When A Brain Injury Changes The Person Forever

When a brain injury changes the person forever, instead of taking the life of the one you love, you find yourself in one of life’s most difficult paradoxes. Your loved one is not physically gone, but he is no longer the same. He has changed. And it’s not just because of the physical disability that often accompanies a brain injury, but because of changes in personality.

How can one explain that one’s loved one is now as a stranger to one? That the person is no longer who he once was? He has in a way changed color. Perhaps the person who was once a social butterfly is now apathetic and like a closed book. There are some of us who still recognize the person, and some of us who do not.

Your husband, father, brother were once highly respected and well educated. But as a result of a brain injury, he is no longer. His brain has “turned off” the buttons that control social norms. He no longer possesses certain social filters. There is no self-control and anyone who does not know he has had a brain injury will just think he is rude.

Your loved one may not even be aware of his brain damage

People who have suffered a brain injury are often not as aware of the consequences, as their family is. This is how a brain injury often works. It can act as a defense mechanism that protects them from feeling the full weight of what has happened.

The fact is that this mechanism exists. It is a pathological disease for people who have suffered a brain injury and have neurological (cognitive) problems that they do not recognize their disease. The clinical phenomenon is called “anosognosia”. Anosognosia refers to those who have no knowledge about their functional neurological deficits. 

In other words, they sometimes have difficulty fully understanding the consequences of their injury, whether they are cognitive, physical, or behavioral injuries. Many times they are not aware that it is a problem with the attention they require or with explosive reactions.

It happens that people with brain damage cannot walk again, but they blame others for not letting them do things themselves. It may be that they have difficulty recognizing what they have experienced and how it affects them.

Families are in grief when a brain injury changes the person they love

All this helps to create a feeling of powerlessness and frustration in the family. The only thing worse than that he is not the same anymore is that he does not realize he is not the same. The change is tough for people around him.

Imagine that someone close to you is still alive, but is no longer the person you once knew. His way of being and experiencing life has changed. This is one of the hardest things that families of a person with brain damage experience.

There will be a change in family dynamics. The puzzle is destroyed and the pieces fly away. Now is the time to adjust our perspective and clean up this sudden chaos. Disturbing emotions can appear, such as envy, despair, uncertainty… guilt. You feel a whole lot. It is, after all, a loss.

That is why it is so important to emphasize that brain damage changes the person, but will also change the lives of everyone involved. It is very important to share your mixed feelings so that you can help your loved one handle the experience better. Move around the pieces of your life with the person and fill life with new meaning. It is an exercise in bravery and admirable wisdom.

Finally, we would like to express our full sympathy to the families who have been affected by brain damage.