What Are The Long-term Effects of Traumatic Brain Injury?

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are among the most severe injuries experienced during car accidents. They are also among the most expensive personal injuries to heal. Such injuries can come with long-term disabilities or other adverse effects that make your life more difficult.

However, such injuries can be treated with the proper care. You will need some financial help during your recovery. According to personal injury law firm Wattel & York, one can receive compensation for the long-term negative effects of traumatic brain injuries in a personal injury claim.

Do not allow such an injury to pass without receiving justice, and do not settle for petty settlements. Submit a personal injury claim by finding a proper personal injury lawyer that can get you the compensation you deserve.

Traumatic brain injuries can be mild, moderate, or severe, and their symptoms and after-effects vary from person to person. It is worth mentioning that some symptoms can be felt immediately. In contrast, others appear later, most likely triggered by certain situations or environments.

If you believe the legal battle is not worth it, consider some of the long-term effects of traumatic brain injuries and the pain and suffering that comes with them. You do not need to fight this on your own!

Amnesia and Anxiety

The negative effects of TBIs can be felt immediately, shortly after the incident, or victims can feel delayed symptoms later in life. A common immediate or early symptom is amnesia, which usually affects a person’s ability to remember the traumatic incident. In more severe cases, complete memory loss is also possible.

Confusion, brief loss of consciousness, dazed appearance, fatigue, or delayed response to questions are also part of this category of symptoms. Additionally, anxiety can be an early or delayed sign of TBI. It may manifest when a victim experiences similar events that led to a car accident, such as speeding.

Blurred Vision or Car Sickness

Blurred vision can be a long-term effect of a TBI, as well as car sickness or nausea with motion. Car accident victims often find it challenging to move around in vehicles after their traumatic event, particularly if the brain is injured.

Seeing stars or having a strange dizziness sensation is also common, and unfortunately, so is depression and difficulty in finding things or concentrating, including reading. Victims may also feel pressure in the head.

Headaches and Irritability

Headaches or even migraines are often present in TBI victims, which affects their everyday life for a long period of time. Also, they can experience foggy feelings or thinking, get lost, and have nausea, low energy, or motivation.

Such people occasionally feel overwhelmed for no reason and are easily distracted. Loved ones might witness a personality change in their injured partners, which increases the pain and suffering a family has to go through. The emotional issues victims of traumatic brain injuries go through can be intense.

TBI victims may get upset easier than before, to the point where they are easily irritated by even mundane things. Ringing ears, headaches, or persistent neck pain are also some common symptoms that will fuel a victim’s mood swings. Personality changes often affect a victim’s relationships and can even pave the way to a divorce.

Contrary to popular belief, headaches, in some cases, are a good sign because they are considered a symptom of mild TBI. In contrast, those who have experienced a severe TBI do not have such symptoms often. No matter the case, headaches can be extremely distracting from your everyday duties and will take some time until these symptoms withdraw.

Slurred Speech and Memory Issues

An early sign of a TBI is slurred speech, which can indicate deeper problems. Long terms effects can also include sensitivity to light and noise, heartbeat irregularities, changes in blood pressure, sleep disturbances, or overall tiredness.

What makes TBIs particularly traumatic for the victim and their family are short-term memory problems and general slowness when deciding, thinking, speaking, or acting. Difficulty with executive functions is among the most difficult to treat.

Long-Term TBI Causes

To understand the causes of long-term effects on traumatic brain injury victims, you must understand the neurovascular coupling process and what happens when it malfunctions. As a simple explanation, our brain cells and blood vessels have a complex relationship.

When we want to do something, for example, read, the blood vessels carry glucose and oxygen to brain cells before we start reading to power them. The accuracy, which includes the amount and the location where the oxygen and glucose must be distributed, can be off-balanced by a TBI, resulting in various issues, including memory loss. Swelling and inflammation can disrupt the neurovascular coupling pathways and take time to heal.