How do TBIs impact personality?

Getting into a crash and suffering from a head injury can then lead to traumatic injury of the brain. These brain injuries – TBIs for short – have numerous and notable impacts on multiple aspects of a victim’s life.

One often-overlooked impact is that of the victim’s personality. But how does a TBI influence or even seemingly change a person’s base behaviors?

Changes to temperament

Medline Plus discusses the impact of traumatic brain injuries on individuals. TBIs can influence or alter everything from how a person perceives the world to how they interact with their loved ones. The intensity and type of changes a person faces will depend on several factors, including how heavy the blow was, the area of the brain affected, and the victim’s overall health at the time of the incident.

Personality-wise, many loved ones of victims state that changes to temper and temperament rank among the most notable and hardest to handle.

Specifically, many victims that suffer from traumatic injury to the frontal lobe will also lose some of their self-control. The frontal lobe holds responsibility for managing impulses, and with it damaged, victims seem more prone to anger, outbursts, lashing out at others and mismanaging their emotions. This often comes as a shock, especially for more mild-mannered people.

Loss of stress management

Of course, they will often suffer in other areas, too. Stress management will often drop, and many people once capable of dealing with high-stress environments may feel incapable of handling even daily stressors.

Due to these impacts, it is important for TBI victims to understand the impact their injury could have, along with getting quick treatment for fast recovery.