Personality Changes

Many people with traumatic brain injury discover that their personality changes drastically. You may enjoy things that you once hated or find yourself reacting differently than anticipated to a wide range of situations. As a result, you may feel as though you do not recognize yourself. Not only that, you may struggle to connect with friends and loved ones the same way you did before the accident. You may find yourself struggling with how to act or pretending to react the same way you did before your accident because you do not want to hurt someone else’s feelings, but feeling as though you fell short of the mark.

Emotional Struggles

Following traumatic brain injury, many people struggle with emotional regulation. On paper, it sounds like just another symptom. When you have to live with it, however, a lack of emotional regulation may leave you feeling out of control. You may burst into tears at the drop of a hat or grow angry over small inconveniences. Minor frustrations may leave you feeling as though the world ended. Likewise, positive emotions may also increase substantially, leaving you bouncing off the walls over a small bit of happiness. You may also react with inappropriate strength to little things that bring you joy. Mood swings may become an ordinary part of your life. Not only is this difficult for you, it can make it difficult for you to relate to others around you. Sometimes, you can predict these emotional changes. Other times, emotional struggles remain unpredictable. Likewise, anxiety, depression, and adjustment disorder are common among those who have suffered brain injuries.

Comprehension Difficulties

When you suffer from traumatic brain injury, you may experience difficulty with executive functioning or find yourself struggling to comprehend things on the same level you did before the accident. In your everyday life, this can cause many problems, whether that means a struggle to understand basic traffic patterns or difficulty collecting the items you need for a common task.

In your work life, however, those comprehension problems may cause even more difficulty. You may, for example, sit down behind your computer, but find yourself unable to understand how the program works. You may sit down to take care of a work task, from figuring out a budget to handling a request for a client, and discover that you simply cannot process the necessary information.

Many people with traumatic brain injury find it impossible to return to work immediately. Others may never return to work in their original capacity. This reduced comprehension and functioning can also leave you struggling to interact with friends and family members or fighting to participate actively in conversations.

Some people with traumatic brain injury find that if they can focus on the task at hand, they will eventually work through the process. Others find it impossible to fully comprehend things that before the accident, they understood easily. Unfortunately, you cannot predict when or even if those skills will return.

Memory Problems

Many people with traumatic brain injury fail to realize the importance of their memory until it disappears, leaving them with patchy holes where memory used to reside. This can appear in different ways that continue to complicate your life throughout the recovery process. You might:

• Struggle to remember past events. Many people with traumatic brain injury never remember the hours immediately surrounding the accident. This one hole in your memory, however, may seem minor compared to other things forgotten after the accident, from childhood memories to more recent memories with your own spouse and children. True amnesia occurs only rarely following traumatic brain injury; however, many victims of traumatic brain injury do note that many memories seem to slip through their fingers.
• Struggle to remember names, directions, or places. These common items usually come to mind immediately when you need them. When you have a traumatic brain injury, on the other hand, you may struggle to name those familiar things. This can leave you feeling lost and adrift or struggling to participate in normal activities and conversations.
• Struggle to remember common information. With a traumatic brain injury, you may struggle to remember where to find the silverware in your kitchen or what you put in that closet in the hallway. Even if you can remember one day, you might not remember the next. Many people with traumatic brain injury may find that they need to make expensive modifications to their homes and routines to make it easier to find common items.

Traumatic Brain Injury: The Recovery Process

Recovering from a mild traumatic brain injury can take weeks, months, years, or even be permanent. Unfortunately, the recovery process when you suffer from a traumatic brain injury can mean uncomfortable changes.

• You may need to attend ongoing therapy. Therapists can help you find solutions that will allow you to function as normally as possible. Your therapist might help you make alterations to your normal routine or learn how to adapt to some of the problems in your mind.
• You might need to remove things from your schedule or your life. Many people with traumatic brain injury struggle with emotional regulation or suffer increased stress even during activities that once brought pleasure. You may need more time to rest, or you may struggle to participate in those activities. While recovering from traumatic brain injury, you may need to remove those things from your schedule.
• You might have to make basic alterations to the way you do things. Some people with traumatic brain injuries cannot drive due to an impaired sense of direction or difficulty remembering where they intended to go. Others may need to clearly label cabinets and drawers to help them better remember where they keep basic items. Some may need to have companionship 24/7 to help prevent future problems. Still others may need to choose an alternative living environment during recovery.

In many ways, you may feel as though the recovery from traumatic brain injury demands as much as the injury itself. Often, it may involve substantial changes to your life and your daily routine. Some people with a traumatic brain injury cannot work at all, while others may need to work on a limited schedule while they recover. Still others cannot return to their former professions even as their symptoms improve.

Loving Someone With Traumatic Brain Injury

When a loved one suffers a traumatic brain injury due to someone else’s negligence, you may suffer right along with them—both in terms of financial cost and in terms of your relationship with them. In some cases, depending on your relationship with the injured individual, you may pursue a lawsuit on their behalf or help with the legal issues associated with the traumatic brain injury. When your spouse, parent, or child suffers severe traumatic brain injury, you may need to make those decisions or take care of those concerns on his or her behalf. Meanwhile, you may face key changes in your own life.

Your Relationship

When someone you love suffers a traumatic brain injury, you may discover that his entire personality changes. Your previously even-tempered spouse, for example, might suddenly become prone to fits of temper, or a parent who used to have a happy demeanor may suddenly struggle with ongoing depression and anxiety. You might no longer feel able to rely on that individual to help with your emotional upsets or problems. In some cases, you may experience a role reversal in your relationship, especially the relationship between parent and child or a relationship with a spouse who was once your primary source of support. You may also find yourself acting as a caregiver, rather than having the freedom to enjoy a normal relationship.

Your Finances

When you love someone who suffers from a traumatic brain injury, it may impact your finances along with theirs. When your spouse suffers a traumatic brain injury, for example, you may lose their income while piling up medical bills. When a parent or child suffers from a traumatic brain injury, you may help pay the medical bills associated with the accident or help provide care for that individual, especially if the injured individual needs ongoing care.

Your Routine

Often, seeing someone you love suffer from a traumatic brain injury means changing your entire routine and schedule. That individual may need round the clock care, especially in the days and weeks immediately following an injury. If your spouse suffers a traumatic brain injury, you may find yourself avoiding activities you once did together or needing to rearrange your schedule to provide ongoing care. You may need to alter your home to reflect your loved one’s new needs, including putting signs on cabinets or removing things that cause distress. You might take over chores once completed by the injured individual, including home and yard maintenance. In many ways, your entire life and routine may change to reflect the needs of your injured loved one.

Your Dreams and Plans

A traumatic brain injury can transform your plans for the future, leaving you adrift and struggling to decide what to do next. When your spouse suffers a traumatic brain injury, it may put plans for future children, career goals, and travel plans on hold indefinitely—or even strike them out of your plan entirely. Even worse, when a minor child suffers a traumatic brain injury, your dreams for that child’s future may change forever. Your child might no longer plan to go to college. She might not hold a normal career. In some cases, you may need to provide care for the rest of her life.

How an Oceanside Brain Injury Lawyer Can Help

Do you have a loved one in the Oceanside area who suffered a traumatic brain injury due to someone else’s negligence? Did you suffer a traumatic brain injury in the Oceanside area? No lawyer can give you or your loved ones back what you lost as a result of that injury. A brain injury lawyer can, however, provide many benefits.

Funds to Move Forward

When a traumatic brain injury changes your life, having sufficuient funds can go a long way toward helping you move forward. A traumatic brain injury attorney can help you seek the compensation you or your loved one deserve for those injuries, including money to help pay medical bills, provide ongoing nursing care, and make it easier for the injured individual to rebuild a life.

Stress Reduction

When you or a loved one suffer a traumatic brain injury, you have enough stress in your life. When you work with an Oceanside personal injury attorney, however, you can significantly decrease your overall stress and make it easier to manage your claim.

Do you or a loved one need a California brain injury lawyer? The sooner you contact a lawyer, the sooner the attorney can start working on your behalf—and the sooner you will have the funds you need in your hands. Contact Gomez Trial Attorneys today at (866) 395-6792 to learn more.