Brain Injury - I look normal, but I'm not

Dr. Judy Gooch shows how a person with brain injury can look entirely normal, but really struggle. It is important to understand brain injury to be able to better help.

[@macintoshimann9892]

I’ve been gas lit by every doctor I brought these symptoms to. I’ve got dystnoia symptoms in my whole body and it’s literally diagnosed as anxiety. I forgot how to use my right lung and it’s anxiety. I can’t remember anything and it’s anxiety. I can’t figure out how to be me and it’s anxiety. You can’t live with anxiety like this.

[@JakeFromSt4teF4rm]

When I was a teenager I suffered from depression badly after losing a family member from suicide. Whenever I felt hopeless I would slam my palm of my hand against the top of my head over and over till my brain felt cold and numb and did this for months till my mom caught me. I’ve never been tested for a TBI but every time I try to explain why my memory is starting to fail me I get told it’s because of my learning disability. I am almost certain I have a TBI and no one knows it cause I act normal but on the inside I’m not. When my parents die either I’m dying with them or I’m going to do something illegal so I have a place to stay with a roof over my head and cloths on my body. I won’t live a normal life since I can’t read. I always have to bring my bills to my parent’s house to see if I owe anything or if this mail is junk or not. I haven’t had my car inspected for 6 months cause I didn’t know where to look nor how to read it. I don’t want to take my life but my life is a complete mess and seriously need help

[@UtahNeuroRehabilitation]

Yes, help is often too hard to find. If you have access to a neuropsychologist, they could do testing and perhaps offer some help.

[@shaneoleary4589]

In the last 18 yrs, 3 TBI's, 20 plus concussions, ( I lost count years ago ), and I still have to pause and go through stages to make my coffee. To anyone reading this with a brain injury, get yourself a good/great support team that will gently and patiently help and guide you through the frustrating times. And please, keep safe.

[@lasvegaslife5770]

Yhea this is me !! Sucks !! People think your fine but you are far from fine !!! Been a long exuasting life style with tbi

[@PashutHerenstein]

It’s a superpower

[@bisonradio5847]

Very helpful, thank you. It’s the “you look great!” syndrome: what begins as a neurological condition becomes a character issue. They’re thinking: We must not really want to get better. We’re not trying hard enough. One well-meaning friend said “What I wouldn’t give for some time off!”

[@BrianLipham-k3g]

My husband suffered a brain injury from a cardiac arrest. Anoxic brain injury damages are much like this.

[@Oscar_Castrejon]

You just described me!!!😮😊

[@RoadRunnergarage8570]

TBI.. you only know it if you live it..

[@marksmadhousemetaphysicalm2938]

I've had two TBIs...I also hurt my leg and my balance is effected...I carry a cane...not so much because my balance is that terrible...it isn't awful...not great but not so bad I need it all the time...the cane is a signal...it lets others know clearly that I am not...ok...because I am not ok...I have memory problems, I have dysexecutive syndrome...I have some other cognitive problems...and I have balance and problems with movement...I am not fine...am I still intelligent? Yes? Am I who I was before I was hurt in those accidents? No. I use my cane for balance and to tell people that I am not fine...A signal is good to remind other people...something subtle but not too subtle...but something you didn't need before...but that's still helpful...glasses? A cane? A bag on wheels?

[@UtahNeuroRehabilitation]

Thank you for sharing this. You may want to connect with brainstorm for brain injury on facebook or instagram. It is a non-profit to help with brain injury. You have some really good insight.

[@marksmadhousemetaphysicalm2938]

I also am setting up my own company to help people with Acquired Brain Injury. We focus on education but we are run by people with brain injury. It's an important mission.

[@first1408]

Hey can you help me i suffer from the same symptoms, i lost my fiancee , my job as a manager at a restaurant, my family has to kinda watch over me, I suffer from many ptsd and most nights just trying be okay. Anxiety keeps me awake , my family see me as a failure. At the new job as a line cook, i can barely make it threw the day. I’m exhausted by my 5th hour but i work so hard and i even wear a knee brace cause i cant look after my self so well. My co workers think im drunk or something cause i cant focus on words on the screen . Or how i forget everything, but its very difficult, after a year loosing my fiancee, i still cry evry moment iam awake. It difficult and I don’t know how to help my self like where to start and remember to get help. I can really use some one help me get help.

[@UtahNeuroRehabilitation]

A couple of places to get help would be with a physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor or speech therapist: be sure they treat brain injury. A lot can be done to help.

[@buck50002001]

I would tell you to find a good support group too. I live in NC and they have helped me find the help I needed to have hope through this after a TBI from very violent car wreck. I’m still having a lot of trouble but filled with much more hope because of the help I have received from the NC Brain Injury Association support groups. I go several every week. I can’t tell you how much it will help you if you will humble yourself and allow it.

[@DiscernmentNow]

Did you have an accident? How are you doing?

[@YlvaBjarnson]

Hi Judi, After one of David's concussions in high school wrestling changed him for a few years. Things improved, but he has had hand tremors since. He never had them before. His family practice doctor looked at him for 5 minutes and said there just tremors. The doctor is about 100!🙄 I don't know if he has Parkinson's, or something on the brain that would cause the hands to shake so bad, but it worries me enough to reach out. What is your suggestion for him going forward? Also, I hope you and your family are doing well. Fondle, LA OR Leslie Ann PS, Donna passed away a few weeks ago.😢🌷David got his Anthropology degree and spent almost a month in the Costa Rican jungle living in huts studying primates and doing volunteer work. He's a very good young man.

[@UtahNeuroRehabilitation]

It is nice to hear from you. I had heard about Donna. Spending time in the Costa Rican jungle would be wonderful. I am glad to hear he is a good young man. He could see a neurologist for the tremors.

[@bevsartsandcrafts715]

Can I ask a question? I was given a drug years ago which was an immune suppressant. I started having neurological symptoms, walking affected, speech, motor control and lately seizures (for which I'm being tested for epilepsy, I'm on a drug for epilepsy which has mostly stopped them). I've had MRI scans which have shown white matter lesions, or brain damage. My symptoms are continuously there but do was up then come on again for long periods. Each time the symptoms flare up they are progressively worse. I put this all down to the drug that has caused this though my neuro is wary of saying it is the cause...even though other Drs agree it's the cause. Is it possible for a drug to cause this much damage? There used to be videos on KZbin from people who were crippled and disabled by this drug but now all of those and any info that used to be online is now removed

[@bevsartsandcrafts715]

P.s. Sorry for the long message but I'd appreciate your views on this. I am not going to sue anyone either as I willingly took the treatment and was desperate for it to work but I would like to know if my suspicions and that of others could be true. Meantime, I see my neuro every 9 months and I don't get any help with anything

[@UtahNeuroRehabilitation]

What was the drug?

[@bevsartsandcrafts715]

Utah Neuro Rehabilitation its brand name is Humira (Adalimumab) Thankyou so much for your reply, I appreciate you're busy xx

[@bevsartsandcrafts715]

P.s. As a side, my neuro checked me for MS and doesn't think it is. Yet I've had other people say it sounds like MS. So seeing as no one here can figure it out I thought you'd be the best to ask. Keep safe x

[@bevsartsandcrafts715]

P.ps. My neuro is also good friends with the doc who kept me on Humira for 6 years. X

[@skillsforlife668]

I got a Slightly les😢