed to do that here in the US, so why not take advantage of it. I should celebrate my independence every day of the year because I can. As a brain injury survivor, I know firsthand how awful it is to have lost my independence.

My Name is Craig Sears; I am a survivor of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) this event changed each and every single aspect of my life, being someone that lives with a brain injury my journey made me all-too familiar with the difficulties of individuals and families working through the arbitrary system of care. For years, I felt as though no one else knew what I was going through, but believe me Traumatic Brain Injury survivors almost ALWAYS experience the same things.

I suffered my injury in 1987. In the years that followed there was little knowledge on TBI in the medical field and even less in the public. As a result, my physical injuries were confused with intoxication or drug abuse and my brain injury misdiagnosed as mental illness. I was falsely arrested and institutionalized time and time again. My life turned into a constant tug of war. If it was not a mental institution it was a jail cell.

Life today: I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't

I teamed up with The Sarah Jane Brain Foundation to help promote the need for a National Pediatric Acquired Brain Injury plan, a proposed system of care that would be universally accessible for all children, and their families, regardless of where they live in the nation. This coupled with the growing awareness that thousands of our troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are to suffering TBI. This injury is being called the signature wound of these conflicts.

For myself, I wish on that July afternoon that there was a national PABI plan in place I wish that the states and doctors and nurses and all the cops judges and people whoever had the power over me had a clue about TBI. I wish that when I needed it there were people to turn too an answers to the questions I didn't even know I had and the resources in place for me. If there had been such a plan in place, my life and my family’s lives would be completely different today.

The one and only way that a change is possible if enough people have become fed up. But if people don’t come forward it will continue. The only way we can grow by letting people know we exist and we are fighting for everyone. Day after day I get emails about the horrible things that the US States are doing to brain injury survivors. They need to be stopped; we have rights for a reason, but the State’s trample all over them as if they are immune to our constitutional rights. We plan on doing everything we can so we can all help each other. And with enough people complaining about the wrong, we can bring this information to the media as well as the United States. Lets finally put a stop to this, all it takes is spreading the word so let’s stick together and start fighting back with the rights we are given.