From Skepticism to Success: A Head Injury Patient’s Journey with Mind-Eye
When he first read about the Mind-Eye Institute in the book Ghost in My Brain, Brant Johnson of Salem, Oregon, thought “it all sounds like snake oil. Dr. Elliott (the book’s author who had suffered the debilitating aftereffects of a concussion) would have likely improved anyway without Mind-Eye’s help.”
Brant struggled for months with symptoms of his own brain injury but had delayed contacting the Mind-Eye team, despite what he had learned from Dr. Elliott’s book. Only at his wife’s incessant urgings to “let’s give Mind-Eye a try” did he schedule his first appointment in the spring of 2023, later telling his Mind-Eye optometrist Carla Adams OD “I am only doing this for my wife.”
However, today, the 42-year-old forensic psychologist is of a completely different mindset.
“Dr. Carla Adams and the Mind-Eye Team have given me confidence and hope.”
- Brant Johnson, Head-Injury Patient
“I now consider Dr. Adams my best friend. She [prescribed the therapeutic eyeglasses that] gave me my life back. I am again able to write lesson plans and patient evaluation reports (at the hospital where he heads a department), read, work in front of a computer screen, readily converse and interact with colleagues and patients in a meaningful way, and (most importantly for Brant) provide some input into solving problems.”
Therapeutic Eyeglasses for Head Injury Recovery
Indeed, the loss of his ability to creatively problem-solve bothered Brant the most following his head injury in a 2021 car crash, which destroyed his vehicle and of which he has little memory. “I had always been very analytical, but that part of my brain did not seem to function anymore. It is slowly coming back, though. I am gradually regaining the ability to think through problems,” Brant states.
For a time, “I was thinking it would be better if my life were to end. But fortunately, I do not think that way anymore.” Dr. Adams and the Mind-Eye team have given “me the confidence that I will get better – perhaps, even better than I was before the accident,” Brant says.
"For a time, I was thinking it would be better if my life were to end. But fortunately, I do not think that way anymore.”
- Brant Johnson, Head-Injury Patient
Other health care practitioners whom Brant had been seeing for his concussion symptoms “were talking about coping strategies. They were telling me I was as good as I was going to get. I could not accept that. ‘Good’ was not good enough for me. Hearing Dr. Adams talk to me about recovering and getting back to normal is what gave me hope,” Brant recalls.
“I am so grateful to the Mind-Eye Institute, and my assistant manager sends his ‘thanks’ too,” Brant laughs. “If I had not improved, he would have had to continue doing my job [as department head]. In fact, I likely would have been forced to resign from my position. I had been considering going on disability when my wife convinced me to contact Mind-Eye.”
Mind-Eye Institute: All About Neuroscience and Brain Mapping
Some skeptics liken descriptions of the Mind-Eye Institute to those of earlier medicine wagon days when hawkers offered elixirs that cured everything from the common cold to cancer. Many grateful patients call the practice “magic.” But “it is none of these,” says Deborah Zelinsky OD, founder and executive research director for the Mind-Eye Institute, which is based in the north Chicago suburb of Northbrook.
In fact, the Institute is internationally recognized for its innovative optometric way to apply recent neuroscience, namely the use of therapeutic eyeglasses, lenses, filters, and other advanced optometric tools to modify the amount, angle, and intensity of light passing through the retina. The retina is a key part of the central nervous system. Mind-Eye Institute prescriptions emphasize peripheral processing rather than central eyesight.
Altering the way light enters the retina:
- Creates changes in brain activity by often mitigating symptoms from traumatic head injury, concussion, stroke, or neurological disorders. These symptoms include visual processing disorders, headaches, brain fog, concentration and attention problems, sleep difficulties, even balance and mobility challenges.
- Oftentimes proves effective in building undeveloped visual processing skills in children – and adults – with autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other learning difficulties.
- Modifies some internal systems that regulate metabolism, motor control, posture, mood, circadian rhythm, and decision-making abilities, among other processes.
- Supports the Mind-Eye Institute’s overall goal of using advanced optometric neuroscience to resynchronize a patient’s sensory inputs, especially the link between eyesight and hearing, thereby enhancing a patient’s quality of life and helping improve perception of his/her surrounding world.
The concussion Brant sustained in the car crash put him out of work for three months – and changed his personality.
“I have almost no memory of my time at home. Apparently, I sat on the couch all day, watched TV, and started indiscriminate and impulsive buying online. I bought a dozen pairs of eyeglasses at $60-$200 apiece, 20 phone cases, 10 to 15 different computer mice. Then, I get a $35,000 loan and buy a car online from California. It was a 2015 Mustang with a super-charger, able to put out 800 horsepower. My Mustang had been destroyed in the accident, but to buy such a replacement car was so unlike me. The problem: I just don’t remember doing any of this.”
He also says he became “very intransigent, stubborn. For example, I demanded to drive myself once I started working again,” even though, occasionally when driving, “I would get so dizzy I would have to stop, get out of the car, and lie on the ground.”
When he did return to his job, “I was initially working only four hour a day, two days a week – and, during those four hours, I was basically doing nothing. And I would become so fatigued.”
Fighting the Demons of His Concussion
Meanwhile, Brant was fighting other demons arising from his head injury. “I had been a lifelong reader of psychology and human brain function, but I could no longer read. Just staring at words was difficult. I had trouble following conversations and problems with language. I was unable to write curricula for classes that I taught or make decisions about my own material. I could not look at a computer screen or read emails.
“My assistant manager basically followed me everywhere to help me get the work done.”
Brant developed such visual processing and sensory overload challenges that picking up a couple items at the grocery store often became a “two-hour ordeal. Entering the store, finding the right aisle, and then looking for products on the shelves caused a flare-up of my symptoms. Sometimes, I would have to sit down and wait for everything to subside.”
Like many other patients who have had head injuries, Brant says he developed the sensation of “watching myself as if I were another person I could not recognize. I would be slurring my words or stuttering, and I could not control it. I was aware of it but could not stop.”
It was a visual therapist who recommended Ghost in My Brain. The book was authored and released in 2015 by Clark Elliott PhD., a professor at Chicago’s DePaul University. In it, Dr. Elliott details his eight years of struggles following a brain injury and describes how Dr. Zelinsky of Mind-Eye and Donalee Markus PhD, founder and president of Designs for Strong Minds in Highland Park, Ill., helped “reawaken my brain” and restore him to normal life.
Brant listened to an audio version of the book but remained unconvinced until the unrelenting urgings of his wife pushed him into making the call to Mind-Eye.
During that fateful first appointment, “I was being dismissive of Dr. Adams. I thought the Z-Bell Test℠ was silly.”
Silly? No, the Z-Bell Test℠ is Proven Science
The Z-Bell Test℠ enables health professionals to help balance each patient’s processing of central and peripheral eyesight, while also synchronizing integration between the patient’s perceptual mapping from auditory and visual sensory systems, says Dr. Zelinsky.
The typical Z-Bell evaluation requires a patient to close his or her eyes and then try to locate and touch a ringing bell. If the patient cannot do so, a Mind-Eye optometrist places different lenses, prisms, and/or filters across the patient’s closed eyelids until an optimal combination allows the patient to find the bell immediately. This prescription bends light in diverse ways across the retina, thereby impacting brain activity.
“Even when eyes are closed, a small amount of light still passes through the eyelids and stimulates the retina, which is composed of brain tissue,” Dr. Zelinsky explains. Retinal stimulation by light – or retinal neuromodulation -- also activates parts of the brain not used for eyesight (non-image-forming pathways). With eyes closed, patients are still having to visualize surrounding space in 3-D in order to locate the bell.
“I did the test, and Dr. Adams put a pair of lenses on me that allowed me to read again – effortlessly. Suddenly, I was sold on Mind-Eye and what the practice could do to help me,” Brant says.
His first pair of Mind-Eye glasses resulted in what Brant calls “massive improvements” in brain-injury symptoms. Subsequent pairs of therapeutic glasses led to noticeable brain-functioning gains.
“I am forever grateful to Dr. Adams and Mind-Eye,” Brant says. “With every pair of Mind-Eye glasses, another part of my brain reawakens. Even my primary care physician has noticed the changes in me. Originally, he dismissed the idea of me going to the Mind-Eye Institute, but now he is asking me about my next appointment in Chicago. And my physical therapist who specializes in patients with severe concussions and who had basically given up on me now says I am so improved I do not need her help anymore.
Mind-Eye has been life-changing for me. It truly has made a difference.”
Although Brant Johnson reports symptom relief, his experience is not always the norm, nor is it guaranteed for every patient. Check out the Mind-Eye Institute at www.mindeye.com for additional information.
Interested in learning more?
At the Mind-Eye Institute we understand that interactions between the electrical and biochemical pathways in the brain affect physical, physiological and psychological systems. Visual interventions that alter retinal signaling pathways impact both the electrical and biochemical systems.
To learn about next steps for registering as a patient or registering a child as a patient, please call the Mind-Eye Institute office at 847.558.7817 or you can fill out our online New Patient Inquiry Form provided here.
