Study about Social Interaction after TBI.
 

Here is an interesting article.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0410083505.htm

It is harder to socialize
 

I was a very outgoing person prior to my accident. I find it really tiring to follow conversations and if there is more than 3 people talking I don't usually talk because I can't keep up with the conversation.

I find by the time I am ready to jump into a conversation what I wanted to comment on has already passed. It can be rather awkward because I will say something and (my children particularily) will say we stop talking about that, I think others are more polite.

I prefer to go out with one or maybe two people to make it enjoyable for me and a quieter place, if there is a lot going on I get tired really quickly.

Thanks for the article Mark, it was interesting.

Mark,

Thanks for the article, I have only one word in response: YUP

Jamie

Yup! I was also very outgoing as well, and loved to chat to everyone. Now I hate it. First, I still feel unintelligent because I cannot think as fast as before. Second, the focusing on a conversation is difficult. Third, I just cannot be bothered anymore.

Its weird, I just have zero lack of interest in anything social anymore. My wife is so annoyed with it because I rarely even hold conversations with her anymore. It happened in January, so hopefully one day itll come back to me.

I was actually talking about this last night. Brainline.org has a video about how the most devastating consequence of brain injury is loneliness from loss of relationships. The video talks about how as an adult, your co workers, etc are in close contact for the first few weeks. But as time goes on, they realize you are off work "doing nothing" in their eyes, and the conversations you had with friends multiple times a day, drop off as co workers basically forget about you.

I think this would be true with kids too, especially in today's tech driven world. I personally can't stand talking on the phone. Most of my interaction is via facebook, texting etc. However, due to vision issues, I have to really limit how much time I spend in front of screens, so that's limiting too. And many kids go from being involved in a lot of activities, sports, band, etc to not be able to be involved at all.

My heart breaks for them. I know how isolating this is as an adult. I can't imagine having all the insecurities of growing up AND having a brain injury on top of it.

The issue is not about access to activities and friends. The issue is the personality changes that result in losses of friends and social contacts.

When I had my injury at 10 years old, I returned to school after only 4 days away. I had the same access to my friends and classmates but my personality had changed. I lost most of my friends. I had been a 'get along with everybody' type but that ended. I started getting picked on and bullied.

As my mother has said. After my head injury, she lost her sweet little boy.

There was no support for my recovery let alone any advice or counseling regarding how to deal with the personality changes.

Mark- I know that too. I guess what I'm trying to say is in a digital age it's even harder to compensate for those changes.

In my experience, digital communication makes connecting easier because there is not a need to be able to recognize social cues and read body language. Many with mTBI have diminished ability to recognize social cues and body language. Email and texting takes that out of the equation for the most part.

We just need to not be overbearing, a trait that is common to people with PCS. We can become defensive as we struggle to track what's going on.

Its a good article. I have the same access to family and friends as I did before my injury and yet, since my injury have had and continue to have many issues with social interactions and maintaining and making friendships.

I kinda wish there was more to the article, help wise or suggestion wise. I know in my case that fatigue plays a huge role, there's just never enough energy to go around and social interaction takes a huge amount of energy.

Plus keeping up with conversation (like others mentioned) and being able to stay focused and remembering conversation details is very hard when your memory is affected the way mine is. People think you don't care what they've said, when in fact you DO, but its nearly impossible to remember a fact AND continue to listen to ongoing conversation. I can maybe do one or the other, but absolutely not both.

But I know there's more to it too. After over 2 years of head pain without any breaks or relief, the chronic pain has made me cranky and withdrawn, sometimes I get short with people when I'm forced to interact. Its difficult to be patient and tolerant with others when your head is under so much pressure that you almost throw up from pain if you dare bend over to pick something up off the floor.

I mostly live like a hermit now, I rarely see other people than my husband and health care providers and honestly, I don't care that much. Interacting with other people is mostly just exhausting and upsetting.

Starr