City: Schuylerville

Brain Injury: Severe traumatic brain injury caused by a car crash in Feb. 2012

Explanation of Mask: When you look at me and hear me speak you would never know that I have a brain injury.  Everyone always tells me how great I look and how well I speak.  This mask represents what you can not see.  It exhibits the over stimulation and severe pain that I experience on a daily basis from just using my brain.

The pictures at the bottom of my mask illustrate the flooding or over stimulation that I feel from the environment around me.  I can no longer filter unwanted information.  Therefore, I need sunglasses and ear plugs to reduce the background noise.  The remaining pictures represent the pain I experience.  Sometimes it is a migraine on steroids, other times it is mental depletion because I have used my brain too long.  The pain comes in many different forms and lasts for varying durations.  My mask is black to represent darkness and isolation.  I have to isolate myself in the dark to recover from over stimulation and pain.