More Than just Ants: A Raw Look at Brain Injury and Resilience
So, I just finished reading Sally Mowbray’s ‘Ants in My Brain’, and I wanted to tell you about it if you’re looking for a good read, especially one that touches on mental health.
Honestly, it’s a bit of a rollercoaster, but in a really good way. Sally-Ann writes with such raw honesty about her experiences and perspectives as a mother whose daughter suffered a brain injury , and it’s incredibly refreshing. You really get a sense of what it’s like to live with those persistent, intrusive thoughts.
She doesn’t shy away from the difficult parts, which I appreciated, because it shows her story to feel incredibly authentic.
What really struck me was HER vulnerability and resilience. Even though she’s dealing with some really heavy stuff with her daughter there’s also a strong undercurrent of hope and a determination to understand and manage Rosanna’s condition. It’s not a preachy self-help book; it’s much more of a personal narrative that makes you feel less alone if you’ve ever struggled with your own mind during a crisis /tragic event .
I’d definitely recommend it if you’re interested in a candid and insightful look into serious brain injury and its effects on the wider family. It’s beautifully written, and I think you’d find her perspective really valuable.
Uplifting
This book is a wonderful read for anybody. Despite the tragedy, adversity and emotional struggle, it radiates compassion and warmth in all directions. It is inspiring and makes one cherish existing family bonds.
The literary style is mostly straightforward, eloquent and expressive. This is interspersed with paragraphs in italics in which the author relates what she wants to say to her daughter at the time with affective poetic elegance. It belies the author’s comment that she doesn’t know grammar; her writing is articulate and deeply moving.
The author shows a capacity for deep self-reflection and expressing her emotions, hence the text is infused with her personality.
What is striking is that even from emotional depths and despair, and a moment of resentment, she doesn’t look backwards with anger at the world, dwelling in victimhood and attribution. It is known that a mindset of blame and anger, regardless of any actual culpability, greatly exacerbates and prolongs post-traumatic suffering, physical and mental.
Instead, her focus remains forward, day by day, and to the future. Indeed, she and her husband had no thought of claiming financial compensation until they realised this was important for their daughter’s future. Rosie’s attitude adds to this, constantly striving to improve, propelling herself forward, with negative emotions only resulting from understandable frustration rather than an entrenched victim-role.
Testament to their attitude is that the author and her husband met with the other party in the accident with an open mind and with compassion and warmth.
This is what makes the book so uplifting.
A beautifully written and touching account
A beautifully written and touching account of a shocking and heartbreaking event for any family. Reading about Rosie’s journey of recovery after her accident, and her family’s grit, determination and above all love through incredibly challenging circumstances had me crying and, more surprisingly, laughing in places. A truly inspirational story.
This is a very special book
It’s a long time since I have enjoyed a book as much as this one. Why? Well firstly it is beautifully written, from the heart and deeply personal. Secondly, the subject matter which deals with the real life situation a family found themselves in following a traumatic event. The narrative develops with every chapter and I found myself willing the subject, a beautiful daughter, to take that next step, speak those precious words and reclaim her life. This is a very special book and has given me an insight into the power of family cohesion and selflessness.
This book is one that will stay with you forever!
This book is one that will stay with you forever!
It is beautifully written.
It’s a tough read, an emotional read and brings home how life can change in the blink of an eye, but it’s also incredibly important because it could help so many families who may be going through a similar life altering experience.
Rosie is a miracle, her grit and determination shines on these pages – live your best life 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
An honest and beautifully told account of a journey to recovery
This is a heartfelt and beautifully told story of Rosie’s incredible journey through a traumatic brain injury from the perspective of her mum, who was right there beside her through it all. What really stands out is the warmth, the honesty, and the deep love that holds this family together through everything. There’s a lot of pain in these pages, but also laughter, resilience, and a whole lot of grit. Rosie is genuinely remarkable.
I learnt so much reading this, not just about what Rosie and her family went through, but about what brain injury recovery can really look like. The fact that her mum chose to share such personal and tough moments so openly makes this book feel like a generous gift to anyone who might be facing something similar.
A raw and moving account of a remarkable recovery
What a wonderful book, and a melting pot of so many intense emotions. From the bleak early days of grief and horror following Rosie’s accident to the joy and exhilaration of her remarkable recovery, this account cannot fail to absorb and move the reader (in my case to tears at times). It is written with a raw honesty, charting the many stages of Rosie’s healing, with all its ups and downs, its astonishing surprises, its set-backs, its miracles. The reader learns about a loving, mutually supportive and close-knit family and the journey they each travel through this experience.
To hear at the end how Rosie is enjoying her life today, ten years after her accident, is truly heartwarming and uplifting and is testament to the innate strength of the human spirit.
This is a book full to overflowing with love, resilience and, above all, with hope. It shows us that, given gritty determination, time, patience and a huge amount of loving encouragement, the human brain has a remarkable capacity to heal and repair.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone whose life has been affected by traumatic brain injury, and to anyone who might seek strength and inspiration from this deeply touching story.