Invisible Injuries

Class today was an awfully heavy emotional load; we began our day with Pathology, and since it was the first day our professor wanted all of us to give an unique introduction. She wanted us to each state our name and share a problem that we had experienced at some point during our life and how we solved that problem. Some of my classmates shared superficial, light-hearted, funny experiences, while others shared personal, riveting, and deep stories. Some classmates cried while sharing these experiences and other classmates shared their tears while listening to their stories. After pathology, it seemed our emotions carried over into our next class (neuro-aspects). In here, we learned about traumatic brain injuries and non-traumtic brain injuries, how they are caused and their signs and symptoms. It is easy to read through these things on power points and on paper and not think twice about it, but once you listen to your classmates & peers share personal stories dealing with TBI's or NTBI's, it really hits you hard.
All this emotion today and then a lecture about TBI's got me thinking; not all injuries are visible. At the beginning of the lecture in neuro-aspects, we watched a short clip that showed different people and text would pop up next to a person that shared what had recently happened in their life, whether it was physical, traumatic, emotional, positive or negative. There was only one thing that all these people had in common.... you would have never known what was wrong with them if the video would not have told you. I think this hits home for me as well as my classmates, who shared very personal stories about dealing with depression, anxiety, and other non-visible disorders. You never know what a person has been through, is going through, or how they have been affected by something.
As an OT, this is something that is so important to understand. Even if today was a long day, it was a good, eye-opening day that makes me thankful to be a future occupational therapist.