Interesting article on brain injury & empathy

DDD

Well-Known Member
With hesitancy I read the article. There is no doubt in my mind
that brain injuries result in negative changes. Making poor choices (if not dangerous ones) seems to be easier. It is all
so blankin' sad....and hard to live with. DDD
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
Triple D,

I wasn't sure how to react, for lack of a better word, to this article. I'm still digesting the information in it.

My concern, of course, whether a person is brain injured or not, they must follow a society's expectations. Be law abiding.

There is some concern that wm suffered brain injury in bio home though it hasn't been confirmed.

It is frequently on my mind.

 

dreamer

New Member
Brain injury can be as simple as not supporting an infants head or mild shaken baby.........
it can also occur with high fever or other illness.or a reaction to medications..
Several years ago there was an article at CABF about anesthesia effects on a childs brain.......and how it damages the brain.
There can also be trauma to the brain in utero, due to maternal illness, or other things.
Almost 20 years ago I attended several seminars on ADD and ADHD and brain scans of various types that showed in ADD and ADHD there is reduced blood flow to the front lobes of the brain..which is very similar to a brain injury. Lesions on the brain can also have a similar effect. Diabeteics brains also function differently becuz the sugar levels in the braina re not right and the oxygen flow to the brain is impaired by the suga/insulin imbalances.
epilepsy also affects the brain and the electrical charges sending messages back and forth.
Used to be thought a mild concussion was no big deal, but now docs feel differently about a mild concussion.
One reason certain people advocate for children to wear helmets during bike riding, skaing, skateboarding etc is also becuz of head injury.
When I worked in the county nursing home, it was an eye opener to find out that brain injuries with no outward signs of injury can b e so me of the most awful injuries and can really mess a person up.

While a person does need to be law abiding......the truth is some times a brain problem can make it quite difficult. The brain is responsible for our judgement, our discretion, our decisions etc and our impulses and impulse control. anything that affects the brain can affect those issues. and if the brain is damaged, sometimes you just cannot make the brain do what you want it to do. You see it most clearly, I think, in people who have had severe strokes. they have somany different results and outcomes and if you study strokes it is scary but fascinating. A person can think clear but lose the ability to speak.......or lose the ability to use the correct words, and it is extremely frustrating to them becuz in their head they are using the proper words. Or their brain loses the ability to make their arm or leg move..the arm or leg could move, IF the brain would unscramble the signal to do so, nothing is wrong with the arm or leg........the brain just has been scrambled and the message cannot get to the proper places for it to happen.

IIRC Pet scans show many illnesses such as bipolar, and schizophrenia and ADD and ADHD all show marked changes especially in the frontal lobes?
I cannot remember for sure but I think people with PTSD also show differences in their brains.

Diet, medications, chemicals in our own body released during stress can all also affect the brain and it's structure and harm it.

It is speculated that behavior mod does not work on everyone becuz if the brain is damaged, behav mod does not fix the brain. Behav mod is only going to work if the brain can do what it needs to do. Sometimes the behaviors we see are NOT "choices" SOmetimes the kids have no more control over themself than a stroke person has control to overcome whatever portions of their brain have been damaged.

You can also see it in cases of brain tumors, peoples personality often changes, sometimes just a little, sometimes dramatically.
I guess this is why I keep pushing my sons docs concerning his heterotopia.. when my son was first diagnosis'ed with it, there was precious little online about it. ALl I ever read was that the majority of kids with it did not even get born alive, and those that did died soon after. Many with only brain stem function.
The few that lived had irretractible seizures and profound retardation. Ah, my son has seizures, but not grand mal............and he is FAR from retarded, with a near genius IQ. I think part of it is that until there were MRIs most kids with milder heterotopia were not identified.

The brain is a remarkable thing, but it is also fragile. ANd it dictates every part of our functioning. All our voluntary and involuntary actions. When parts of it are not quite right there are going to be a wide array of difficulties and results. All our body functions and organs are interdependant upon each other. If one is not working correctly it is going to affect the others.


DO keep in mind there are many people in the world with brain problems where it is not obvious. SOmething that strikes me is that there are many socipaths in the world. BUT many do just fine and live an ordinary life.
There are many "retarded" people who can be high functioning and make wonderful employees. The number of people who have been abused in one way or another is much higher than you would want to believe (I read one in 4 people have been abused terribly)
Another sad truth is if we were to go examine every person, there would be so mething wrong inside almost every single person, if we wanted to dissect them and examine them under a microscope.

Recently something on TV caused me to go look up "lobotomy" and I was a lil surprised what I read there.
The brain is a fascinating thing.


I meant to also say very often a brain can sustain injury or insult with NO outward signs at all. a slight bump on the noggin? SOmetimes you do not have any idea anything even happened..........
 

Sara PA

New Member
Every action, thought, emotion, perception a person has is originated and implemented by actions within the brain. If the brain is malfunctioning for whatever reason -- damage, toxicity, disease, etc -- the actions, thoughts, emotions and perceptions can be affected.
 
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