Hamster: 'I'm still depressed after my high-speed crash - and I can't park my car'

[robybobey]

Originally Posted by Jocó

Yeah, many people were sure he was completely ok when he returned to the show, but in reality now, more than one year later, he still isn't.

To people who think he's promoting himself in these interviews: you'll never know what the full discussion was between Hammond and the journalist, maybe they spoke for an hour and he mentioned the crash in just 2 sentences, but that was what the journo needed and wrote a whole article of it.

+1 QFT

[Dingingaround]

Here is what Richard wrote about the article in his column in the daily mail on 01-03-08

I've always been parking mad
1/03/2008

Well, I'm delighted to say that the recent revelation that I could still be as mad as fish after "that crash" is totally unfounded.

Or at least largely.

It seems I confessed somewhere or other to having a bit of trouble with day-to-day things like parking or deciding whether I'm in a good mood or a bad one.

And yes, these "symptoms" could be attributed to that clonk on my bonce. Equally though, I also have to admit I have always been pretty hopeless at parking.

Just ask my wife. After all, whenever I decide to jump out of the driving seat of our family Land Rover, Mindy's the one who has to shift across and try to moor the thing in a slot barely big enough for a packet of mints.

And it's true, I always wear my emotions on the outside. I would be a terrible spy - I can no more prevent a fleeting feeling from flashing itself across my ugly mush than I can, well, than I can park our flaming Land Rover.

But these little issues have always been there.

While trying to stamp out some of the odd quirks and foibles I was exhibiting last year, doctors confessed to Mindy one of their secret fears was of "over-normalising" me.

Well, success, chaps, you didn't. I'm still utterly hopeless.

[Holiace]

It was incredible that he survived the crash at all. I feel sad for him... I hope he will get well after another year or 2...

[edkwon]

This is exactly why ppl with no medical background should stop making threads like 'I think Hammond is close to fully recovered' based on ths relatively brief snippets of footage of him on tv. The brain is such a complex structure that for one, its miraculous he's doing as well as he is, but also he's illustrating a very good point that all the weird things he's experiencing is partly a result of his brain attempting to heal itself, but clearly parts of his brain will never function exactly as they did before the accident. He may get thru the majority of his problems eventually but the balance between his brain and body will be permanently altered, even if its just in subtle ways.