Can head injuries cause mental illness?, page 1

Bachelor and all others who have loved ones who have suffered a Brain Injury or Damage if in the UK:

HeadWay

A wonderful charity helping those affected and their loved ones,

in the USA:

Brain Injury Association of America

Really do use the resources out there.

One thing many people with this sort of experience find is that the "labels" put on them or expectations of families and friends, causes psychological trauma which can affect any long term recovery.

OP well done for standing up for your sister’s right to be herself again.

I broke my leg some years ago. It was an injury. Sure I didn’t walk right for a while after but that healed and all is fine now.

Why should the brain be any different?

Remember though behaviour is not always Mechanical and it could be psychological in nature, the lack of self esteem, the life disruptions, pain, stress, fear, PTSD after brain surgery.

I really cant say this strongly enough it is vitally important that in the first few years of recovery from major brain trauma, no additional psychological factors are allowed to stop the healing, or even to create behaviour and ways of being that could be blamed on Brain Injury, but are just the same things as the normal strange behaviour in major life events like Death of a Parent or sibling, divorce etc.

Patience, total support and no judgements till you have given the three or so years necessary for the "injury" to heal.

Then make assumptions about long term affects not before.

So much is misunderstood on this topic for example:

Check this out:

Doctors attending a 39-year-old Chinese woman complaining of feeling weak found she had just half a brain!

Moreover, the woman from Wuhan city (eastern China) bears a completely normal life and only visited the hospital when she felt weak and stiff.

But she really misses the left hemisphere of her brain. "On the MRI scans we were surprised to see that she only has grey matter on the right side. Our usual understanding is that the left brain controls language. But this patient has no problem communicating with people.",

said Zhang Linhong, director of Neural Rehabilitation Department at the local hospital, told ANANOVA.

Source

Only one hemisphere present and normal!

This is not the only case to, there are many that may surprise you:

This case comes after in July 2007 a French team discovered a 44-year-old male patient with an unusually tiny brain: just a quarter of the normal size. Still, the man had an entirely normal life.

The man was a married man, father of two children and worked as a civil servant. He went to the hospital after he felt mild weakness in his left leg. While a child, the man has had a shunt inserted into his head to drain away hydrocephalus (water in the brain) and the shunt was removed when he was 14 years old.

The man scored 75 at IQ tests, below the average score of 100 but not classifying him as mentally retarded or disabled. The whole brain was reduced, frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital lobes, on both left and right hemispheres. These areas control motion, sensibility, language, vision, audition, and emotional and cognitive functions. It seems that the brain's plasticity adapted to some damage. The Chinese case just comes to reinforce this idea.

!!!!

Drop your labels and preconceptions against Brain injury all please!

There also was a Case though I can’t find the source I read about years ago. In Victorian London an Autopsy was carried out on an extremely successful Lawyer, he was a high flyer, had his own practise was feared by rivals for his legal ability and knowledge.

He had the entire Right hemisphere of his brain missing since birth. Again married with Kids, infact he was known as the best debater in the local chambers of commerce!

Brain injury, obviously depending on the specific case, is no different to any other injury, some people like me with very serious fractures to their legs are fine afterwards, and some never walk again.

But just because it’s an injury to the brain does not mean that it can’t heal like all injuries, again it specific for each person but not all encompassing.

And not in relation to actual trauma or injury but progressive damage to the brain look at this and be astounded:

Dr. John Lorber, a British neurologist who published a controversial paper

"Is Your Brain Really Necessary?"

back in 1980. Dr. Lorber's work centered on hydrocephalism, where abnormal amounts of fluid cause damage to the brain - sometimes actually replacing the tissue.

One case he presented, for example, involved a young man with an IQ of 126 who had achieved a first-class honors degree in mathematics (a difficult accomplishment indeed) and lived a normal life in spite of the fact that his brain was less than 1/10 normal size.

His cranium was filled mainly with cerebrospinal fluid, leaving a layer of brain tissue near the skull only about 4/100 of an inch thick.

Among those whose craniums were 95% filled with cerebrospinal fluid, half had IQs above 100

Source

And further back on truly massive head injuries and recovery:

Ahad Israfil is a gunshot victim from Dayton, Ohio, famous for his remarkable recovery from an injury that led to the loss of almost half his brain (one cerebral hemisphere).

In 1987, aged 14, Ahad was shot in the head at work when his employer accidentally knocked a fire-arm to the floor. Despite the severity of his injuries, he survived the trip to hospital and underwent a 5 hour operation. As he regained consciousness, doctors were amazed when he attempted to speak

The injury destroyed brain tissue and one half of his skull, but the skin of his scalp survived and collapsed inwards when the underlying tissue was removed. As a result, after the hole in his head had been filled in with a silicone block, the flap of skin was pulled over and hair regrew, giving him a fairly normal appearance.

Although he now uses a wheelchair, he has regained most of his faculties and has successfully obtained a degree."

Source

OP if you really think your sister is no different, as shown above there is every possibility it is so.

But these cases are rare so do be sure you are not in denial yourself first, but if you are sure then you know if any changes have occurred better than any double PhD supposed expert, let her know others have got through, and help her emotionally to rebuild her life, which is where the real damage may be, not mechanistically.

If there are changes though use the links at the top of this post and get some help support and like minded people around her.

Kind Regards,

Elf.

[edit on 27-10-2008 by MischeviousElf]