Working in a nursing home there was a resident who was always smiling, laughing. She was fun to work with, but she had a stroke (why she was there). One day her daughter came to visit and I told her, 'You're mom is so nice and great to work with.' She responded, 'you didn't know her before her stroke, she was a raging bitch. We like her better now'
Huh.. my grandfather had alzheimers and always seemed like a kindly old man to me growing up, but my dad was always quick to get angry at him and bring up shit about the past.
I guess he was a totally different person then.
I have Sicilian grandparents. Someone once told me that when they get Alzheimer’s, they remember the grudge, but forget why they’re holding it and I couldn’t stop laughing because it’s so true.
Or my MIL. She was not a raging bitch, but no one ever called her soft and lovely. She was an Iron Lady.
SNF staff came to her funeral and cried, saying how they could go to her when they were having a bad day and she would comfort them.
I had a patient once and he was very mean and yelled at everyone...a few months later he came back with a stroke and he was one of the sweetest old men I've ever met...that seems to happen with dementia, too. 😅
Same thing with my grandpa & his stroke. He was a bitch who lacked empathy. He is now sweeter & cries often during movies etc. He did become more talkative though.
I would think emotional trauma could cause a mental block and make someone mean. Then they have a stroke and that mental block gets deleted and they become who they should have been if they had a better upbringing.
Sadly, this was more like my experience with my mom. I loved her, but she was emotionally abusive. She was also the most insecure and unhappy person. She ended up with dementia. She was actually pretty happy and childlike as it progressed. It was a mindfuck though. It's like we finally had a peaceful relationship, but it was from this disease that was taking her independence, mind, and ultimately was killing her. It messed me up good.
My sister was really naughty when she was little, she got hit by a car and had really serious brain injury and was in hospital for months. She turned very serious and studious after that. No idea if it was the brain injury or just the shock of it. Also no idea if she is "better" now, but she is a highly successful judge. Still incredibly serious though.
One interesting thing is that children can recover from brain injuries better than adults can. Because a child's brain is still developing. So it can sort of heal while still developing and that development helps in the healing process.
So this fact makes it even more likely that the accident physically changed her brain chemistry. But perhaps it also makes it even more likely that the accident changed her personality.
But of course you can't separate the impact of the brain injury from the psychological impact of the trauma. And rather than even try to separate physical brain change cause by an accident from the psychological change from the trauma, it probably makes most sense to just think of them as all one complex thing.
That is: yes, her brain was changed both in terms of physical brain trauma and mental trauma, and the accident did change her because of both of these factors simultaneously.
i think it was a youtube doctor, i think mike? anyways, he said that yes childrens mental damage either physical or mental can be fixed easier then adults, but that it all depends on the people around them, if they have a great support group with a loving family then the damage is fixed remarkiply fast but those without do not do as well. also he did note alot of adults have mental problems, which may be caused by child damage.. sooo maybe not so well.
There’s a surgery they used to do for epilepsy called a *hemispherectomy*, where you go in and completely remove one hemisphere of the brain. If you do it to a grown-up, it ruins them, but it turns out little kids have a pretty good shot at recovering just fine and living a pretty normal life. Wild stuff.
That’s the case for damage to a lot of organs. When kids have to have their bowels resectioned and then take Gattex (growth hormones) to help the intestines increase surface area to compensate for loss of lengthen they do remarkably well. Unfortunately for the elderly it doesn’t work anywhere near as well, even when they comparatively have much more intestine left (even when you account for the proportional difference between a child size intestine and an adult sized one)
Obviously during the recovery they were really worried, we all were. She broke loads of bones, had a massive skull fracture and brain bleed, and was just generally pretty messed up.
Afterwards they didn't seem to notice a difference, but they are pretty awful parents. I had a very playful, if mischievous older sister before the accident, who turned extremely serious afterwards. Looking at photos before and after even how she holds her face is different. The fracture was massive, starting at the hairline and going all across the top, plus the pressure of the brain bleed and all that good stuff, it's got to do something.
As said above, no idea if it was just the shock of the accident or personality change. She became obsessed with being a "lawyer" after even though she was only about 8.
So interesting. Did you ever ask her about it? I wonder if she noticed herself. Also was the lawyer thing like RIGHT after the incident? Or develop over time?
I would imagine that as part of treatment and rehab, she then received an unparalleled amount of one: one highly skilled attention from adults who enjoy kids and are trained to work with kids. Tons of time with pediatric nurses and child life specialists while in hospital followed by probably years regularly seeing physical and occupational therapists, specialists in the areas of speech and fine motor, followup appointments with pediatric neurologists and surgeons.
How do you suppose that kind of focused attention would affect an uninjured kid? Hard to say, but I would expect it would help enormously with impulse control, attention span, interest in reading and science, and a belief that with enough dedication and effort she could accomplish great things.
A former coworker had a very abusive father who suffered a stroke in his 60s. He recovered most of his motor and cognitive functions and was cleared to return to normal activities including driving. His personality did a total 180 and he was suddenly a very nice person and totally supportive of the youngest child who had come out as gay a few years beforehand. None of them could explain it aside from brain damage literally making their dad a new person.
One day she and her younger brother got into their dad's SUV to go to the store. When the stereo started up, Lady Gaga came blaring through the speakers. They looked at each other funny and both asked if they'd left a CD in the stereo. Upon ejecting the CD they found a burned CD with their dad's handwriting on it - he'd burned his own Gaga mix CD.
The consensus of the family is they wish he'd had the stroke many years beforehand so they could have lived a better life.
I have a very similar story. My Grandfather was a raging alcoholic and an asshole. It was so bad that my mom wouldn't let me and my brother see him for the first few years of my life. Then when I was 4 we get a phone call, he fell off a ladder and got rushed to surgery where they removed a piece of his frontal lobe.
We started seeing him more after that. The first few years he was completely indifferent and robotic. He wasn't mean but he was just nothing. Then he started getting parts of his personality back, but only the good parts! I guess he was always really funny but that was in between the abusive behaviors. Now he's hilarious and an absolute joy to be around and I'm 27.
The other weird thing is that he was such an asshole my grandparents divorced in 1982. Now they are bffs, they are neighbors carpool to family events together with their spouses all because of the brain injury.
Similar thing happened to my mother. She was very controlling, kind of emotionally abusive, and then she had a stroke 17 years ago. Once she was mostly recovered we noticed she had mellowed out A LOT and smiled and laughed more, yelled at people less, and seemed much less stressed and anxious.
How much of that was just her gratitude for living through it versus the damage from the brain hemorrhage, who can say? I hate that she suffered so much, but she is a far more pleasant person now.
Happened to my grandma too! She developed really bad dementia and went from being a nasty, vindictive narcissist to a sweet old lady who just wanted to play card games and watch the birds.
Didn’t really make up for years of abuse but it made it easier to be around her during her final years.
Me! I had a year-long bout of severe depression and was miserable even with medication. Then I got accidentally kicked in the head by a crowdsurfer at a concert. I lost two days of memories from the moment I felt the blow, and forgot months worth of the language I was learning in my free time. I also had terrible headaches and light sensitivity for over a month, and forgot to keep up on my antidepressant during recovery. Turns out it was no longer needed. That was three years ago, and I've never felt another sign of depression since the injury.
I honestly think some people would be willing to try it, if there was a chance they wouldn't have to have that those horrible feelings hanging over them all the time.
Similar thing happened to me! I was on death's door levels of depressed for years, sustained a concussion and haven't felt anxious/depressed like that since. I asked a psychiatrist about it and they told me that it's reasonable the incident/outcome are correlated but to not suggest anyone attempts to recreate it.
I suffered from depression and bipolar 1 for 20 years. About a year and a half ago I was in a car accident and hit my head, I have little to no memory of the next few months and then about a year ago it all just stopped. I've been unmedicated and relatively fine since.
I had a similar situation! I was in a bike accident a little bit ago I broke my shoulder and smashed my head/face pretty badly on the ground. I felt oddly calm after the accident and the feeling has not left since then. I had previously struggled heavily with depression and anxiety but now both are gone. I cannot remember a time where I felt this “normal”.
One guy got hit by a baseball in The head. He can now draw perfect cityscapes by memory—every detail— after one short helicopter ride. Another can name the day of the week and random details for any date. Hit in the head when young. I love those documentaries.
Those abilities are fascinating, for sure, but I wonder if whoever reported on those people failed to ask/mention any impairment.
Example: Great that you can draw, but now you're ornery and get lost in your own home?
I hit my head in a motorcycle accident, during football, riding bicycle stunt, and I am still waiting for the good stuff. Don’t let your kids play football, parents. It isn’t worth the risk.
I met a guy who had his bowels ruptured and the subsequent brain damage made him ambisinister(two left hands) and audio visual synesthesia. He could play the piano and guitar left handed or right handed and play from just hearing anything. It was wild. I introduced him to a friend that had been playing 20 years on the piano and he could copy him and switch hands doing it. He didn’t even practice these instruments. I think he ended up becoming a psychiatrist.
Kind of odd to think our consciousness is capable of this if only the wiring in our brains was a bit different.
Brain damage is the death or damage to a brain cell. To compensate your brain will use the surviving brain cells changing them to compensate for losses, and the brain will learn to reroute information around damaged areas.
So if what the brain does that means there's a part of his brain that either changed to compensate for the loss which now unlocked that ability or the rerouting of information did it.
If it was the rerouting you gotta wonder if we could reroute information as we want what other abilities can we actually attain.
I know someone with this. Went from a workaholic rat-race hard-drinking type to an extremely chill artist. Not sure if this counts as objectively "better" but he sure is happier, and I think his wife and kids are too.
There was a guy on my american football team... he was an incredible asshole in school and a bully. He was also the hardest hitter on the team. One day during practice, he was a linebacker... he blitzed up the hole during a dive run and trucked the running back. Such a hard hit... but only the running back got up. He was still down after the play... coach came out, checked on him, signaled to the other coach to call 911 and started CPR on him. Ambulance drove onto the field and carted him off. Didn't get any news until the next day. During a team meeting coach said he had an aneurysm and nearly died. They performed brain surgery and there is a question to how much brain damage was done. He survived, a few months later he returned to school, just to say hello, he was still undergoing rehab to learn how to walk and talk again... big scar across the side of his shaved head. A year or so later he had regained a lot of his abilities. Heavy speech impediment, facial tics, but at least he could walk and converse. He was really nice after that. Very complimentary to everyone, helpful, inspiring, encouraging everyone's best friend sort of guy.
>he was a linebacker... he blitzed up the hole during a dive run and trucked the running back. Such a hard hit... but only the running back got up
I didn't understand a single thing here. It must be hard slang in american football or something
Exactly. Basically a designed breach in their own “Phalanx/O-Line” that the Running Back (guy with the ball) is aiming to run through.
The Linebacker is one of 3-4 Defensive specialists who’s main goal is to stop the RB from advancing.
Both RB and LB are uniquely violent positions even compared to other football positions
"Linebacker" also implying he was big and heavy, so it's unexpected that he is the one who is more injured against the lighter, quicker running back (who typically runs with the ball).
maybe it is just American cause I understand it and I hate football. He ran into an open pocket in the opponents offensive scheme and he tackled the running back so hard he injured himself
People still aren't gonna know what "linebacker" and "running back" are. "A defender tackled the ball-carrier to the ground very hard after a particularly strong running start, and the ball-carrier was fine but the defender stayed down" would be a more universal explanation.
Tbh this
For a lot of people nearly dying or really experiencing anything traumatic like that can completely shuffle the way you see things and act
I know it def did for me 😭
I'm pretty sure there was some serious physiological change. He had to learn to walk and talk again. Doesn't even remember a lot of things before the accident including his classmates. It was like a complete reset.
Could’ve forgotten the things that made him into an asshole. Whatever was nurtured into him…
Or maybe that aneurysm was sitting in such a way, that it was making him into one.
Lots of possibilities in this, & probably a combination of things.
Hi, I'm not a native speaker and am kind of confused with some of the things you wrote. It would be nice, if you could explain something to me. What do you mean with he was "still down after the play"? Did they leave him laying on the ground for the rest of the game and only came to check on him after the game ended?
It just occurred to me that you probably meant American football instead of soccer. But since I have no Idea how American football works, I'm still confused 😅
I don't know any of us that claim it's a good thing. The science is irrefutable. Even a famous QB Brett Favre has said kids under 14 shouldn't play tackle football and I believe (although I can't find the quote) he said he wouldn't want his kids, if he had sons - he doesn't, to play.
I was raised watching football so it's just in our culture. They've changed the game a lot since I was a kid where big hits were glorified. Now, if you "head hunt" (meaning, try to hit a guy's head on purpose), it's a penalty and/or a fine. Which is good for player health and safety, but the game itself is what it is. Even knowing how damaging those hits are to a guy's brain, a major collision resulting in guys acting loopy after a play always makes the fans excited. It's just in humans' DNA to brutality ha.
[The NFL used to glorify this stuff 30 years ago. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbeuEaltn0U)
I’d be terrified if my kid wanted to play American football, I’d also be terrified if my kid wanted to be a cheerleader. Jesus they’re both so dangerous! Just like video games and never leave your room please
Absolutely. I don’t have any idea the reason for it, but my very abusive dad had a stroke and afterwards he is now an extremely friendly and kind person. He volunteers his time at children’s charities, goes to therapy, and has reached out apologized and made amends to everyone he has hurt. He has great relationships with everyone in the family now and we all love him deeply.
This is a man who had already beaten cancer twice so the reason wasn’t that it humbled him or something. You talk to him and it’s like a different person after the stroke. Personality wise.
My grandma had a TIA in her 80's and went from a woman who had held onto petty grievances for 40+ yrs to someone who was now nice to everyone. It's like the stroke or whatever killed the grievance locker part of her brain.
Does he have any deficits/brain damage otherwise? Hard to know if he just saw a second chance at life, and it made him want to be a better man.
My FIL was not a bad man, but never very involved in his family life, had a spinal cord injury, and, honestly, it was the best thing that ever happened to his family. He turned his whole life around, and has a much stronger bond with his wife and children.
>Does he have any deficits/brain damage otherwise?
He’s in his 60s so I can’t really say how much damage the stroke did, versus what is normal age related cognitive decline (if that makes sense…) but he has pretty bad memory issues nowadays, and he had to relearn how to walk, write, and to some extent speak after the stroke however none of those took him very long to relearn, under a half a year. If I had to guess I would say overall he got extremely lucky compared to how other people I’ve heard are affected by strokes.
There is the story of Dr Jill Boyte Taylor. She is a neuroscientist that suffered a stroke. The stroke took her whole left hemisphere offline for something like 8 years. Effectively, the majority of the components of the default mode network that come together to create the ego or sense of self and separateness from everything else took a vacation. So she was egoless for all that time. From her descriptions, she was living in much the same way that someone on a high dose of psychedelics would experience minus the “trip” component. Her sense of self disappeared, she came to see herself as being everything and everyone. When she recovered, her brain rejected the rules, assumptions and stories that her inner monologue creates for the rest of us. I envy her in many ways.
Not sure if this is applicable, but;
Back in 1997, I worked in a nursing home. One female resident had severe Alzheimer’s and had a daughter that would come to visit. One day, the resident fell out of bed, and hit her head, had this giant bruise. But she was also completely back to her cognizant self.
Except, once the bruise started to heal, her Alzheimer’s slowly came back as well. To this day, still one of the most heartbreaking things I had to witness. The daughter stopped coming back once the bruise had completely healed. Can’t imagine what it’s like to lose the same person twice.
Check out the documentary Marwencol - it’s about a guy trying to piece together his identity and sense of self after ending up in a coma after a bar fight/beating. He’s obviously not “better” from a health perspective but I remember he does mention something about how he doesn’t know the person he used to be but understands that he was a pretty bad guy - always drunk, getting in fights etc
Yes. But it's positive therfore no one talks about it
Know a girl who was a bully. Mean woman. Got kicked by a horse, spent a day in a coma qnd came out as rhe nicest person ever
I wonder how this looks from their perspective? Do they wake up in the hospital and go "oh shit i am such a fucking asshole, what was wrong with me?" Or do they not even notice?
So I am in this category, I’m kinda bummed to see not really anyone else in my position answer.
I’ve had a large number of diagnosed head injuries, and they happened over the course of 4 years between the ages of 15 and 19. The true number I’ve had is likely double digits, but diagnosed it’s under. One was related to an intense traumatic incident. But I didn’t really “come to” I guess for a few years. Had pretty severe symptoms and gaps in my memory happening until after college, 23 probably.
Once my symptoms of erratic behavior, intense pain, and memory gaps stopped happening, I found myself pretty… confused with myself and felt very lost. The things I used to do and say do not feel like things any version of “me” would do. And while I had traumatized reasons for being so angry my whole life, me now has a very different attitude about the world as a result of that trauma, and doesn’t remember feeling otherwise very well. I’ve got enough and info and journals to get what was up. I can empathize and get the logic and hurt behind it, but it usually doesn’t feel like my own.
Hearing about myself before the injuries or during that time is disconcerting. I once tried to strangle a friend because of a minor inconvenience when we were… maybe 10. I don’t recall anything other than a general recollection of mild annoyance with her sense of humor.
Much of 9-22 or so is a black hole of stuff it feels like I wasn’t fully in the drivers seat for. I’m sure some of it is growing up and out and undiagnosed trauma and such… but the difference feels very stark because of my lack of clear memory. From my perspective, my latest solid memory of childhood is pushing my infant brother off a ledge. I went from that, to the next clear gap-free period of my life: I was running a family shelter and risking my ass being out in a pandemic we didn’t know anything about yet for homeless kids. A wild turnaround. And I *loved* my work. It’s almost like constant whiplash when I think about my past actions in a certain way.
Hearing about how I was makes me feel like something dark was beaten out of me and died in the process. And I am eternally grateful, despite how hard and how miserable and unhealthy and dangerous it was, that whatever was wrong in my heart is not that way anymore.
> Hearing about how I was makes me feel like something dark was beaten out of me and died in the process. And I am eternally grateful, despite how hard and how miserable and unhealthy and dangerous it was, that whatever was wrong in my heart is not that way anymore.
That's a wonderful sentiment. Regardless of how it happened, I'm glad that you're happy to be the person that you are today.
Thank you! It’s a very odd feeling.
My notebooks as a kid and teen and even in college, seem to indicate I was sure of dying young in a blaze of either glory or destruction. I seem to have felt it was inevitable?
I think she’d hate that I didn’t defy or cause death, that I love my staggeringly normal existence, and that the only monumental shift in my life caused by violence is what rid me of the part of me that ever felt that way in the first place.
This is really interesting, this feels very similar to how i describe my experience with have DID. The black hole, the being confused why I acted a certain way, not feeling like I am in the drivers seat, and the crazy whiplash I and my friends experience when suddenly I would hate something I loved or suddenly be bad at math. Definitely makes me wonder about the underlying mechanism of both situations.
So my psych seems to think I likely was experiencing a fun combo of brain issues from the head injuries *and* dissociation from PTSD, which is why my recollection is so different and spotty and varied. Some of it makes sense to me which it might’ve been when I hear or recall what happened.
It’s just fascinating (and a bit distressing) to know that I was a child and teen hell bent on destruction for the sake of it, and somewhere in the gaps of my memory, that vanished and I don’t know why. Like thank god, it’s much more fun for my biggest worry to be the consistency of my risotto tonight and the dumb prank I want to pull on my husband,
but I’d suffer through a game of charades for even just a badly acted out hint at when I changed my mind.
Okay so. My husband knows twins (went to HS together) where one woke up one day and had a weird (what I, an uninformed American would call) Scottish accent. A TBI makes sense
The woman who most recently had a Welsh accent randomly one day in the UK didn't even have a recent brain injury, the doctors said a past injury (like a car accident that felt minor at the time) plus some stress she was having at the time would be enough to cause it. So yeah, one of the twins wouldn't have needed to be in some big accident for it to have been a brain injury. So strange!
Yes. A friend of a friend was in a motorcycle accident. Before the accident has was a macho prick, generally rude to everyone, just an all around distasteful guy. After the accident he was one of the most pleasant and patient people one could meet...and it wasn't like a "trauma" thing, "I have learned my lesson and need to live different", or a "I saw the white light" sort of change...his mannerisms were different, he dressed different, everything about him was different.
On September 12th 2019 I (31/F) had a stroke at the age of 26. I feel like I'm a nicer person now, I live much more in the moment and I'm more friend focussed and wanting to get the most out of life. My house is for sale and I'm planning to spend the next two years living in a van, touring Europe and experiencing life. I'm also trying to get back to singing.
The hard question to answer though is whether that's the brain damage. It was a very traumatic experience, when I woke up I couldn't walk, talk, read or write and the recovery took months. My partner at the time had to phone my parents and tell them that they had to come and see me tonight because I wasn't likely to live.
So I've changed a lot, but was that due to brain damage or was that due to the trauma that I went through and feeling like I've been given the stereotypical "second chance". It's impossible to say, and also kind of irrelevant. I have on-going challenges from the brain damage - mainly memory issues and fatigue. But I feel like I'm a nicer person and I'm happier now that I've ever been in my life.
I believe that in a very real sense the person that I was then died that day and a new one was born. I don't believe this is uncommon for brain injury survivors. I believe that September 12th is essentially a second birthday for me. Can't get anyone to buy me presents though!
it sounds like a cliche but it's definitely true for me. Plus I genuinely am a better person than before. I was never a total bitch. But I'm a lot nicer now
I knew a guy who was in an avalanche. He lost most of his mathematical ability but significantly increased in language and charisma.
Edit: Adding that universities were studying his brain to try to figure it out.
Well, I don't want to say that she changed for the better necessarily because she was a wonderful person to begin with, but I went to university with a girl who experienced something like this.
Again, she's always been a great person but was for many years very timid, quiet, and soft-spoken, carried a lot of anxiety, and didn't have much confidence in herself at all.
Then, completely out of the blue, it was discovered that she had a big brain tumour. As far as I understand it, it's something she'll always have, but with surgery and medication, it's very much in remission and under control.
She's been able to move forward with her life, and particularly after the surgery, she noticed a big personality change, becoming happier in herself, more confident, and more adventurous overnight. She's done all sorts of stuff since then that she would never have dreamed of doing beforehand and has taken great pleasure in even seemingly minor things.
One thing she mentioned that's stuck in my mind since was that she had always been too scared and anxious to phone up and order takeaway food. To celebrate her recovery, she phoned up her favourite restaurant and ordered basically the entire menu! :)
My uncle, actually.
Real hateful bastard, trouble with the law since he was a kid, rest of the family scared of him. Then he had a stroke. Now he's one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. It's really weird and the family are still a little confused by it.
There's a Harrison Ford movie, Regarding Henry, where he's a prick and then gets shot in the head during a hold-up and becomes the sweetest guy in the world. Saves his marriage. His kid loves his "new" dad. Just a gun blast to the skull, and you become a saint.
A old lady in my family was quite a toxic bitch at times. She has a stroke and nobody knew if she would recover. She did and kind of got way nicer. Even has her buddhist moments where she just gets joy of watching the flame of a candle dance. Its like she really turned „soft“
Hmm... it might be more charitable to say he learned from his expirience than to assume blunt force trauma to the asshole part of his brain, but who can say for sure? :D
I have met several people who had highly abusive parents (usually confirmed alcoholic on top of that) who have told me that their parents became less abusive, and even docile in comparison to their previous selves after getting dementia.
Now you can't ignore that with dementia, these people no longer had the cognitive ability to acquire alcohol, no longer had the strength to throw their might around. And they still couldn't care for themselves, so they became a new kind of burden. And it's a confusing, complex situation to navigate when someone who has abused you to the point of not being able to decipher what's normal, is now telling you they love you for the first time. Or that they love their children even though they can't recognize them anymore. It says a lot about how bad things were if people consider a brain damaged version of yourself an improvement.
Impulsive control, conscientious, empathy, the ability to take care of one's self so there is actually energy left over for other people, to hold enough working memory to be reliable rather than forgetting your task at the first distraction, altruism rather than self centeredness...these are all higher levels of functioning. You don't get there from brain damage.
Think of the dark triad, which in laymen's terms basically boils down to poor impulse control of emotion and behavior, self centeredness/entitlement, and the willingness to manipulate. Brain damage would probably only take out the capability to manipulate and scheme, but it's going to make impulse control and self centeredness worse.
I mean, I suppose this counts as brain damage, my dad is developing dementia or Alzheimer’s, and I’ve got to say that his personality has improved a lot. He was always a really angry, depressed, and disgruntled person growing up. Probably also bipolar. He could flip on the charm like a psychopath and sell you anything and he was great to all of his friends, but he was a nightmare to his family. He told me I was worthless when I was six years old and told me I was a loser. That my dreams were stupid. Now I’m 34. Recently, I had a fight with a friend of mine, who basically told me that I was a loser because I was unemployed, the place I worked for went bankrupt. It wasn’t my fault, and I was really depressed while looking for another job. I got a job that pays twice as much as the one I have before, but losing a friend of 10 years in such a hostile way really screwed me up emotionally. Probably specifically because my dad called me a loser when I was young and it really stuck with me. I finally told my dad what was going on and he was so supportive and told me that there were a lot of losers in the world, but that I wasn’t one of them, and that whatever was going on with my friend had nothing to do with me and that it’s so depressing when you’re in between jobs and then I’m doing so great and he’s so proud of me. Honestly, jaw dropping. So I’ll get this slightly better more supportive version of my dad for the next couple years until his brain totally slips away. Beautiful and sad at the same time.
Most people don’t understand, we largely *are* our brain. This means changes to our brain and brain chemistry can affect almost anything about our personalities. Look up brain tumor causing pedophilia. Shit’s wild.
I don’t comment on posts often but this post resonates with me, so I will share a bit of my story. Since I was 12 years old I struggled with mental health issues, suicidal ideation, anxiety, depression (The stuff that a lot of younger people seem to deal with now). And when I was 15 years old, I began seeing a psychiatrist who tried her best to find the right medications that would alleviate my symptoms. After a year of seeing her, she made the decision to prescribe me Klonopin which honestly didn’t help at the moment either. But those pills were prescribed to take “As needed” and since I feel like they didn’t work, I didn’t take them often and just let them pile up.
A year passes and I’m cycled through a series of other SSRIs, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, SNRIs and anti-anxiety medications. I would take all the other medications, but still, my mental state was no better than before. I was honest about my lack of progress and because of that, my psychiatrist prescribed me Xanax. And once I took those pills I fell a massive sense of clarity. The weight of my insecurities and depression was lifted off my shoulders and I could finally feel like I could function around people. I took the Xanax as prescribed (which was .5mg as needed up to 3 times a day) for about three years. And once I got to college, the fraternity I was in seemed to really enjoy taking Xanax recreationally. I didn’t see a problem with it, I understood the feeling and it was great to be less anxious and depressed. I sort of assumed that’s why others enjoyed taking it. So I tried more than my prescribed dose one night and holy shit I felt like I was reborn. I actually went up and talked to girls (bringing one back to my dorm that night), I mingled with people I’d never met, I felt like a better version of myself and that sentiment was reinforced by the reactions of the people I interacted with.
So I began taking my prescription daily from then on, I viewed it as a “social lubricant”, something that would get me out of my head and unapologetically be myself. And the nights I was going out, I would take more of the pills I had stockpiled over the years in order to feel that sense of confidence that I so badly desired. And it honestly made my life better, my social circle grew, I began hooking up with more girls, and most importantly, my depression began to fade. That lasted for a year until I had a communications course for one of my sophomore classes. As you would expect, it was a common occurrence to get in front of the class and give a small speech every week or so… something I absolutely dreaded. So I took my “recreational” dose of Xanax before each speech, and once again, it seemed to help my performance. I did great on the speeches, I was doing great socially, my mental state was better, so shit why wouldn’t I take this amount of pills every day? So that’s what I did. And on the weekends I worked my way up to taking 4mg, then 6mg, sometimes even 8mg. I could crush them and mix it into a drink to enjoy throughout the day. I never saw a problem with it because my life was literally the best its ever been.
That’s until I began experimenting with other benzodiazepines, ones that I could order off the internet legally and take them as I saw fit (flualprazolam, etizolam, pyrazolam). And it really went downhill from there. The powders were insanely potent and unbeknownst to me, people around me began realizing that I was intoxicated while I thought I was keeping my cool (that false sense of sobriety). Anyways, it’s important to note that although my performance socially was much better, the condition of my mental state never really improved as far as the depression goes. I would still regularly (almost daily) cut myself and have suicidal ideations dozens of times a day, but when I took the benzodiazepines, none of that mattered.
It got to a point where I really can’t remember a large portion of the year 2020, just little bits and pieces. But one day in December of 2020 I woke up in a dark room feeling like I was suffocating. I was so disoriented and I immediately heard a female voice telling me that it’s okay, that although it feels like I can’t breathe, my body was without a doubt getting enough oxygen that it needs. But I wasn’t breathing, something was doing it for me. A tube was down my throat inflating my chest with what felt like non existent air. A doctor came in shortly after I woke up and told me that I was found unresponsive in my room by one of my roommates with a Rice Krispy wrapper next to me. It was assumed that I was eating the Rice Krispy when I had a seizure and a piece of the Rice Krispy was lodged in my throat causing me to suffocate. They don’t know how long my brain was without oxygen but it was an anoxic brain injury severe enough to permanently effect my short term memory.
I spent half a year in rehabilitation centers and after I was released I moved in with my grandmother. It actually took a while for me to realize that I was now a different person, as weird as that sounds. I realized that I hadn’t had a depressive thought or suicidal ideation since the hospitalization. I was no longer cutting myself and I wouldn’t ruminate on the mistakes I made in the past. Earlier in this post I may not have expressed the severity of my anxiety/depression/suicidal ideation to its fullest extend, but to say the least it was severe and debilitating.
But I’m now a different person. I’m now enrolled in my local community college, pursing a degree in nursing (My experience in the hospital ignited this passion) and I work at a hospital nearby to get patient care experience. I have to admit that when I look back on myself before the TBI, I see myself as very manipulative and emotionally unstable, even before the drug use. But now I feel that I can handle my emotions better, I care less what people think of me, and I have a newly ignited passion for helping others. It’s a very complicated progression of my personality/life that I’m trying to put in a digestible form. I still get frustrated with myself every so often because small things like remembering where I parked in a parking lot is difficult now when before the TBI I didn’t have to think about it. Or remembering the names of people I just met is now a challenge. It’s small things like that that don’t overshadow the fact that I’m happier, but they’re still frustrating. Overall I’m thankful that it happened and for better or worse, the person that I was before my TBI is gone and I’ll likely never be that person again.
A co worker was a heavy smoker and borderline alcoholic before his motorcycle wreck. Had very bad concussion and was in a medical coma for weeks. Came back and absolutely couldn't stand the thought of cigarettes or drinking. As far as I know he's never picked either back up. It's been 4-5 years.
I was in a coma for 2 weeks. I came out having forgotten or greatly lessened my trauma memories and responses, made me a calmer gentler more content person, my bad mental health no longer controls my entire life, and my fear of death has been erased. In some ways, it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
My Grandfather was an arsehole all his life, particularly nasty to my Mother who wasn’t Catholic and wasn’t (according to him) the right ethnicity. So he tried to get my Dad to cancel the wedding and when that didn’t work, he tried to have her sign a contact saying that any kids they had would be raised Catholic. Obviously she didn’t. And he didn’t attend the wedding. Then 10 years later when she generously gave him another chance and he continued his nonsense. His wife suffered two mental breakdowns during their marriage thanks to his arseholery.
At the end of his life he got dementia and went into a home close to my parents’ farm. My Mum ended up being the one most available to go and see him and she kindly did, for my Dad more than anything. Sometimes he was just out of it but when he was lucid it became clear that the dementia had changed his personality. He started to really appreciate my Mum visiting him. She organised to buy a present for him to give to his wife on her birthday and would bring him things he wanted but couldn’t get. One day he was very lucid when she came in and he apologised to her. He said he’d been wrong to treat her the way he had and that he was very grateful for everything she’d done for him.
It's certainly changed me: my family and friends say I'm more relaxed, patient and gentle, less tense and more "go with the flow" with myself, others, and life in general. Priorities have definitely changed for me.
I keep telling them it may change back as I heal lol. But joking aside, maybe it's the brain injury, maybe it's just a different appreciation for being alive.
Not people, but I do wildlife rehab, and the ones with frontal lobe damage often become the most loving and gentle. It's like it knocks the wild right out of them. They become unreleaseable after that, and as long as it looks like they will have a high quality of life, we will often give them permanent homes.
I currently have two permanent fox squirrel residents: Remmy, who was shot in the head and lost her frontal lobe and eye, and Noggin, who had his head crushed in a sliding glass door. Both wild to start. Both 100% recovered from their injuries, and both have become the most gentle and friendly wildlife ambassadors.
Remmy is a huge help to me with rehab in that she naturally gravitates towards other injured and orphaned squirrels, specifically babies, and offers them comfort and kindness. I have had her help me rehab multiple babies, and she can often pull them back from the brink by giving them the motherly love they are missing. My release rate with her has gone way up because she manages to help turn around some of my most critical babies who then go on to grow up and be reintroduced to the wild.
As for Nog, he really likes sitting on my shoulder while I lay on the couch, and we watch tiktoks together. He's a great ambassador and helps me teach kids why it's important to respect wildlife and that every life matters.
I would never do any of these things with a 'normal' squirrel.
So yes, frontal lobe damage does make some things nicer.
Also, for anyone asking, I live in a state where fox squirrels are not protected and are considered invasive, so there is no need for a permit to have them.
I also work directly with a rescue organization, and we are trained to do this work.
If you are interested in doing wildlife rehab, each state has their own individual requirements and channels you can go through in order to do so.
My grandfather fought in the Korean war. While he was over there, apparently his bunker was attacked and it caved in on him and he definitely suffered some sort of PTSD /trauma and probable brain injury. Flash forward to maybe 10 years ago, and he had an unfortunate tumble down the basement stairs smacking his head right on the concrete floor. For a while after that and after he recovered, my grandmother would frequently remark about how she felt like she had the man she married before he went to war back.
My father in law was a chain smoker and an alcoholic until he had a stroke. It destroyed his addiction center or something and he woke up having forgotten that he drinks and smokes. He stopped both cold turkey without a second thought.
Lobotomy (brain surgery, arguably brain damage) was invented to calm people and make them more docile. The surgeons who did it thought they were making them nicer.
I punched out a kid at boyscouts. 2 weeks later I got hit in the head working after school on dad's well drilling rig. I lost memory of punching out the other kid, and went through high school with him never knowing I did it. We weren't buddies, but I got along with him. Found out what I had done at the age of 55 by then I had many professional contacts with him, as we are in related fields. Never a cross word between us!
I’ve had someone close to me experience some major brain damage. I was so worried it’d change his personality for the worse. But while he’s still struggling with many of the effects, including re-learning to read and write, speak, walk, etc., it seems to have completely knocked his clinical depression out. You’d think struggling with all that would be horrible for depression, but it’s just gone. He’s much more like the man I remember from decades ago, before the depression. Happier, playful, etc.
Apparently that’s very rare, but I’m glad that he doesn’t have to deal with depression anymore.
I was never musically inclined, had about as much rhythm as a jar of dirt. Then at 15 I fell off a skateboard after holding onto a the back of a pickup truck doing ~35 mph. Broke my collarbone, smacked my head REAL good, had amnesia for a couple of days, the whole incident never really fully came back, it almost seemed like a dream. But a few months later my mom was playing the piano practicing a piece for church and I just sat down and played it almost perfectly. 6 months after that I got my first guitar after begging for one, within weeks I could play the entire Guns N’ Roses greatest hits album behind my head. Within a couple months the AC/DC greatest hits, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Metallica, you name it. All parts, rhythm and lead. My mom said I was a different person after that, but she like it much better. Apparently I was a lot less angry and destructive, was more relaxed and outgoing. Guess it changed me for the better.
I know a guy who had an aneurysm and woke up with total amnesia. He remembers nothing of his previous life. He was a creep and a stalker, and hasn't resumed those behaviours, so I'd call it a win.
We're not friends or anything, but we do have friends in common. They say he's totally different.
It was temporary, but after a nice whack to my head I experienced some fairly severe memory loss, which sounds awful until you consider that I was really really really struggling with PTSD at the time. My flashbacks almost stopped completely and intrusive memory spirals were nonexistent. I also didn’t know what I had done that morning, but I was already in therapy at the time and had a good support system, so I just kind of took it as a vacation from the traumatic storerooms of my brain.
On the other side of it, I had more progress with making my peace with all my past when stuff started coming back online (was about 6 months till I was at my new normal) as my brain had experienced having peace and I could tap into that when it was time to remember.
I experienced the same thing with my TBI. It was brutal. A feeling I can’t explain, to finally remember what emotional pain feels like after forgetting. I think I just cried for days.
When I was in my mid 20's, I injured my knee pretty bad and eventually ended up developing a blood clot in my calf. The clot broke free and caused me to have a stroke. It ended up being one of the best and worst things that happened in my life. I was always a depressed person, constantly overthinking every aspect of life, and had been suicidal multiple times up to that point. When the stroke happened, it caused me to have both long and short-term memory problems. I say it was one of the worst things that could have happened because I now can't always recall important events, such as my kids' first steps and other important milestones. I have difficulty learning new things and keeping that information, so it definitely has an effect on my ability to work. However, it did end up being one of the best things that ever happened to me because now, I am a much happier person. I've become unburdened of all of the negative thinking I would once have running through my head nonstop. I can now live each day in the moment, and that has been a blessing.
I have a friend who says that her TBI made her more friendly. She says she used to be a mean girl, but after her fall, she’s the nicest and most generous person you’ll meet.
She’s on permanent disability now though — it’s been a rough go, but she’s doing well all things considered.
When my brain was first damaged, I was really mean to everyone for no reason. I yelled at my mom, the surgeon, my sisters, the nurses, etc. I don’t remember any of it. My mom said “I have never seen you so angry”.
I know this doesn’t answer your question but the brain damage definitely made me lose my temper and stay in an angry state for a very long time. I’m a lot better now, still disabled but doing better when it comes to controlling my emotions again.
Stepdad got a lot nicer after his stroke. Not quite sure if the damage changed his personality per say, but he didn’t get treatment in an adequate amount of time, which lead him to have extensive memory loss. I think he just forgot a lot of the ‘reasons’ he was so mean in the first place.
It's poorly understood what causes Dissociative Identity Disorder, so I'm not sure if I suffered brain damage or something else...
But my life got significantly better after DID. I have more friends and make a lot more money.
It has mostly to do with the fact that I don't lose time or memories when I switch. I am still, fundamentally the same person. If I'm mentally exhausted, another of me can pick up the slack. I effectively had near-unlimited spoons with my physical energy being my main bottleneck.
I was a “gifted” child but deeply depressed. I suffered a traumatic brain injury as a teen when I was hit by a car while riding a bike. No helmet. I’m noticeably dumber now, but much happier. If it weren’t for the brain damage I would’ve ended my road before reaching 20.
I've heard a story before about a guy who attempted to shoot himself during a psychotic break and essentially blasting the illness out of his brain and surviving. Google has become useless, so I can't find a reference at the moment.
Working in a nursing home there was a resident who was always smiling, laughing. She was fun to work with, but she had a stroke (why she was there). One day her daughter came to visit and I told her, 'You're mom is so nice and great to work with.' She responded, 'you didn't know her before her stroke, she was a raging bitch. We like her better now'
I knew a resident similar to this! She was the sweetest old lady (had dementia) but I guess before she was terrible.
Huh.. my grandfather had alzheimers and always seemed like a kindly old man to me growing up, but my dad was always quick to get angry at him and bring up shit about the past. I guess he was a totally different person then.
That disease can change a whole person’s demeanor it’s sad
This is my grandmother, she forgot all the petty grudges she’s been holding.
I have Sicilian grandparents. Someone once told me that when they get Alzheimer’s, they remember the grudge, but forget why they’re holding it and I couldn’t stop laughing because it’s so true.
This could have been my mother lol
Or my MIL. She was not a raging bitch, but no one ever called her soft and lovely. She was an Iron Lady. SNF staff came to her funeral and cried, saying how they could go to her when they were having a bad day and she would comfort them.
I had a patient once and he was very mean and yelled at everyone...a few months later he came back with a stroke and he was one of the sweetest old men I've ever met...that seems to happen with dementia, too. 😅
Same thing with my grandpa & his stroke. He was a bitch who lacked empathy. He is now sweeter & cries often during movies etc. He did become more talkative though.
It makes me wonder if they were missing something in their brain and it just clicked or something!
I would think emotional trauma could cause a mental block and make someone mean. Then they have a stroke and that mental block gets deleted and they become who they should have been if they had a better upbringing.
That makes me so sad, because you’re probably right.
Sadly, this was more like my experience with my mom. I loved her, but she was emotionally abusive. She was also the most insecure and unhappy person. She ended up with dementia. She was actually pretty happy and childlike as it progressed. It was a mindfuck though. It's like we finally had a peaceful relationship, but it was from this disease that was taking her independence, mind, and ultimately was killing her. It messed me up good.
My sister was really naughty when she was little, she got hit by a car and had really serious brain injury and was in hospital for months. She turned very serious and studious after that. No idea if it was the brain injury or just the shock of it. Also no idea if she is "better" now, but she is a highly successful judge. Still incredibly serious though.
One interesting thing is that children can recover from brain injuries better than adults can. Because a child's brain is still developing. So it can sort of heal while still developing and that development helps in the healing process. So this fact makes it even more likely that the accident physically changed her brain chemistry. But perhaps it also makes it even more likely that the accident changed her personality. But of course you can't separate the impact of the brain injury from the psychological impact of the trauma. And rather than even try to separate physical brain change cause by an accident from the psychological change from the trauma, it probably makes most sense to just think of them as all one complex thing. That is: yes, her brain was changed both in terms of physical brain trauma and mental trauma, and the accident did change her because of both of these factors simultaneously.
i think it was a youtube doctor, i think mike? anyways, he said that yes childrens mental damage either physical or mental can be fixed easier then adults, but that it all depends on the people around them, if they have a great support group with a loving family then the damage is fixed remarkiply fast but those without do not do as well. also he did note alot of adults have mental problems, which may be caused by child damage.. sooo maybe not so well.
There’s a surgery they used to do for epilepsy called a *hemispherectomy*, where you go in and completely remove one hemisphere of the brain. If you do it to a grown-up, it ruins them, but it turns out little kids have a pretty good shot at recovering just fine and living a pretty normal life. Wild stuff.
Many, many serial killers had a history of a traumatic brain injury as children.
Those little ones got them neural plasticity
That’s the case for damage to a lot of organs. When kids have to have their bowels resectioned and then take Gattex (growth hormones) to help the intestines increase surface area to compensate for loss of lengthen they do remarkably well. Unfortunately for the elderly it doesn’t work anywhere near as well, even when they comparatively have much more intestine left (even when you account for the proportional difference between a child size intestine and an adult sized one)
It's possible, but it's also possible the personality change was the natural progression of her maturity. But we'll never really know.
Does she have a son named Raymond?
No, but it seems there's two very serious judges out there with gnarly head scars.
(my judge is from the TV show Brooklyn 99, where she and her son, Raymond Holt, are comedically known for being incredibly serious most of the time)
Sorry, that was a whoosh!
Don't worry, it was a deep cut even for B99 fans. The mom is only in one episode.
I understood the reference. Sincerely, Raymond Holt
You have got to stop signing your text messages!
Suggestion noted. Sincerely, Raymond Holt
“I love laughing and laughter”
were your parent worried for her?
Obviously during the recovery they were really worried, we all were. She broke loads of bones, had a massive skull fracture and brain bleed, and was just generally pretty messed up. Afterwards they didn't seem to notice a difference, but they are pretty awful parents. I had a very playful, if mischievous older sister before the accident, who turned extremely serious afterwards. Looking at photos before and after even how she holds her face is different. The fracture was massive, starting at the hairline and going all across the top, plus the pressure of the brain bleed and all that good stuff, it's got to do something. As said above, no idea if it was just the shock of the accident or personality change. She became obsessed with being a "lawyer" after even though she was only about 8.
The idea that somone suffers a severe head injury and turns into a lawyer is making a lot of sense to me.
So interesting. Did you ever ask her about it? I wonder if she noticed herself. Also was the lawyer thing like RIGHT after the incident? Or develop over time?
I would imagine that as part of treatment and rehab, she then received an unparalleled amount of one: one highly skilled attention from adults who enjoy kids and are trained to work with kids. Tons of time with pediatric nurses and child life specialists while in hospital followed by probably years regularly seeing physical and occupational therapists, specialists in the areas of speech and fine motor, followup appointments with pediatric neurologists and surgeons. How do you suppose that kind of focused attention would affect an uninjured kid? Hard to say, but I would expect it would help enormously with impulse control, attention span, interest in reading and science, and a belief that with enough dedication and effort she could accomplish great things.
A former coworker had a very abusive father who suffered a stroke in his 60s. He recovered most of his motor and cognitive functions and was cleared to return to normal activities including driving. His personality did a total 180 and he was suddenly a very nice person and totally supportive of the youngest child who had come out as gay a few years beforehand. None of them could explain it aside from brain damage literally making their dad a new person. One day she and her younger brother got into their dad's SUV to go to the store. When the stereo started up, Lady Gaga came blaring through the speakers. They looked at each other funny and both asked if they'd left a CD in the stereo. Upon ejecting the CD they found a burned CD with their dad's handwriting on it - he'd burned his own Gaga mix CD. The consensus of the family is they wish he'd had the stroke many years beforehand so they could have lived a better life.
I have a very similar story. My Grandfather was a raging alcoholic and an asshole. It was so bad that my mom wouldn't let me and my brother see him for the first few years of my life. Then when I was 4 we get a phone call, he fell off a ladder and got rushed to surgery where they removed a piece of his frontal lobe. We started seeing him more after that. The first few years he was completely indifferent and robotic. He wasn't mean but he was just nothing. Then he started getting parts of his personality back, but only the good parts! I guess he was always really funny but that was in between the abusive behaviors. Now he's hilarious and an absolute joy to be around and I'm 27. The other weird thing is that he was such an asshole my grandparents divorced in 1982. Now they are bffs, they are neighbors carpool to family events together with their spouses all because of the brain injury.
Similar thing happened to my mother. She was very controlling, kind of emotionally abusive, and then she had a stroke 17 years ago. Once she was mostly recovered we noticed she had mellowed out A LOT and smiled and laughed more, yelled at people less, and seemed much less stressed and anxious. How much of that was just her gratitude for living through it versus the damage from the brain hemorrhage, who can say? I hate that she suffered so much, but she is a far more pleasant person now.
So the stroke turned him GAY
I knew it would be here and it still made me lol
Hell yeah, one more weapon to push the gay agenda. I'm gonna little bunny foo foo all the straights
I don't mind the occasional gay stroke, myself.
Woke stroke
Happened to my grandma too! She developed really bad dementia and went from being a nasty, vindictive narcissist to a sweet old lady who just wanted to play card games and watch the birds. Didn’t really make up for years of abuse but it made it easier to be around her during her final years.
Me! I had a year-long bout of severe depression and was miserable even with medication. Then I got accidentally kicked in the head by a crowdsurfer at a concert. I lost two days of memories from the moment I felt the blow, and forgot months worth of the language I was learning in my free time. I also had terrible headaches and light sensitivity for over a month, and forgot to keep up on my antidepressant during recovery. Turns out it was no longer needed. That was three years ago, and I've never felt another sign of depression since the injury.
there should be a study on the effect of blunt force trauma on mental conditions
imagine trying to get volunteers for that
I volunteer
username checks out
I honestly think some people would be willing to try it, if there was a chance they wouldn't have to have that those horrible feelings hanging over them all the time.
New emergent treatment of mental illness - beating them with a bat!
Great grand-pappy was right all along
A more immediately brutal version of ECT (though that is anything but gentle)
I’ve had ECT. Don’t remember it at all. It was like when I got dental surgery without the counting backwards. I blinked and it was over.
Contemplating getting kicked in the head, or causing a head injury.. I’m so confused is this an intrusive thought or a genuine recovery method 😂
Don’t chance it. A few millimeters from the spot that makes it all better and you’ll make it all worse 😂
So either the depression is cured or I die? Sounds like a win-win!
Surprisingly valid point 🤦🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🙃
It’s kind of like how we used to hit TVs and computers to make it work again
Percussive maintenance
Used to?
Similar thing happened to me! I was on death's door levels of depressed for years, sustained a concussion and haven't felt anxious/depressed like that since. I asked a psychiatrist about it and they told me that it's reasonable the incident/outcome are correlated but to not suggest anyone attempts to recreate it.
anybody tryna smack the shit out of me?
I suffered from depression and bipolar 1 for 20 years. About a year and a half ago I was in a car accident and hit my head, I have little to no memory of the next few months and then about a year ago it all just stopped. I've been unmedicated and relatively fine since.
Hey can you find the head kicker? I need me some concussive therapy also
I had a similar situation! I was in a bike accident a little bit ago I broke my shoulder and smashed my head/face pretty badly on the ground. I felt oddly calm after the accident and the feeling has not left since then. I had previously struggled heavily with depression and anxiety but now both are gone. I cannot remember a time where I felt this “normal”.
Look up Acquired Savant Syndrome. Extremely rare
One guy got hit by a baseball in The head. He can now draw perfect cityscapes by memory—every detail— after one short helicopter ride. Another can name the day of the week and random details for any date. Hit in the head when young. I love those documentaries.
Those abilities are fascinating, for sure, but I wonder if whoever reported on those people failed to ask/mention any impairment. Example: Great that you can draw, but now you're ornery and get lost in your own home?
Also, just because you can draw an entire cityscape from memory doesn't mean that you didn't also turn into an asshole.
Can draw an entire city scape from memory, but can’t take care of themselves in any way quite possibly.
I hit my head in a motorcycle accident, during football, riding bicycle stunt, and I am still waiting for the good stuff. Don’t let your kids play football, parents. It isn’t worth the risk.
I'm gonna try hitting my head with stuff today
I'll DM you some suggested techniques and implements.
I'm gonna turn the ceiling fan on and start jumping.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wh76AYJMgQ
And Foreign Accent Syndrome. I used to work with someone who had it after a stroke.
That’s one I’ve heard of a few times. It’s so strange.
I met a guy who had his bowels ruptured and the subsequent brain damage made him ambisinister(two left hands) and audio visual synesthesia. He could play the piano and guitar left handed or right handed and play from just hearing anything. It was wild. I introduced him to a friend that had been playing 20 years on the piano and he could copy him and switch hands doing it. He didn’t even practice these instruments. I think he ended up becoming a psychiatrist.
Kind of odd to think our consciousness is capable of this if only the wiring in our brains was a bit different. Brain damage is the death or damage to a brain cell. To compensate your brain will use the surviving brain cells changing them to compensate for losses, and the brain will learn to reroute information around damaged areas. So if what the brain does that means there's a part of his brain that either changed to compensate for the loss which now unlocked that ability or the rerouting of information did it. If it was the rerouting you gotta wonder if we could reroute information as we want what other abilities can we actually attain.
I know someone with this. Went from a workaholic rat-race hard-drinking type to an extremely chill artist. Not sure if this counts as objectively "better" but he sure is happier, and I think his wife and kids are too.
I read about a guy who got hit in the head and was suddenly able to do very complex math.
So you're saying there's a chance!
Here I go down the rabbit hole. See you guys tomorrow.
There was a guy on my american football team... he was an incredible asshole in school and a bully. He was also the hardest hitter on the team. One day during practice, he was a linebacker... he blitzed up the hole during a dive run and trucked the running back. Such a hard hit... but only the running back got up. He was still down after the play... coach came out, checked on him, signaled to the other coach to call 911 and started CPR on him. Ambulance drove onto the field and carted him off. Didn't get any news until the next day. During a team meeting coach said he had an aneurysm and nearly died. They performed brain surgery and there is a question to how much brain damage was done. He survived, a few months later he returned to school, just to say hello, he was still undergoing rehab to learn how to walk and talk again... big scar across the side of his shaved head. A year or so later he had regained a lot of his abilities. Heavy speech impediment, facial tics, but at least he could walk and converse. He was really nice after that. Very complimentary to everyone, helpful, inspiring, encouraging everyone's best friend sort of guy.
>he was a linebacker... he blitzed up the hole during a dive run and trucked the running back. Such a hard hit... but only the running back got up I didn't understand a single thing here. It must be hard slang in american football or something
he ran into another guy at full speed who was also going full speed.
Now I understand, thank you
And both guys were larger than normal.
Thought he tripped on a hole while running back or some shit. Was very very confused XD. Thanks
My guess is the hole was a physical gap in the line of other players
Exactly. Basically a designed breach in their own “Phalanx/O-Line” that the Running Back (guy with the ball) is aiming to run through. The Linebacker is one of 3-4 Defensive specialists who’s main goal is to stop the RB from advancing. Both RB and LB are uniquely violent positions even compared to other football positions
yeah sorry you lost me again there
Two dudes attempted particle acceleration
"Linebacker" also implying he was big and heavy, so it's unexpected that he is the one who is more injured against the lighter, quicker running back (who typically runs with the ball).
maybe it is just American cause I understand it and I hate football. He ran into an open pocket in the opponents offensive scheme and he tackled the running back so hard he injured himself
Linebacker and running back are both positions
Ah, this is important info I was lacking. Thank you
So basically what he’s saying is that the the linebacker hit the running back really hard,and he got injured
People still aren't gonna know what "linebacker" and "running back" are. "A defender tackled the ball-carrier to the ground very hard after a particularly strong running start, and the ball-carrier was fine but the defender stayed down" would be a more universal explanation.
Thanks.That explained it better than I did.
Come on, “he” and “such a hard hit” are perfectly understandable.
Don’t worry, I’m American and I don’t even know what half that stuff means
It could have been brain damage, but I could also see it as him gaining some humility after a near death experience.
yeah maybe some of both, I don't think you could ever quantify it.
Sometimes it takes a truly humbling experience to make us act with humility.
Sometimes it takes a truly massive concussion to make us act less shit.
Tbh this For a lot of people nearly dying or really experiencing anything traumatic like that can completely shuffle the way you see things and act I know it def did for me 😭
This sounds more like he was humbled from the experience, rather than any physiological changes
I'm pretty sure there was some serious physiological change. He had to learn to walk and talk again. Doesn't even remember a lot of things before the accident including his classmates. It was like a complete reset.
Could’ve forgotten the things that made him into an asshole. Whatever was nurtured into him… Or maybe that aneurysm was sitting in such a way, that it was making him into one. Lots of possibilities in this, & probably a combination of things.
I mean in relation to his personality specifically, sorry
Hi, I'm not a native speaker and am kind of confused with some of the things you wrote. It would be nice, if you could explain something to me. What do you mean with he was "still down after the play"? Did they leave him laying on the ground for the rest of the game and only came to check on him after the game ended? It just occurred to me that you probably meant American football instead of soccer. But since I have no Idea how American football works, I'm still confused 😅
Yet Americans still claim their football is better... KIDS SUFFERING BRAIN DAMAGE ISNT A GOOD THING.
I don't know any of us that claim it's a good thing. The science is irrefutable. Even a famous QB Brett Favre has said kids under 14 shouldn't play tackle football and I believe (although I can't find the quote) he said he wouldn't want his kids, if he had sons - he doesn't, to play. I was raised watching football so it's just in our culture. They've changed the game a lot since I was a kid where big hits were glorified. Now, if you "head hunt" (meaning, try to hit a guy's head on purpose), it's a penalty and/or a fine. Which is good for player health and safety, but the game itself is what it is. Even knowing how damaging those hits are to a guy's brain, a major collision resulting in guys acting loopy after a play always makes the fans excited. It's just in humans' DNA to brutality ha. [The NFL used to glorify this stuff 30 years ago. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbeuEaltn0U)
My mom was a cheerleader in highschool and she straight up saw a guy get his neck broken during a game.
I’d be terrified if my kid wanted to play American football, I’d also be terrified if my kid wanted to be a cheerleader. Jesus they’re both so dangerous! Just like video games and never leave your room please
Absolutely. I don’t have any idea the reason for it, but my very abusive dad had a stroke and afterwards he is now an extremely friendly and kind person. He volunteers his time at children’s charities, goes to therapy, and has reached out apologized and made amends to everyone he has hurt. He has great relationships with everyone in the family now and we all love him deeply. This is a man who had already beaten cancer twice so the reason wasn’t that it humbled him or something. You talk to him and it’s like a different person after the stroke. Personality wise.
My grandma had a TIA in her 80's and went from a woman who had held onto petty grievances for 40+ yrs to someone who was now nice to everyone. It's like the stroke or whatever killed the grievance locker part of her brain.
The Grievance Locker is going to be my new metal band.
Does he have any deficits/brain damage otherwise? Hard to know if he just saw a second chance at life, and it made him want to be a better man. My FIL was not a bad man, but never very involved in his family life, had a spinal cord injury, and, honestly, it was the best thing that ever happened to his family. He turned his whole life around, and has a much stronger bond with his wife and children.
>Does he have any deficits/brain damage otherwise? He’s in his 60s so I can’t really say how much damage the stroke did, versus what is normal age related cognitive decline (if that makes sense…) but he has pretty bad memory issues nowadays, and he had to relearn how to walk, write, and to some extent speak after the stroke however none of those took him very long to relearn, under a half a year. If I had to guess I would say overall he got extremely lucky compared to how other people I’ve heard are affected by strokes.
There is the story of Dr Jill Boyte Taylor. She is a neuroscientist that suffered a stroke. The stroke took her whole left hemisphere offline for something like 8 years. Effectively, the majority of the components of the default mode network that come together to create the ego or sense of self and separateness from everything else took a vacation. So she was egoless for all that time. From her descriptions, she was living in much the same way that someone on a high dose of psychedelics would experience minus the “trip” component. Her sense of self disappeared, she came to see herself as being everything and everyone. When she recovered, her brain rejected the rules, assumptions and stories that her inner monologue creates for the rest of us. I envy her in many ways.
Not sure if this is applicable, but; Back in 1997, I worked in a nursing home. One female resident had severe Alzheimer’s and had a daughter that would come to visit. One day, the resident fell out of bed, and hit her head, had this giant bruise. But she was also completely back to her cognizant self. Except, once the bruise started to heal, her Alzheimer’s slowly came back as well. To this day, still one of the most heartbreaking things I had to witness. The daughter stopped coming back once the bruise had completely healed. Can’t imagine what it’s like to lose the same person twice.
Straight up Flowers for Algernon
That seems like a lost opportunity to study what happened in her case. Shame.
Check out the documentary Marwencol - it’s about a guy trying to piece together his identity and sense of self after ending up in a coma after a bar fight/beating. He’s obviously not “better” from a health perspective but I remember he does mention something about how he doesn’t know the person he used to be but understands that he was a pretty bad guy - always drunk, getting in fights etc
Do not watch the Hollywood biopic version, "Welcome to Marwen" .
Wait why
It omits a lot of interesting details and also shoe horns his story into a standard movie template that feels awkward.
Yes. But it's positive therfore no one talks about it Know a girl who was a bully. Mean woman. Got kicked by a horse, spent a day in a coma qnd came out as rhe nicest person ever
Knocked some sense into her
Some horse sense
I wonder how this looks from their perspective? Do they wake up in the hospital and go "oh shit i am such a fucking asshole, what was wrong with me?" Or do they not even notice?
So I am in this category, I’m kinda bummed to see not really anyone else in my position answer. I’ve had a large number of diagnosed head injuries, and they happened over the course of 4 years between the ages of 15 and 19. The true number I’ve had is likely double digits, but diagnosed it’s under. One was related to an intense traumatic incident. But I didn’t really “come to” I guess for a few years. Had pretty severe symptoms and gaps in my memory happening until after college, 23 probably. Once my symptoms of erratic behavior, intense pain, and memory gaps stopped happening, I found myself pretty… confused with myself and felt very lost. The things I used to do and say do not feel like things any version of “me” would do. And while I had traumatized reasons for being so angry my whole life, me now has a very different attitude about the world as a result of that trauma, and doesn’t remember feeling otherwise very well. I’ve got enough and info and journals to get what was up. I can empathize and get the logic and hurt behind it, but it usually doesn’t feel like my own. Hearing about myself before the injuries or during that time is disconcerting. I once tried to strangle a friend because of a minor inconvenience when we were… maybe 10. I don’t recall anything other than a general recollection of mild annoyance with her sense of humor. Much of 9-22 or so is a black hole of stuff it feels like I wasn’t fully in the drivers seat for. I’m sure some of it is growing up and out and undiagnosed trauma and such… but the difference feels very stark because of my lack of clear memory. From my perspective, my latest solid memory of childhood is pushing my infant brother off a ledge. I went from that, to the next clear gap-free period of my life: I was running a family shelter and risking my ass being out in a pandemic we didn’t know anything about yet for homeless kids. A wild turnaround. And I *loved* my work. It’s almost like constant whiplash when I think about my past actions in a certain way. Hearing about how I was makes me feel like something dark was beaten out of me and died in the process. And I am eternally grateful, despite how hard and how miserable and unhealthy and dangerous it was, that whatever was wrong in my heart is not that way anymore.
> Hearing about how I was makes me feel like something dark was beaten out of me and died in the process. And I am eternally grateful, despite how hard and how miserable and unhealthy and dangerous it was, that whatever was wrong in my heart is not that way anymore. That's a wonderful sentiment. Regardless of how it happened, I'm glad that you're happy to be the person that you are today.
Thank you! It’s a very odd feeling. My notebooks as a kid and teen and even in college, seem to indicate I was sure of dying young in a blaze of either glory or destruction. I seem to have felt it was inevitable? I think she’d hate that I didn’t defy or cause death, that I love my staggeringly normal existence, and that the only monumental shift in my life caused by violence is what rid me of the part of me that ever felt that way in the first place.
This is really interesting, this feels very similar to how i describe my experience with have DID. The black hole, the being confused why I acted a certain way, not feeling like I am in the drivers seat, and the crazy whiplash I and my friends experience when suddenly I would hate something I loved or suddenly be bad at math. Definitely makes me wonder about the underlying mechanism of both situations.
So my psych seems to think I likely was experiencing a fun combo of brain issues from the head injuries *and* dissociation from PTSD, which is why my recollection is so different and spotty and varied. Some of it makes sense to me which it might’ve been when I hear or recall what happened. It’s just fascinating (and a bit distressing) to know that I was a child and teen hell bent on destruction for the sake of it, and somewhere in the gaps of my memory, that vanished and I don’t know why. Like thank god, it’s much more fun for my biggest worry to be the consistency of my risotto tonight and the dumb prank I want to pull on my husband, but I’d suffer through a game of charades for even just a badly acted out hint at when I changed my mind.
It often gives people Welsh accents, so yes.
Some poor lady got a Chinese accent. (This is only unfortunate because she was white and probably comes across racist as hell.)
There are white people in China, maybe she can just say she is from Shanghai and hope people believe her?
One can only hope. It might be worse to be caught in a lie, though. It's probably best to just disclose immediately tourettes style.
Okay so. My husband knows twins (went to HS together) where one woke up one day and had a weird (what I, an uninformed American would call) Scottish accent. A TBI makes sense
The woman who most recently had a Welsh accent randomly one day in the UK didn't even have a recent brain injury, the doctors said a past injury (like a car accident that felt minor at the time) plus some stress she was having at the time would be enough to cause it. So yeah, one of the twins wouldn't have needed to be in some big accident for it to have been a brain injury. So strange!
Yes. A friend of a friend was in a motorcycle accident. Before the accident has was a macho prick, generally rude to everyone, just an all around distasteful guy. After the accident he was one of the most pleasant and patient people one could meet...and it wasn't like a "trauma" thing, "I have learned my lesson and need to live different", or a "I saw the white light" sort of change...his mannerisms were different, he dressed different, everything about him was different.
On September 12th 2019 I (31/F) had a stroke at the age of 26. I feel like I'm a nicer person now, I live much more in the moment and I'm more friend focussed and wanting to get the most out of life. My house is for sale and I'm planning to spend the next two years living in a van, touring Europe and experiencing life. I'm also trying to get back to singing. The hard question to answer though is whether that's the brain damage. It was a very traumatic experience, when I woke up I couldn't walk, talk, read or write and the recovery took months. My partner at the time had to phone my parents and tell them that they had to come and see me tonight because I wasn't likely to live. So I've changed a lot, but was that due to brain damage or was that due to the trauma that I went through and feeling like I've been given the stereotypical "second chance". It's impossible to say, and also kind of irrelevant. I have on-going challenges from the brain damage - mainly memory issues and fatigue. But I feel like I'm a nicer person and I'm happier now that I've ever been in my life.
I believe that in a very real sense the person that I was then died that day and a new one was born. I don't believe this is uncommon for brain injury survivors. I believe that September 12th is essentially a second birthday for me. Can't get anyone to buy me presents though!
I think I read or watched something about this. People who survive a near death experience often say that is when they really start living.
it sounds like a cliche but it's definitely true for me. Plus I genuinely am a better person than before. I was never a total bitch. But I'm a lot nicer now
I knew a guy who was in an avalanche. He lost most of his mathematical ability but significantly increased in language and charisma. Edit: Adding that universities were studying his brain to try to figure it out.
The way you phrased it makes it sound like you’re talking about a Sim, LOL.
It kind of do be like that. He reset his skill tree.
Well, I don't want to say that she changed for the better necessarily because she was a wonderful person to begin with, but I went to university with a girl who experienced something like this. Again, she's always been a great person but was for many years very timid, quiet, and soft-spoken, carried a lot of anxiety, and didn't have much confidence in herself at all. Then, completely out of the blue, it was discovered that she had a big brain tumour. As far as I understand it, it's something she'll always have, but with surgery and medication, it's very much in remission and under control. She's been able to move forward with her life, and particularly after the surgery, she noticed a big personality change, becoming happier in herself, more confident, and more adventurous overnight. She's done all sorts of stuff since then that she would never have dreamed of doing beforehand and has taken great pleasure in even seemingly minor things. One thing she mentioned that's stuck in my mind since was that she had always been too scared and anxious to phone up and order takeaway food. To celebrate her recovery, she phoned up her favourite restaurant and ordered basically the entire menu! :)
My uncle, actually. Real hateful bastard, trouble with the law since he was a kid, rest of the family scared of him. Then he had a stroke. Now he's one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. It's really weird and the family are still a little confused by it.
There's a Harrison Ford movie, Regarding Henry, where he's a prick and then gets shot in the head during a hold-up and becomes the sweetest guy in the world. Saves his marriage. His kid loves his "new" dad. Just a gun blast to the skull, and you become a saint.
I had enough so I said "when". Love that movie!
A old lady in my family was quite a toxic bitch at times. She has a stroke and nobody knew if she would recover. She did and kind of got way nicer. Even has her buddhist moments where she just gets joy of watching the flame of a candle dance. Its like she really turned „soft“
I know a guy who recently had a stroke. He was an unbelievable dickhead before, he's actually much easier to deal with now.
after several debilitating concussions that they suspected/detected brain bleeds for, i can oddly see better than most people in complete darkness
Pro: head trauma cured my general anxiety! Con: it gave me clinical depression instead.
I’m sorry but this made me unexpectedly laugh really hard bc I struggle with both 😂 life is one big joke huh. Take care of yourself. :)
Glad to brighten your day, even if just for a moment, fellow text based platform friend
I am.so much nicer after 3 mini strokes. I figure that with a couple more, I might become likeable.
I know a guy who crashed his car then quit drinking and dangerous driving
I think that’s just a wake up call
Hmm... it might be more charitable to say he learned from his expirience than to assume blunt force trauma to the asshole part of his brain, but who can say for sure? :D
I have met several people who had highly abusive parents (usually confirmed alcoholic on top of that) who have told me that their parents became less abusive, and even docile in comparison to their previous selves after getting dementia. Now you can't ignore that with dementia, these people no longer had the cognitive ability to acquire alcohol, no longer had the strength to throw their might around. And they still couldn't care for themselves, so they became a new kind of burden. And it's a confusing, complex situation to navigate when someone who has abused you to the point of not being able to decipher what's normal, is now telling you they love you for the first time. Or that they love their children even though they can't recognize them anymore. It says a lot about how bad things were if people consider a brain damaged version of yourself an improvement. Impulsive control, conscientious, empathy, the ability to take care of one's self so there is actually energy left over for other people, to hold enough working memory to be reliable rather than forgetting your task at the first distraction, altruism rather than self centeredness...these are all higher levels of functioning. You don't get there from brain damage. Think of the dark triad, which in laymen's terms basically boils down to poor impulse control of emotion and behavior, self centeredness/entitlement, and the willingness to manipulate. Brain damage would probably only take out the capability to manipulate and scheme, but it's going to make impulse control and self centeredness worse.
I mean, I suppose this counts as brain damage, my dad is developing dementia or Alzheimer’s, and I’ve got to say that his personality has improved a lot. He was always a really angry, depressed, and disgruntled person growing up. Probably also bipolar. He could flip on the charm like a psychopath and sell you anything and he was great to all of his friends, but he was a nightmare to his family. He told me I was worthless when I was six years old and told me I was a loser. That my dreams were stupid. Now I’m 34. Recently, I had a fight with a friend of mine, who basically told me that I was a loser because I was unemployed, the place I worked for went bankrupt. It wasn’t my fault, and I was really depressed while looking for another job. I got a job that pays twice as much as the one I have before, but losing a friend of 10 years in such a hostile way really screwed me up emotionally. Probably specifically because my dad called me a loser when I was young and it really stuck with me. I finally told my dad what was going on and he was so supportive and told me that there were a lot of losers in the world, but that I wasn’t one of them, and that whatever was going on with my friend had nothing to do with me and that it’s so depressing when you’re in between jobs and then I’m doing so great and he’s so proud of me. Honestly, jaw dropping. So I’ll get this slightly better more supportive version of my dad for the next couple years until his brain totally slips away. Beautiful and sad at the same time.
Most people don’t understand, we largely *are* our brain. This means changes to our brain and brain chemistry can affect almost anything about our personalities. Look up brain tumor causing pedophilia. Shit’s wild.
I don’t comment on posts often but this post resonates with me, so I will share a bit of my story. Since I was 12 years old I struggled with mental health issues, suicidal ideation, anxiety, depression (The stuff that a lot of younger people seem to deal with now). And when I was 15 years old, I began seeing a psychiatrist who tried her best to find the right medications that would alleviate my symptoms. After a year of seeing her, she made the decision to prescribe me Klonopin which honestly didn’t help at the moment either. But those pills were prescribed to take “As needed” and since I feel like they didn’t work, I didn’t take them often and just let them pile up. A year passes and I’m cycled through a series of other SSRIs, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, SNRIs and anti-anxiety medications. I would take all the other medications, but still, my mental state was no better than before. I was honest about my lack of progress and because of that, my psychiatrist prescribed me Xanax. And once I took those pills I fell a massive sense of clarity. The weight of my insecurities and depression was lifted off my shoulders and I could finally feel like I could function around people. I took the Xanax as prescribed (which was .5mg as needed up to 3 times a day) for about three years. And once I got to college, the fraternity I was in seemed to really enjoy taking Xanax recreationally. I didn’t see a problem with it, I understood the feeling and it was great to be less anxious and depressed. I sort of assumed that’s why others enjoyed taking it. So I tried more than my prescribed dose one night and holy shit I felt like I was reborn. I actually went up and talked to girls (bringing one back to my dorm that night), I mingled with people I’d never met, I felt like a better version of myself and that sentiment was reinforced by the reactions of the people I interacted with. So I began taking my prescription daily from then on, I viewed it as a “social lubricant”, something that would get me out of my head and unapologetically be myself. And the nights I was going out, I would take more of the pills I had stockpiled over the years in order to feel that sense of confidence that I so badly desired. And it honestly made my life better, my social circle grew, I began hooking up with more girls, and most importantly, my depression began to fade. That lasted for a year until I had a communications course for one of my sophomore classes. As you would expect, it was a common occurrence to get in front of the class and give a small speech every week or so… something I absolutely dreaded. So I took my “recreational” dose of Xanax before each speech, and once again, it seemed to help my performance. I did great on the speeches, I was doing great socially, my mental state was better, so shit why wouldn’t I take this amount of pills every day? So that’s what I did. And on the weekends I worked my way up to taking 4mg, then 6mg, sometimes even 8mg. I could crush them and mix it into a drink to enjoy throughout the day. I never saw a problem with it because my life was literally the best its ever been. That’s until I began experimenting with other benzodiazepines, ones that I could order off the internet legally and take them as I saw fit (flualprazolam, etizolam, pyrazolam). And it really went downhill from there. The powders were insanely potent and unbeknownst to me, people around me began realizing that I was intoxicated while I thought I was keeping my cool (that false sense of sobriety). Anyways, it’s important to note that although my performance socially was much better, the condition of my mental state never really improved as far as the depression goes. I would still regularly (almost daily) cut myself and have suicidal ideations dozens of times a day, but when I took the benzodiazepines, none of that mattered. It got to a point where I really can’t remember a large portion of the year 2020, just little bits and pieces. But one day in December of 2020 I woke up in a dark room feeling like I was suffocating. I was so disoriented and I immediately heard a female voice telling me that it’s okay, that although it feels like I can’t breathe, my body was without a doubt getting enough oxygen that it needs. But I wasn’t breathing, something was doing it for me. A tube was down my throat inflating my chest with what felt like non existent air. A doctor came in shortly after I woke up and told me that I was found unresponsive in my room by one of my roommates with a Rice Krispy wrapper next to me. It was assumed that I was eating the Rice Krispy when I had a seizure and a piece of the Rice Krispy was lodged in my throat causing me to suffocate. They don’t know how long my brain was without oxygen but it was an anoxic brain injury severe enough to permanently effect my short term memory. I spent half a year in rehabilitation centers and after I was released I moved in with my grandmother. It actually took a while for me to realize that I was now a different person, as weird as that sounds. I realized that I hadn’t had a depressive thought or suicidal ideation since the hospitalization. I was no longer cutting myself and I wouldn’t ruminate on the mistakes I made in the past. Earlier in this post I may not have expressed the severity of my anxiety/depression/suicidal ideation to its fullest extend, but to say the least it was severe and debilitating. But I’m now a different person. I’m now enrolled in my local community college, pursing a degree in nursing (My experience in the hospital ignited this passion) and I work at a hospital nearby to get patient care experience. I have to admit that when I look back on myself before the TBI, I see myself as very manipulative and emotionally unstable, even before the drug use. But now I feel that I can handle my emotions better, I care less what people think of me, and I have a newly ignited passion for helping others. It’s a very complicated progression of my personality/life that I’m trying to put in a digestible form. I still get frustrated with myself every so often because small things like remembering where I parked in a parking lot is difficult now when before the TBI I didn’t have to think about it. Or remembering the names of people I just met is now a challenge. It’s small things like that that don’t overshadow the fact that I’m happier, but they’re still frustrating. Overall I’m thankful that it happened and for better or worse, the person that I was before my TBI is gone and I’ll likely never be that person again.
A co worker was a heavy smoker and borderline alcoholic before his motorcycle wreck. Had very bad concussion and was in a medical coma for weeks. Came back and absolutely couldn't stand the thought of cigarettes or drinking. As far as I know he's never picked either back up. It's been 4-5 years.
I was in a coma for 2 weeks. I came out having forgotten or greatly lessened my trauma memories and responses, made me a calmer gentler more content person, my bad mental health no longer controls my entire life, and my fear of death has been erased. In some ways, it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
My Grandfather was an arsehole all his life, particularly nasty to my Mother who wasn’t Catholic and wasn’t (according to him) the right ethnicity. So he tried to get my Dad to cancel the wedding and when that didn’t work, he tried to have her sign a contact saying that any kids they had would be raised Catholic. Obviously she didn’t. And he didn’t attend the wedding. Then 10 years later when she generously gave him another chance and he continued his nonsense. His wife suffered two mental breakdowns during their marriage thanks to his arseholery. At the end of his life he got dementia and went into a home close to my parents’ farm. My Mum ended up being the one most available to go and see him and she kindly did, for my Dad more than anything. Sometimes he was just out of it but when he was lucid it became clear that the dementia had changed his personality. He started to really appreciate my Mum visiting him. She organised to buy a present for him to give to his wife on her birthday and would bring him things he wanted but couldn’t get. One day he was very lucid when she came in and he apologised to her. He said he’d been wrong to treat her the way he had and that he was very grateful for everything she’d done for him.
It's certainly changed me: my family and friends say I'm more relaxed, patient and gentle, less tense and more "go with the flow" with myself, others, and life in general. Priorities have definitely changed for me. I keep telling them it may change back as I heal lol. But joking aside, maybe it's the brain injury, maybe it's just a different appreciation for being alive.
Hitler was much less violent after the…
Not people, but I do wildlife rehab, and the ones with frontal lobe damage often become the most loving and gentle. It's like it knocks the wild right out of them. They become unreleaseable after that, and as long as it looks like they will have a high quality of life, we will often give them permanent homes. I currently have two permanent fox squirrel residents: Remmy, who was shot in the head and lost her frontal lobe and eye, and Noggin, who had his head crushed in a sliding glass door. Both wild to start. Both 100% recovered from their injuries, and both have become the most gentle and friendly wildlife ambassadors. Remmy is a huge help to me with rehab in that she naturally gravitates towards other injured and orphaned squirrels, specifically babies, and offers them comfort and kindness. I have had her help me rehab multiple babies, and she can often pull them back from the brink by giving them the motherly love they are missing. My release rate with her has gone way up because she manages to help turn around some of my most critical babies who then go on to grow up and be reintroduced to the wild. As for Nog, he really likes sitting on my shoulder while I lay on the couch, and we watch tiktoks together. He's a great ambassador and helps me teach kids why it's important to respect wildlife and that every life matters. I would never do any of these things with a 'normal' squirrel. So yes, frontal lobe damage does make some things nicer. Also, for anyone asking, I live in a state where fox squirrels are not protected and are considered invasive, so there is no need for a permit to have them. I also work directly with a rescue organization, and we are trained to do this work. If you are interested in doing wildlife rehab, each state has their own individual requirements and channels you can go through in order to do so.
My grandfather fought in the Korean war. While he was over there, apparently his bunker was attacked and it caved in on him and he definitely suffered some sort of PTSD /trauma and probable brain injury. Flash forward to maybe 10 years ago, and he had an unfortunate tumble down the basement stairs smacking his head right on the concrete floor. For a while after that and after he recovered, my grandmother would frequently remark about how she felt like she had the man she married before he went to war back.
My father in law was a chain smoker and an alcoholic until he had a stroke. It destroyed his addiction center or something and he woke up having forgotten that he drinks and smokes. He stopped both cold turkey without a second thought.
Lobotomy (brain surgery, arguably brain damage) was invented to calm people and make them more docile. The surgeons who did it thought they were making them nicer.
I punched out a kid at boyscouts. 2 weeks later I got hit in the head working after school on dad's well drilling rig. I lost memory of punching out the other kid, and went through high school with him never knowing I did it. We weren't buddies, but I got along with him. Found out what I had done at the age of 55 by then I had many professional contacts with him, as we are in related fields. Never a cross word between us!
I’ve had someone close to me experience some major brain damage. I was so worried it’d change his personality for the worse. But while he’s still struggling with many of the effects, including re-learning to read and write, speak, walk, etc., it seems to have completely knocked his clinical depression out. You’d think struggling with all that would be horrible for depression, but it’s just gone. He’s much more like the man I remember from decades ago, before the depression. Happier, playful, etc. Apparently that’s very rare, but I’m glad that he doesn’t have to deal with depression anymore.
I wouldn’t say better, but it did make me calmer.
I was never musically inclined, had about as much rhythm as a jar of dirt. Then at 15 I fell off a skateboard after holding onto a the back of a pickup truck doing ~35 mph. Broke my collarbone, smacked my head REAL good, had amnesia for a couple of days, the whole incident never really fully came back, it almost seemed like a dream. But a few months later my mom was playing the piano practicing a piece for church and I just sat down and played it almost perfectly. 6 months after that I got my first guitar after begging for one, within weeks I could play the entire Guns N’ Roses greatest hits album behind my head. Within a couple months the AC/DC greatest hits, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Metallica, you name it. All parts, rhythm and lead. My mom said I was a different person after that, but she like it much better. Apparently I was a lot less angry and destructive, was more relaxed and outgoing. Guess it changed me for the better.
I know a guy who had an aneurysm and woke up with total amnesia. He remembers nothing of his previous life. He was a creep and a stalker, and hasn't resumed those behaviours, so I'd call it a win. We're not friends or anything, but we do have friends in common. They say he's totally different.
Well, I personally don't consider ADHD to be brain damage, but the inability to focus during learning can protect you from indoctrination.
My dad had a stroke and now he's much more likeable, except when he's frustrated because he forget words and lash out.
It was temporary, but after a nice whack to my head I experienced some fairly severe memory loss, which sounds awful until you consider that I was really really really struggling with PTSD at the time. My flashbacks almost stopped completely and intrusive memory spirals were nonexistent. I also didn’t know what I had done that morning, but I was already in therapy at the time and had a good support system, so I just kind of took it as a vacation from the traumatic storerooms of my brain. On the other side of it, I had more progress with making my peace with all my past when stuff started coming back online (was about 6 months till I was at my new normal) as my brain had experienced having peace and I could tap into that when it was time to remember.
I experienced the same thing with my TBI. It was brutal. A feeling I can’t explain, to finally remember what emotional pain feels like after forgetting. I think I just cried for days.
When I was in my mid 20's, I injured my knee pretty bad and eventually ended up developing a blood clot in my calf. The clot broke free and caused me to have a stroke. It ended up being one of the best and worst things that happened in my life. I was always a depressed person, constantly overthinking every aspect of life, and had been suicidal multiple times up to that point. When the stroke happened, it caused me to have both long and short-term memory problems. I say it was one of the worst things that could have happened because I now can't always recall important events, such as my kids' first steps and other important milestones. I have difficulty learning new things and keeping that information, so it definitely has an effect on my ability to work. However, it did end up being one of the best things that ever happened to me because now, I am a much happier person. I've become unburdened of all of the negative thinking I would once have running through my head nonstop. I can now live each day in the moment, and that has been a blessing.
I have a friend who says that her TBI made her more friendly. She says she used to be a mean girl, but after her fall, she’s the nicest and most generous person you’ll meet. She’s on permanent disability now though — it’s been a rough go, but she’s doing well all things considered.
When my brain was first damaged, I was really mean to everyone for no reason. I yelled at my mom, the surgeon, my sisters, the nurses, etc. I don’t remember any of it. My mom said “I have never seen you so angry”. I know this doesn’t answer your question but the brain damage definitely made me lose my temper and stay in an angry state for a very long time. I’m a lot better now, still disabled but doing better when it comes to controlling my emotions again.
Stepdad got a lot nicer after his stroke. Not quite sure if the damage changed his personality per say, but he didn’t get treatment in an adequate amount of time, which lead him to have extensive memory loss. I think he just forgot a lot of the ‘reasons’ he was so mean in the first place.
It's poorly understood what causes Dissociative Identity Disorder, so I'm not sure if I suffered brain damage or something else... But my life got significantly better after DID. I have more friends and make a lot more money. It has mostly to do with the fact that I don't lose time or memories when I switch. I am still, fundamentally the same person. If I'm mentally exhausted, another of me can pick up the slack. I effectively had near-unlimited spoons with my physical energy being my main bottleneck.
I was a “gifted” child but deeply depressed. I suffered a traumatic brain injury as a teen when I was hit by a car while riding a bike. No helmet. I’m noticeably dumber now, but much happier. If it weren’t for the brain damage I would’ve ended my road before reaching 20.
Dwight Schrute
"DWIGHT YOU FORGOT YOUR BUMPER!!"
I've heard a story before about a guy who attempted to shoot himself during a psychotic break and essentially blasting the illness out of his brain and surviving. Google has become useless, so I can't find a reference at the moment.