In March 2026, our members came together to give advice to other stroke survivors. While we are sorry you have a reason to seek out this information, we are glad you found us. As with any advice, please take what works for you now and leave the rest. It may be that sone advice will resonate with you now, and others will serve you later. Also stroke survivors have a variety of symptoms and severity of affected areas. As always, consult your doctor or therapists before making any sudden change in your routine. Despite our name, our members are of many different ages, and vary greatly in terms of how long it has been since their (first) stroke.
Rest. Don’t fight it. The fatigue will get better, but very slowly. Rest and sleep help your brain repair itself.
Keep doing the things you love, even if you feel like you can’t do them like you used to/your abilities have changed. Doing them can help you get better at them.
Heed the warning, signs of stroke (BE FAST—see below); many of our members had mild symptoms before their major stroke. Also we suggest taking new diagnoses like hypertension under serious consideration.
Balance–loss or seems drunk
Eyes—sudden vision changes; double vision
Face—Facal droop, uneven smile
Arm— unexplained sudden weakness on one side, could be leg
Speech-slurred or much slower. Sometimes person can have a hard time understanding speech.
Time/Thunderclap headache—Call 911, sooner the better some interventions are time dependent; some people get a sudden and severe headache
Don’t worry about things you can’t control. (Easier said than done, we know.)
Be wary of toxic positivity (being relentlessly told to “look on the bright side”). Acknowledge that feelings do not need to be fixed. Sadness, anger, and grief are natural human reactions.
Consider the Serenity prayer:
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
There is some wisdom comes with surviving a stroke.
Platitudes (like, “You’ll bounce back better than before” or “everything happens for a reason”) are often said because people are worried about surviving a similar situation and do not know how they would behave.
Don’t forget about the progress you have already made.