Better than a shrink

by Geo Gosling
(St. Helena, CA, USA)

Geo Gosling writes about TBI Hell

In 1995 I was 25 years old and I received a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). I received the TBI in a bicycle vs pick-up truck collision. It should not take genius to figure out that I was the bicycle and I lost that competition. I was never technically in a coma. When someone is in a coma, they do not respond to outside stimuli. I did. A doctor, or doctors, would come into my room and yell at me. I would just lie there and give them the finger, flip them off. Apparently, the doctors got a big kick out of this. I have no idea what the doctors yelled at me. As I said, I was not in a coma but I was unconscious for about eight days. I ended up being in the hospital for 14 weeks. It was 14 weeks of every kind of therapy imaginable and bad food. Then they let me go home. That sure was nice of them. I lived at home with my parents for a year, or so, until I was able to move out on my own. I still had physical therapy and was seeing a psychologist. However, I had no job and I couldn't do any of the activities I had enjoyed before my accident i.e. mountain biking, rock climbing, roller hockey, etc. Plus, I was pissed off at the world.

At the time of my crash, I was the Assistant Winemaker/Cellarmaster at a small family owned winery in the Napa Valley of California. I had a Bachelor of Science degree in Fermentation Science from the University of California at Davis (UCD). UC Davis is arguably the best school on planet Earth for anything related to making wine. However, I could not work in a winery anymore. All I did was go to therapy, do therapy at home, and talk to my psychologist. I could not do much at this point except sit in front of my computer, so I started writing down anything, and everything, I thought of. The words I wrote down turned into a book, amazingly enough. I sent the manuscript of my book to a traditional publisher but was rejected. Since my crash, I don't handle rejection well, so I didn't know what I should do. Someone then suggested I self publish my book. I didn't even know what that was, but I went that route.

I e-mailed the publisher my manuscript and they sent back a file with my book EXACTLY the way it would look when published. I could edit the file and make any changes I wanted. I edited my book and designed the cover in this way. I did everything all by myself. It took a few tries and a lot of edits but I got the book the way I wanted it. It's a good book and I am very happy with it. Getting my book written and published did more to improve my post-TBI mental health than any of my psychologists did. It was a lot cheaper too.

I am not a writer and had never even considered writing a book, but when you self-publish that does not really matter. If you have something to say, you can say it. The self publishing companies know what needs to be done and they will help you do it. I think it's great.

Visit Geo's page.

Visit Geo's self publishing company.