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Have you noticed there is a lot of focus on strategies for the physical and cognitive effects of brain injury, and not so much on how brain injury changes people’s lives?

Yet it is the changes to your way of life that can have the most impact.

Imagine your life changing; maybe in an instant, maybe slowly over time. It might be you are no longer able to drive, you lose your job, friends are no longer around.

Big things in life to deal with at any time, but imagine how it would be when you are already trying to manage the effects of brain damage. These changes to life are often the most significant changes for the person living with brain injury.

Hopefully, by gaining an understanding of the changes that might occur, and developing strategies to build on, you will be better able to support a person’s adjustment to life after brain injury.

Today a look at how brain injury changes lives, and next week more on the specific changes to life and some further ideas to help you develop strategies.

Brain Injury Changes Lives: How, What, and Why?

Four key points to begin:

1. The losses associated with life after brain injury are often underestimated by everyone involved.
2. While the physical and cognitive affects of brain injury are different for each person, the impact on their lives can have similar results.
3. Whether the brain injury is mild, moderate, or severe, people often describe similar effects on their life.
4. Brain injury affects the whole family.

Life Stages: Predictable and the Unpredictable

Throughout life we all go through a number of life stages and events that are predictable. They are likely to happen to most of us. This might include starting school, entering a long-term relationship, getting a job or the birth of a child.

Sometimes an ‘unpredictable event’ occurs, creating a significant change in our lives, and for those around us. This might include losing a job, the death of someone close, war, or winning the lottery.

Brain injury is one of those unpredictable events. Unpredictable events can cause stress, anxiety, different reactions and responses to the unpredictable event, and a need to adjust to the changes.

In an article A New Life After Traumatic Brain Injury  published by the Center for Neurological Studies, Family Physician and author  Cheryle Sullivan, summarises her process of adjusting to the unpredictable event of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and the changes to life:

I was given all kinds of tools and strategies to deal with the cognitive losses from my 6th (or more) concussions, but was not doing well.  That was because I continues to try to do things the way I’d been doing them before my TBI, unwilling to leave behind the person I had been. Until you quit looking back, mourning the person you were, and the abilities you had, you can’t move forward and become the person you well be.  We are all different after our TBI, but for many of us, we are not worse but better.  I can say with conviction that I am right where I am supposed to be in my life, and happy to be on this journey. Cheryle Sullivan

 What Are The Potential Effects on Life?

What changes to life have you noticed? Below are broad areas brain injury life changes commonly occur in:

• Changes to home life
• Changes to Relationships
• Self-Esteem and Development
• Education and Employment
• Control of Life and Finances

Guess you would be saying – that covers most areas of life. Yes, brain injury can affect all aspects of a person’s life.

As said earlier these changes are often very similar:

whether a person has a mild, moderate, or severe brain injury;

whether it is sudden or over a longer term;

whatever the cause.

Brain injury is different for every person yet the affect on life is often similar for each person.

Next week more about the specific kinds of changes that can occur. Meantime you could think about changes you have observed and make your own list. See how your list compares next week.

If you would like to use this article as a teaching tool, or you want a few prompts to get you thinking you are welcome to use this WORKSHEET as a prompt. To help you think about how brain injury changes lives. Participants could complete this on their own, or in groups. If you use this worksheet, as with any information on the website I very much appreciate your acknowledgement of the source and referring people back to  CHANGED LIVES NEW JOURNEYS.   A ‘cheat sheet’ of possible responses will be in next weeks article.

 First Steps

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1. Recognise and remind yourself that brain injury changes lives. It is not just the physical and cognitive aspects.
2. Look out for, talk about (when it’s OK with the person), and be aware of the life changes and losses for everyone involved. Particularly for each person living with brain injury.
3. Balance your support by working to address the outcomes of brain injury (cognitive, physical and behavioural) AND minimising the impact on a person’s life.

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And Finally

The following is quote from Dr Tony Moore in his book Cry of the Damaged Man .  Dr Tony Moore describes his journey of recovery after a car accident. He eloquently summarises the changes. I really like this quote, which is why you might see it quoted often by me! It seems to say so much, in so few words:

‘There came a time in my recovery when I knew I would never be the same again. When I reached that stage I knew I had to accept the differences and begin to appreciate that the changes could help me forwards. Although my public humour and irreverence have returned, a core of sorrow remains and it can’t be shifted.

’The journey continues quietly. Beginning again cannot mean living the same life twice. What has changed, has changed, and whatever is, will change.’

(Moore, 1991)

Please share experiences, resources, quotes or any stories you would like to share in the comments below. Or write to me HERE. I really enjoy the letters and while I can be slow in response; I will write back.