My Stroke of Insight

This may be my current favorite book of all time

A beautiful book about a Harvard Neuroanatomist who has spend a lot of her time working on the brain - due to her brother's schizophrenia

She at the exact same age as me ( 37 ) has a stroke

She talks about her experience while having the stroke. She talks about her recovery

And while she is talking about the stroke - I am thinking of how much autistic regression sounds like a stroke

There is such little out there on the biology of a regression - how does a child know how to make eye contact and speak - and how does that same child lose those abilities ?


There is so much press around what causes regression but almost nothing around what is happening inside the brain

This is something I believe all autism therapists must read

“I chose to show up for those professionals who brought me energy by connecting with me, touching me gently and appropriately, making direct eye contact with me, and speaking to me calmly. I responded positively to positive treatment. The professionals who did not connect with me sapped my energy, so I protected myself by ignoring their requests.

my brain craved minimal stimulation. It was not that I was depressed, but my brain was on sensory overload and could not process the barrage of incoming information.”
Chapter 10

“She intuitively understood that to get from A to C, I had to learn A, then B, and then C. It was if I had an infant brain again and had to learn virtually everything from scratch. I was back to the basics. … The process of physical recovery was just like the stages of normal development. I had to go through each stage, master that level of ability, and then the next step unfolded naturally.”
Chapter 11

"I desperately needed people to treat me as though I would recover completely. Regardless of whether it could take three months, two years, 20 years, or a lifetime, I needed people to have faith in my continued ability to learn, heal, and grow.”
Chapter 13

“Scientists are well aware that the brain has tremendous ability to change its connections based upon its incoming stimulation. This ‘plasticity’ of the brain underlies its ability to recover from lost function.”

All in all this is my favorite book and I really believe everbody should read this book and listen to Dr Jill Bolte Taylor on TED tv.

I will end with one of my favorite quotes from her book

“We can all learn that we can take full responsibility for what thoughts we are thinking and what emotional circuitry we are feeling. Knowing this and acting on this can lead us into feeling a wonderful sense of well-being and peacefulness.”