My life has been seriously impaired by two brain injuries acquired in childhood, by Asperger’s syndrome, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, and prolonged duress stress disorder from ten years of serious mental and emotional abuse. It was also impaired by the fact that I didn’t know I had all these conditions – in fact, I didn’t start getting the necessary diagnoses until I was well over 40, in the 1990s. But despite serious socioemotional deficits, I also had a good brain and a massive determination to improve life for myself and people around me.