In this solo monologue, David Brimacombe shares his decades‑long experience with multiple concussions and post‑concussion syndrome (PCS) to explain why many sufferers feel stuck in recovery. He argues that knowledge alone isn’t enough; the real barrier is mindset and the inability to envision a realistic path forward. Brimacombe uses the mountaineering metaphor to stress the importance of breaking recovery into tiny, achievable checkpoints rather than aiming for the summit immediately. He introduces two core strategies: (1) re‑framing perceived "problems" as "puzzles" that can be solved with the right piece, and (2) taking the smallest possible actionable step each day to rebuild momentum, identity, and habit loops. He also highlights the role of supportive mentors who push rather than accommodate limitations, and offers concrete environmental cues (e.g., placing shoes where you’ll see them) to trigger movement. Throughout, he emphasizes that recovery is a gradual, non‑linear journey, that each action votes for a new self‑identity, and that perseverance, even in tiny increments, can eventually restore vitality and a sense of self beyond PCS.
Chapters
If your recovery feels impossible right now, that doesn't mean it is. It usually means you're at the exact point where most people quit. Now, you might be feeling like, I know everything about recovery. I've watched every video. I know every routine, every system. I know what to do, but I don't have the capacity in my system to do anything. I don't have the energy. I don't have the desire. I just feel like meh. Well, you're not alone. This is a very common feeling and sensation for those who are recovering from a concussion. The understanding is one thing, the application is another. Now, don't get me wrong, it is great to go ahead and watch people's recovery stories and learn online and watch channels like this one, but watching is just one step. Okay? If we don't take the next step, our recovery stalls. Our recovery never gets going. Now, the one thing that stands in most people's way is that I can't envision myself getting from where I am to where I want to be. That path seems too rocky. It seems like it's riddled with landmines and obstacles that I don't think I can overcome. I can't get out of bed. I can't go to work. I can't function in society. How can I get to the place that I want to be? How can I become the person who I either used to be or who I want to be? It doesn't seem likely. Now, this is where you have the recovery all wrong because you can't look that far in the future. You can't look at yourself and say, I want to get to that point. I want to get to the summit of the mountain. Now, ask any mountaineer. When they're at the base, their goal is not, I'm going to get all the way up to the top. They're not thinking about the top of the mountain, the summit. They're thinking about incremental steps, about getting to one checkpoint, getting to another, getting to another base camp, because that's going to give them that— those small steps, those logical progressions that they can make. Now, if you make your steps too big, it becomes Impossible in your mind to bridge that gap. But when you make them smaller, you can step from one to another and think how I can get to a third quite easily. One of the biggest things to overcome is the mindset that this is not going to happen for me. I've tried some things, it didn't work. Bought some supplements, didn't do anything. It's just not for me. I'm destined to be in this body. This body that doesn't feel like it was before the injury. Okay, this is how I felt. I felt like I was a shell of myself. I honestly felt like I was a completely different person. I looked in the mirror, I didn't recognize myself. That doesn't mean you can't change. I am at the point in my life— and again, this took many years— that I feel better today than I did before my first concussion. That first concussion occurred 25 years ago, and that was when I was, you know, the prime of my life. I had all the energy. I feel like I have more energy, more vitality for life, and I have a better understanding of who I am as a person as a result of the journey that I went through. Now, the journey was difficult. The journey was arduous. It was circuitous. I didn't follow a straight path. But what I did learn from the journey is that nothing is impossible. If you are around people who want to tell you this is who you are, this is who you're going to be for life. They try to accommodate the person that you are and don't try to build you up to become the person that you know you can be. Those are not the people you want to be around. You want to be around the people who push you, who pull you up when you're— when you've fallen down, okay? Those are the guides, those are the mentors, those are the people who have inspiration, okay, that can pull you out of your desperation and allow you to become the person You know you can be. Now, I'm going to give you 2 things that are going to help with that mindset shift. The first thing is a simple rephrase that we all think about all the time. Okay? Now, think about a situation that you struggle with. We typically call that a problem. So, I cannot walk more than 5 minutes without having symptoms provoke. That's a problem. I cannot eat certain types of food without feeling nauseous. In most cases, that's called a problem. I cannot go back to work yet for more than 2 hours. That's a problem. Now, the problem is with the phrasing because a problem to me sounds like something that is difficult to fix. A problem is something that is extrinsic. It doesn't have— I don't have the power, the capacity to change. Now, one rephrase can change how you view it. That problem is now a puzzle. That puzzle can be solved if you get the right piece. You twist it, you turn it, and voilà! Guess what? Now that puzzle is complete. Now I can actually walk to the mailbox. I can go to work. I can live my life because I found the right piece and put it in the right spot. Now, this might seem very simplistic, and it is more metaphorical than anything, but the metaphor changes how you view your situation. You are no longer simply a cog in the wheel. You're someone who is just a victim of the circumstances you find yourself in, but you are now responsible for your recovery. You are not necessarily the cause of your problems, but you are the one who needs to fix it. At the end of the day, okay, you can go to any specialist you want. No one's going to have that same urgency, that same desire as you do. So you have to be the one to get up, to try the things, to do the things, To push yourself, because if you don't, no one will. So if you create puzzles instead of problems, you're creating things that can be solved if you do the right steps, if you follow the right formulas, if you change your mindset to one of resolution instead of one that feels like any and everything is going to cause me stress, is going to cause me to stop doing, and therefore regress to a point where I don't think I can actually go back to the person I was. The second thing I want you to do when you're in this phase where it's like everything feels impossible is I want you to take the smallest step you can possibly take. Now understand, your identity right now is likely of someone who is stuck in their recovery, who feels like this is who I am. And again, even if consciously you're not telling yourself that, but if you're lying in bed, if you're limiting what you're doing based on your symptoms, PCS is the main form of your identity, and that identity is being shaped by those limitations. So we need to take some small steps because those small steps are going to increase belief, increase your momentum and your motivation to do more. But you have to start small. You can't go from someone who lays around in bed or has so many restrictions To someone who is going and summiting that mountain of recovery. You need to start with the basic things. So let's say you want to add gratitude into your life. You're not going to go ahead and write a page or 2 of— in a gratitude journal a day. That's not possible. You will fizzle out, phase out within a few days. I want you to start small. One thought, one comment for a week. That's it. Even if you feel like you can do more, I want you to stop. Get a sticky, write it down, okay? Tell someone, text someone, tell them that you love them. Tell them that I feel like I can, or I'm grateful for the sun, for another day, for another opportunity to be the better version of myself. Even when you feel like that is not truly aligned with where you are right now, I want you to tell yourself that there is something to look forward to, because there is. Again, I will rehash this, and again, if you want to go ahead and watch, okay, I'll link up above my PCS recovery, my raw journey. Again, 7 concussions over 20 years. I had those extreme peaks and valleys where I felt like I was at those dips, I could not get out. But what it took was me taking those small steps. Again, I'm not going to scale the mountain in one stride. It's going to take Weeks, sometimes months, sometimes years, but I have to understand those small steps. Okay? Another example, I want to get movement back into my life, but I don't have the energy, don't have the momentum. Here's a simple thing to do. Okay? Put your shoes in a spot where you're going to trip over them. They're so obviously placed. Put your clothes on that you want to walk in when you sleep. So when you get up, you're like, well, this is strange. I'm not just going to walk around in my workout gear or my walking gear. I'm going to go for a walk. You're creating those small steps. You're, you're creating sticky habits that will then lead to the habit that you want, which will create momentum, which will then expand and expand and expand. Understand that every action you take is a vote for the person you want to become. It hopefully changes that identity from someone who thinks about post-concussion syndrome and all the limitations to something that you don't even think about that anymore. You just live your life. And if those symptoms come, eh, whatever, they'll come. They're not a sign your brain is broken. They're not a sign you're going to regress because you know deep down you will heal. You will become a better version of yourself. Okay? You need to start small and you need to change and rephrase those problems and turn them into puzzles because we know puzzles can be solved. And we know you can be the puzzle master to solve that puzzle. One step at a time. I believe in you. I hope you enjoy the video. Thank you.
