Brain Injury Support Group

It can affect memory (both long and short term) Reasoning, Socialization, balance, function, fine and gross motor, emotionaly centers are skewed at best most of the time....there is no simple easy answer to your question. it all depends on what part of the brain was injured and how. Each one is different...there is no such thing as a "general brain injury". Just like no two people are the same...

TAKE A LOOK HERE.
http://www.tbicommunity.org/resear...

recovery from a tbi is about the hardest thing a person could face .I have found
www.tbiguide.com to be the best site for information on the subject and its in and easy to understand formatt.
good luck.
daz

I second the www.tbiguide.com. I found it so informative I printed the whole book and put it in a binder. I would have never understood my condition without it. I also allowed me to recognize problems I was having that I did not readily notice. Once you recognize them you can begin to find a way to deal with them.

A TBI is not a disease. And the effects of a brain injury are as unique as each individual. It is much greater than frontal lobe damage with confusion. A Traumatic Brain Injuries can be global/diffuse or focal (one area) as well as all points between the two. Equally important to the brain injury itself is the past medical and mental health history. These three areas have a changing serpentine interplay with one another that regulate mood, sleep, fatigue, energy, cognitive function, memory, planning and executive function, emotional stability, pain—the list is unending.

Here is some frontal lobe damage:

My wife, two girls (7 & 11 years) went grocery shopping early last evening. The plan was that I would tag along as my brain had turned to mush from fatigue. But, none the less I wanted to help (this is such a joy for my wife because now she has three loose cannons in the store). My job is to bag the groceries. She opens the bags and makes the piles next to the bag—really it is just a matter of putting the stuff in the bag. I start by put the squishable stuff on the bottom and the hard stuff on top of it---she starts to repack the bag to save the fruit and vegetable. Apparently my efforts were akin to making a smoothie than bagging food. The line gets longer. But, I notice there is this other pile if food, but did not see the bag she had opened and sitting in front of me for the groceries. So as she is repacking the groceries, I start stuffing the yams in my coat pocket, the carrots in my pants pocket, other things crook of my arm, and them just putting things back into the cart loose. During this our 7 year old and I were having a great time, she started using this same “packing method”…until my wife/mom put us both in time out and took over all the packing and made us unpack our cloths.

As I write this, my memory of the events are make me laugh at the situation and the scent at the store. I did not hesitate in my actions in putting the yams in my pockets, but now it seems so…”what the hell was I thinking.” Obviously I was not thinking, there was not executive function/planning/reasoning occurring in the frontal lobe.

cheers

Denial has been operative in my acceptance of my brain injury. Denying I had limimtations enabled me to try and I went back to work and to school. I have learned to never give up because we will continue to improve. I was very let down about not being able to work as a graphic designer but I compromised by returning to waitressing. In a brain injury rehabilitation center they taught me about over learned activities which is why I was able to return to waiting tables because I knew how to do that prior to my automobile accident. It has been nineteen years living with my disability and I am continuosly learning. I learn very slowly and I adjust to changes with great difficulty. It is difficult to concentrate while there is noise going on around me. Before writing my response, I read the previos responses and they are packed with good information. I wondered if you attend a twelve step program because I do & that has helped me with accepting my brain injury because I have had many periods of depression over my brain injury because it prevents me from working, I'm poor, etc. Take care.

I am dealing with know this what am suffering from it. I lost my long term memories. At time I feel depress and I shut down my family and friends. I like to sit in my room in the dark. Sometime I will cry.

Frontal Lobe: Forehead
· Loss of simple movement of various body parts (Paralysis).
· Inability to plan a sequence of complex movements needed to complete
multi-stepped tasks, such as making coffee (Sequencing).
· Loss of spontaneity in interacting with others.
· Loss of flexibility in thinking.
· Persistence of a single thought (Perseveration).
· Inability to focus on task (Attending). *
· Mood changes (Emotionally Labile). *
· Changes in social behavior.
· Changes in personality. *
· Difficulty with problem solving. *
· Inability to express language (Broca's Aphasia).