[stouset]

I’ve had a different experience unfortunately. I had a completely unexpected stroke nearly two years ago (I was 38 at the time). I was extraordinarily lucky and suffered no long term effects, but for an hour and a half the entire right half of my body essentially didn’t exist. I could barely speak, and early on I was mostly just confused about what was going on.

Now sleep is very difficult for me (it was before, but now it’s significantly worse; I assume because it happened while I was sleeping) and I deal with anxiety off and on. It’s almost never anxiety “about” something, just an intense experience of dread. I fret about the fragility of life way more than is healthy. I do appreciate every day that I have, but I’m constantly aware that any moment could be my last. Or, perhaps worse, that at any moment my ability to do the things I love could be taken away, leaving me unable to speak or think clearly or ride a motorcycle or snowboard or do judo.

I wish I could let it go and just live my life. But it’s hard, even with therapy.

[badcppdev]

That sounds really tough. I guess you're saying that you suffered no long term effects to your ability to move and sense but is there a way to determine if your anxiety and emotional resilience problems are a direct result of the stroke?

[stouset]

Most likely it's a psychological consequence and not so much a physical/chemical consequence. I have a very, very tiny bit of permanent damage in an area of the brain related to reinforcement learning, but that shouldn't cause the effects I'm experiencing.

[itronitron]

You might find it beneficial to do a series of drawings of natural objects (flowers, fruits, plants, stones, etc.) focusing on drawing the inner contour lines in order to convey their dimensional form to paper.