Hello everyone,

I’m a 40 year old male and at the age of five I suffered a traumatic brain that changed my life forever. At seven I was already thinking about suicide… anything to stop the cluster headaches, and end this depressing life!

No one knew what was going on with me, I mean… I was too young to know either way. So I grew up not knowing anything…I didn’t know that being hyperactive, having a poor attention span, unable to sit still, bouncing off the walls, poor memory,Inhabitation, and even having erections all the time was wrong…didn’t every kid go through that? Apparently not…but hey, who knew!?

The post concussion symptoms brought me regular spankings, being yelled at all the time, grounded, yelled at some more, emotionally abused, and even paddled in school... all for being different…tbi different.

Well, It has been thirty five years now… and still the effects of that injury plague me today with short term memory and recall impairment (memory/recall ranked in the first percentile in 2008), sleep disorder (s) that keep me in a constant state of sleepiness, (it’s almost like I never fully regained consciousness after that injury… and of course the mental health issues that just downright sucks!

…looking back now, has caused me to cry a few times for that five year old me , just wishing I could go back and hug him and say something…something that will make it all go away.

Anyways, sorry this is so brief but my attention span is gone and if this doesn’t get posted now, it won’t ever… it’s an indecisive life. In short, I look forward to being part of this community and bringing something new to the table that can help others… Peace my friends

420,

What a story. Sounds a lot like mine. My first serious concussion was in 1965 at 10 years old. I had a minor concussion a year earlier when I fell down a flight of stairs. The stairs were fine. It was that sudden stop at the landing that was problematic.

Prior to my serious concussion, I had many friends and got along with just about everyone. Then I had a bad bike accident and ended up hospitalized for three days with slurred speech. My world started changing rapidly. I routinely struggled with depression. I contrived many ways to try end it by trying to make it look like an accident. Most of my friends left me. Some just turned their backs on me.

At the time, we had no idea about Post Concussion Syndrome. My mother told my wife a few years back that I was no longer her 'sweet little boy.' My grades suffered with ups and downs. Then I had three relatively OK years. It wasn't until 10th grade in late 1969 that I developed a absence seizure disorder (petit mal back then) and my grades plummeted again. My neuro pointed to my soccer playing and heading the ball as the trigger. No recognized concussions during soccer play.

After a two year recovery, my senior year was good and I graduated with Honors. Then during my second semester of college studying as a pre-dentistry major, I suffered a very minor concussion and soon after a very high fever (104.7 was measured after I had been cooled down for about an hour. ) My academic struggles returned and I had to drop my Dentistry intentions. I came close to flunking out. I turned to the lower stress environment of the local junior college system.

After 20 years of self-employment while trying to keep stress levels and head risks low, I suffered another very minor concussion that destroyed most of what memory functions I still had. The last two neuro-psych assessments show my immediate and short term visual and auditory memory in the bottom 5 to 12 % of the population. My processing speed at the bottom 10% level but with my intelligence still useful at the top 5 to 2% levels.

The neuro-psych PhD and PsyD both tried to say that my high intelligence scores make my memory and processing speed scores doubtful, even though the validity scales of 48 and 49 out of 50 show no chance of malingering. Malingering would be scores of 35 and below.

My visual processing and memory make it difficult to drive so I rarely do.

Most likely, you have developed many work-arounds and accommodations to allow you to live a life. I found that it also was helpful to move to Idaho from California to get away from the hectic pace and other risks.

I am eager to read your posts. You likely have some memory work-arounds that can help us all.

My best to you.

just a welcome for now ,

it is real tough for kids with an abi I can,t imagine, how you must have struggled

welcome

Thanks for the welcome;

You are right, it was either coping skills that got me this far or just really good at hiding it… the overall quality of life has a lot to do with family and friends. If it wasn’t for my wife of 20 years I would never have known…but I trusted her observations and advice and pursued the answers (I did marry my opposite and we have three kids, one taking college honors(I’m thankful that he didn’t inherit my life).

I would love to share some coping strategies that have helped me, just to write a simple explanation takes me forever to communicate.
Peace…