Emotional lability by Jenny

Hi Jenny

The photo of you and your husband is lovely and made me smile. While I don;t have the emotional changes to the extremes that you do I am deefinitley more emotional since my stroke. A piece of music cna make me teary, soemtimes having to make a decision but as you said once you explain this is an effect of your stroke people become so much more forgiving of making them feel uncomfortable.

Toni

Hi Jenny,

Great work in what you have done giving those around you an insight as to why you may laugh or cry.

Living with the emotional affects can be very exhausting and difficult to live with, keep being awesome!

Sue xoxo

Hi

I had the often familiar speech issue and had to learn to speak again. When I went back to work three months after my stroke, I wasn't really ready. I couldnt have a heart to heart talk with anyone, and this frustrated me, so my emotional lability kicked in and made it a whole lot worse. Here I was in an office of people blubbering like a baby, and getting worse as people said "DON'T BE UPSET". Underneath I wasn't upset, just frustrated as I couldn't talk and the more frustrated I got the more I cried. I took the bull by the horns then, and wrote a flyer about emotional lability and let my colleagues  know I was fine underneath and the best thing they could do was ignore it and I would recover rapidly.  This worked and the symptoms became less and less.    Two years down the track I would have to be extremely upset, for me to be unable to speak and then blubber like a baby because of it.

However just at this point, my husband and my rock passed away expectantly and having to deal with banks and insurance companies etc  etc  was so hard. I would end up in tears both from grief and more so from my lability. The lady at the bank would hand me tissues and just think I was a poor soul who was upset at her husband's demise. I struggled  but I got through it.

Now six months later , I am dealing with new stressful moments in my life again with banks and insurance companies and I burst into tears before I can say what I want. On the phone Im almost useless if I get upset, so I prefer email but no they ring me instead even after I express my issue. Then when I go to the bank, you can see the staff think, well hasn't she gotten over her husband yet? I stop and write I had a stroke and I've got emotional lability which makes me cry but I am more frustrated than upset. Please be assured Im really okay. You can see that really doesn't sink in, so now Im the weird lady who cries éverytime she walks into a bank!  Not really, but it seems like it. Overall I am so much better but I still get quite emotional.  Its exhausting and can be quite as hard as physical deficits to cope with...just its a mental thing.    Im glad Im pretty good now but I still have those days......

Hi Jenny, 

Thank you for sharing your story. 

"lost my independence" 

For me, this has been the hardest part of my stroke, heart attack, cardio arrest, and aphasia - losing my independence. But, I am getting through it. 

"emotional moments" .... again, hard to deal with, me and my family. But, there are so many triggers that I feel like become a Japanese monk - just do meditation and sweep the leaves from the paths. 

Marcus