Dealing with a brain injury is difficult for every sufferer. These injuries can affect a person mentally, physically, behaviorally and emotionally.
They even have the potential to seemingly alter a person’s personality. This can cause great distress not only for the victim but for their loved ones as well.
The impact of TBIs
Mayo Clinic delves into the way a TBI may affect your personality. Traumatic brain injuries will often affect aspects of a personality based on several factors. This can include the victim’s overall health, the type of injury, its location and the severity of the incident that caused the injury.
In many cases, brain injuries will impact the frontal lobe partially or fully. This area of the brain helps control impulses. Thus, many victims with an affected frontal lobe will struggle to control their actions and words. They may say and do things they do not mean, or do them in haste without thinking.
This can also lead individuals to lash out, especially because another effect of TBIs is an increase in agitation and anger. Between this and a diminished ability to control one’s feelings, it can lead TBI victims to become aggressive, lashing out at loved ones. For many, this is the most notable change.
Struggling with emotional coping
But TBI victims can also struggle with their emotional coping mechanisms in other ways. For example, many suddenly become unable to cope with the daily, small stressors they dealt with before. This can lead to emotional breakdowns while on the job, which could even end up threatening the victim’s employability.
This is why many victims who suffer from TBIs will seek financial compensation in the aftermath, for that needed additional support.