"I have brain damage...deal with it."

Many years ago I saw one movie with Sharon Stone starring in it. Basic Instinct in 1992 has vanished from my memory, but I do remember that I didn't like Stone, and I was never interested to watch any more of her movies. 

Early this year, when I was working as an administrator on the Facebook page Brain Aneurysm Support Australia I had found out that Stone had a brain aneurysm way back in 2001. The UK Express reported on Oprah's Master Class interview of her in 2014. She had given a few details about her aneurysm and what it had done to her.

Reading this changed my opinion about this woman. I didn't see any comments after this article, and it seemed pretty real. I felt very sorry for her, because her aneurysm and stroke hit her very similar to my own brain aneurysm and stroke. 

Yesterday I found a Jezebel article which talked about a Harper Bazaar article which appears online but is to be printed in the September magazine. The author in Jezebel, Bobby Finger, seemed to like/enjoy Stone, and his use of her words seemed to be pretty good. He re-used these words with a few different issues. "I have brain damage... deal with it." I agreed with him, felt very close to Stone. And then I made a mistake to read some comments.  

KristenfromMA said "Shitting on TV people: so classy." Eh? Had this woman really read that Stone was feeling apart from the show she had mentioned, because of her brain damage? Did this woman realise that Stone hadn't put them down, but said that she "worked with the finest people in the industry" and that she was "really at the back of the line here"? Did she know that Stone had an aneurysm and a stroke? She said "I’ve always thought she was an asshole. To use her unfortunate illness to excuse it really sucks." Excuse me?? Her "unfortunate illness"? "Really sucks"? "What a phoney"? Was that before or after the aneurysm and stroke? Did she pretend to get better? What do you know about brain aneurysms? Or stroke?? 

Murray-Present wrote that he had "always thought she was pretty much of an asshole". Kinjslostmyaccount said that she was "pretty clearly borderline or narcisstic personality disorder". Didn't mention anything about her brain aneurysm and stroke. 

These sort of comments flowed on in the Jezebel article, showing me that so few people knew anything at all about brain aneurysms and stroke. Someone who had a pre-episode opinion about a person would quite probably take their opinion with them after the person had uninvited surgery. Someone would show that they don't care, in the least, about how an illness and/or surgery has affected the person. Someone would know absolutely nothing about brain injuries. And they just don't care! 

When I started as a volunteer administrator for Brain Aneurysm Support Australia I made up my mind to let people know about brain aneurysms and stroke. I have done so much Googling for articles and information, and so much of the professional information is excellent - and should be read by EVERY person. I know that Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Flickr, Reddit, Pinterest, You Tube, Digg blah blah blah are just social pages which unfortunately allow bad opinions, bad videos and bad information to be sent around the world. What I don't know is why people just don't accept that a person can have brain injury. ABI. TBI. Absolutely. And in Sharon Stone's life it has taken her 14 years to work her way around it.

I know that I will have this same sort of life. My brain is damaged. I had a stroke. So, from today, I will use Sharon Stone's words. 

I have brain damage... deal with it.