How Brain Injuries Affect Personalities

Brain injuries affect our personalities in many ways but severity of injury and pre-injury personality will have a bearing on the changes. Because our brains control who we are, when our brains are affected, so shall our personalities be. Because no two brain injuries are the same and no two people are the same, no one will experience the same personality changes. However, most brain injury survivors, and certainly those who are closest to them, will acknowledge that there most often are some changes.

Changes will be based on the deficits that a survivor is left with; some people will be left with many deficits while someone else may be left with only a few. These deficits will contribute to various behaviors which will change a person. Some of these deficits may be involving memory, concentration, anger problems, frustration, lack of motivation, feelings of detachment and anxiety.

Brain injuries can cause impairments to how we think and act which will cause changes in personality. Our brain is what gives us our reasoning abilities, helps us to interact socially and tells us how to live morally; it makes us who we are.

Personality changes can happen one, five or even fifteen years after the injury. Some personality disorders can be managed by the avoidance of caffeine and alcohol or by avoiding becoming overtired. Maintaining a regular exercise program could also help lessen the degree of change there may be.

Many of the changes that brain injured patients have experienced cannot be attributed directly to deficits. While doing research, I discovered that many brain injury survivors mention changes to their sense of humor, i.e.: they may no longer have one; or where they were once creative, they may no longer be; their interests may have changed or they don't have any, and many say they feel dull.

A bigger change, and one that is more likely to affect relationships, is that they may no longer have the same likes and desires; their feelings may have changed. It is possible that they no longer have the same interests they shared with their partner or enjoy doing the things they once did together. They may no longer make any effort to be affectionate but instead may be more focused on themselves.

The sexual part of their relationship may also have changed. Often there is less interest in sex after a brain injury. This change may become a problem in the relationship.

Personality changes such as these are difficult for family members but are not easy for the brain injured survivor as well. Survivors know they have changed; they know they no longer feel the same way and most often they don't know what to do about it.