Learning Through Emotional Discovery

By Paul McMahon

March 2014.

Ambulance sirens jolt the streets outside an apartment building in Sydney’s inner suburbs. This moment was only one of several falls from a building. Many lives were lost on those city streets that weekend. The boy laying on the concrete was another person plummeting into an unexpected fate. Uncertainty clouded the story. It was an experience felt by many.

What did 3.5 floors off a building with a final crash into concrete mean?

Those sirens began the caring moments to bring life into this story. Into this person. Into the male, late twenties, possible fatality.

I survived that fall and the journey continued…

I was featured in a newspaper and on television while assisted by the nurses and doctors toward rehabilitation. The later journey of what came after my misadventure saw me embark through many harder years. Times where unexpected challenges arose with no one to call upon for guidance, other than myself.

Brain Injury is an individual journey, but remember others are always out there living it too. We are millions of individuals with each of us experiencing the complexity of psychological change.

One challenge I came up against was the social stigma and judgement that came with each way I acted, made mistakes or, strangely, how achievements often meant I was fine and simply complaining. There was a constant experience of being surrounded by emotional pressure. Each day became another struggle. It was sometimes pressuring myself to be me again, to achieve as I once did while drowning in life. I found my actions were often vomited on by others laced with hate and fast-paced abuse.

A few years after my accident I studied Change Management at university. The degree is in business with a focus on strategy, education and psychology. I can say that my personal experiences after the accident gave me a valuable perspective to study such a topic.

One theorist grabbed my attention to yell, ‘YES, YES THIS EXPLAINS WHAT HAPPENED TO ME!’

His name is Daniel Kahneman. It is based on how we work day after day during individual interactions with others, as a society.

Fast and slow thinking summarises his theory. He speaks about how 96% of what we do is done without much thought, only quick assumptive experience making us respond with an action. During my brain injury recovery, this was shown to me when people made the action to yell, abuse or make quick judgemental decisions. Management from work was the worst for moments of quick abuse.

I did a neuropsychological test to return to work 6 months after my accident. I was not considered disabled because I had passed the test. Although tiny almost unnoticeable (depending on your perspective) issues happened.

Now, let’s go to slow thinking. This is an action where people interacting with you will attempt to educate themselves to understand your perspective. They will learn why, how and what influences their actions before they take one.

Did Albert Einstein create E=MC 2 as a fast thought? Was Isaac Newton quick within a millisecond to conceptualize the theory of gravity? — no. They did it through slow and thoughtful thinking processes.

I learnt my Brain Injury experiences could be explained through my studies. People going through Brain Injury should be allowed to act openly, with honesty and not experience fast judgement. Stigma breeds isolation and creates hidden truths.

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