Common Effects | Understanding ABI

How brain injury can effect a person

It's important to understand that the number, and severity, of problems resulting from a brain injury will differ from person to person.

This makes brain injury complex and difficult to understand.

Every brain injury is unique.
The effects of brain injury can be temporary or permanent.
Brain injury can affect the way a person thinks, feels and behaves.

The effects of brain injury are:

‍‍Extremely varied depending on their cause;
Difficult to predict;
Different for each person.

What Is Brain Injury?

Cognitive effects of brain injury

Cognition is the conscious process of the mind, it is the way we perceive, think and remember.

In general, it's the way we acquire knowledge through perception and learning. Injury to the brain can affect these cognitive processes, and some cognitive problems may vary or develop over time depending on a number of factors.

Why these changes are hard?

Cognitive changes as a result of ABI can be very frustrating due to the fact that they can affect a person's ability to learn new things, to work and to be involved socially.

Common cognitive effects include:

Poor concentration;
Slowed responses;
Lack of insight;
Poor short term memory;
Lack of initiative;
Inflexibility;
Poor planning and problem solving;
Difficulty understanding speech; and
Inappropriate sexual behaviour.

Common physical effects of brain injury

BIAT is working to provide more information in this section soon.

Common physical effects include:

Loss of taste and smell;
Dizziness and balance;
Fatigue;
Epilepsy and seizures;
Headaches;
Visual problems;
Chronic pain;
Paralysis; and
Hearing problems.