Brain trauma affects various aspects of your mental health and wellness for weeks, months and even years after a head injury incident. Though many focus on the physical ramifications and the mental impact, it can also affect you on an emotional level.
This includes your ability to cope not only with large stress sources in your life, but even with the small, daily stressors that you could once handle without thinking twice about.
The impact of TBIs on emotion and behavior
The CDC Injury Center looks into coping mechanisms and how TBIs impact them. TBIs often affect a victim’s emotional state to some degree, as well as their behavior. Many victims, especially those who suffered from damage to the frontal lobe, will struggle with impulse control. A number also have exacerbated tempers.
For example, you may feel yourself growing irritated much more quickly at things that never bothered you before. You may also have a harder time reeling in your temper, resulting in you lashing out at others without meaning to.
Coping with stress
Of course, this extends to your ability to appropriately handle sources of stress as well. For example, every day everyone faces handfuls of stress. Usually, it is not that notable. It could be as small as running out of milk for your cereal in the morning or forgetting to turn on the dishwasher and not having your favorite mug for coffee.
Unfortunately, without a strong base for coping, you will find yourself less capable of handling these stressors as they stack. Just a few wrong things could send you into an emotional spiral, which is a major issue in terms of overall life quality and even general employability. This is why it is so crucial to get the medical help you need, and fast, in order to return to your usual life.
