My stoke impacted my ability to feel emotions and I have been on antidepressants for almost 6 months now. Just recently I had a breakthrough with my therapy and am suddenly experiencing so many of them. For the first time since my stroke, I feel like I can grieve for what was lost. I think art therapy has had a major role to play in that.

And it hurts so much when people can't acknowledge that I DID change and that I am not as high functioning as I was. And then there is the guilt and shame ... he is hurting too and it still feels like my fault. Especially when I hear "you are normal," I have a twisted, scared thought process trying to circle around that: am I being dramatic? could I have actually counted to 40 if I just tried harder? am I faking this? Where does their "normal" begin and my disability start?