A major head injury can cause numerous ill effects. Along with physical issues, some people also experience changes to their personality and behavior after experiencing substantial brain trauma.
As with other effects caused by brain injuries, finding the right treatment approach is crucial to maintaining one’s quality of life. Here are a few steps injury victims and their families can take.
Behavioral changes associated with brain injuries
Depending on where the damage takes place in the brain, a person can lose their ability to control their impulses. This may lead to risk-taking behavior, as well as a lack of decorum in social situations. The brain injury victim may insult others or use inappropriate language and cause offense.
Many people also experience issues with emotional management after their injury. This can lead to emotional responses that do not necessarily fit the situation. For example, the person may cry or become angry without reason. Brain injuries can also hamper motivation, even when the person wants to participate in an activity.
How to deal with changes to personality and behavior
Brain injury victims and their families can use the a-b-c (antecedent, behavior, and consequences) framework when dealing with changes in personality and behavior. Antecedent refers to the triggering event that occurred before a conflict takes place. The antecedent can be a person, situation, or place.
Behavior is whatever resulted from the trigger or antecedent. A person yelling at someone else is a common problematic behavior that can happen after a brain injury. The consequences are whatever occurred following the problematic behavior, such as bad reactions, legal consequences, and any other occurrences.
While behavioral issues are definitely challenging, they can usually be overcome. Fortunately, taking note of problematic behaviors is often the first step to changing them.
