Review Of Ben Utecht's Counting The Days While My Mind Slips

Ben Utecht once said, “We are the culmination of all we have experienced, all we have thought and read and believed, all we have loved. We are living memories” (Utecht 2016, pg. 9). In Utecht’s Counting the Days While My Mind Slips Away, you can see that the idea of him losing his memory is a real possibility, and a lot of that can be attributed to the poor treatment of his concussions. Ben Utecht’s autobiography is an example of the significant role discourse plays in how medical injuries, physical and mental alike, are viewed and therefore cared for in both sports and day to day lifestyles. The minimized medicalization of concussions has led society to lack awareness in knowing the seriousness of a head injury and the steps that should be

The typical stereotypes of the male gender are to be tough and strong. To always keep fighting no matter the situation, and regardless of the injury, a man is expected to have an “I’m okay” mentality. You see this expected mentality all the time in the sport of football, and you saw it a lot throughout Ben Utecht’s autobiography, Counting the Days While My Mind Slips Away. Ben Utecht experienced countless injuries during his football career, some of which have even led to permanent damage. Nonetheless, he always found a way back out onto the field, whether it be from the medical staff rushing the healing process or feeling pressured from coaching staffs to get back out there. Even subliminally, the discourse that had been illustrated all his life of what it means to be a “man” could have pushed him to ignore the severity of the injuries and just focus on returning to the

With the hip injury came little thought of what was best for his health, but instead, worry of losing his division one scholarship and having to possibly sit out of his senior season. Ben felt that he had let his team down with the fracture in his pelvis, even though it was out of his control. You could see discourse related thoughts considering his injury when he says, “The hip hurt like nothing I had ever experienced, but in football you play through pain” and, “That’s just the game” (Utecht 2016, pgs. 23-24). In these quotes, you see the mindset that most athletes and men, both young and old, share. Again, that “I’m okay” mentality. Athletes are taught from the beginning that injuries are part of the game, and to learn how to play through them. The expectation to play through the pain and to be tough can be seen at all levels of competition. With these injuries, there comes medicalization and the various types of treatments for