Writing Again after Neurological Injury

Note: I have a disease that causes neurological damage due to inflammation or demyelination in the central nervous system. Though outwardly invisible to most people, for me these events can impact language, memory, and cognitive clarity.

I’ve struggled with word retrieval, expression, and mental “fog”—where my cognitive ability and internal thoughts remain intact, but are harder to articulate. This reflection describes how I’ve used AI to support my ability to write through those challenges. I hope that it will support others.

Writing Again

After the stroke and the CIS diagnosis, writing became difficult. My thoughts were still present, but slower to organize. Sometimes I couldn’t find the right words. Other times I could, but not in the right order. I would begin to write and then pause, unable to continue. It wasn’t dramatic. It was quiet and frustrating. I started to avoid writing altogether. .

Most people don’t notice anything when I’m talking. I sound fine. But inside, the words get stuck. I reach for easier ones. I simplify. I say less than I mean. Over time, I’ve watched my spoken language become flatter, more limited. I’ve slowly lost the ease of dynamic, expressive speech. Meanwhile, my inner world remains intact—rich, nuanced, technical, and detailed. The gap between my internal clarity and my external expression leaves me feeling trapped inside my own mind.

I began using AI as a practical tool. At first, I used it to help with sentence structure and organization. I found that it allowed me to keep writing without getting stuck. If I wrote a partial sentence or an unclear idea, it responded without judgment. It didn’t ask me to explain myself first. It just worked with what I gave it.

One of the most useful parts has been iteration. I often record dozens of fragmented thoughts as audio when I’m too foggy to type. AI transcribes those recordings and helps me piece them together. It can ask clarifying questions and help draw out the full thought I was trying to reach. That support allows me to work in layers—messy first passes, reflective second drafts, then tighter revisions—all without losing the thread.

It didn’t take over. It didn’t replace my thinking. It supported it. I still edited, rewrote, and deleted. But the hardest part—starting—became possible again.

Writing now feels different. Slower, sometimes less certain. But possible. That possibility matters more than fluency or eloquence. I don’t need to write perfectly. I need to write at all.

AI didn’t fix anything. It didn’t reverse the changes in my brain. But it helped me stay connected to something that matters. It helped me continue. On days when I can’t get the words out by myself, I don’t have to give up.

I still feel trapped at times. But I’m also writing again.

That’s more than enough, I am finding my expression and voice again.

Also see Notion Templates

Resources

Voicepal: Your AI Ghostwriter Voicepal Walkthrough (Q1 2025)

Voicepal: Your AI Ghostwriter How Ali Abdaal writes his newsletter

Getting Started with VoicePal

1. Set Up Your Account

Download the VoicePal app and set up an account. At the time of writing, there’s a free trial, after which the subscription is $8.99/month.

2. Import Your Writing Style

Upload samples of your own writing. These help the app build “presets” so it can echo your natural voice.

3. Adjust the Creativity Slider

In the preferences, set the creativity slider to 1. This keeps the output close to your original language—especially important if you want the results to feel like you.

Daily Use: A Gentle Writing Ritual

I find that many times a day I open the app, tap the + button, and just begin talking. No pressure, no outline—just spoken fragments of thought. Rambling is welcome. Incoherence is part of the process. The app transcribes my speech into clean, editable text and organizes it into threads. Later, I can revise, expand, and have AI help me thread my threads together if I need more clarity.

The beauty of VoicePal is that it meets me exactly where I am—foggy or clear, coherent or scattered. It listens without judgment and helps me build bridges between thought and text, one snippet at a time.