I've been reading much about the emotional changes in a TBI survivor...Most seems to be that we are more emotional than before our TBI. In my on-line support group, all agree, they are much more emotional and can become agitated much more easily now (post-TBI). What I've started to become concerned with is, I'm by far more often flat or non-emotional. I think maybe I've cried twice in 2 yrs (just a few tears really), when I learned I wouldn't be going back to work and when it was found that my TBI was worse than we anticipated. I feel some emotions, I just don't seem to have any physical or mental response to them.

Anyone experience emotional flatness or know anything about emotional deficits after a TBI?
I've not been able to find any info except for being more emotional not less.

This has come up a few times recently. Are you on Elavil/amitriptyline? It's commonly prescribed for PCS to help with sleep, (and I guess headaches sometimes). I noticed that it made me very flat emotionally. It was an odd feeling, nothing really upset me or made me happy. I was just flat.

Did anyone else experience this?

This is not to say that your emotional flatness is not related to your TBI. Drug side effects are just one possible cause out of many.

I'm not sure if it belongs in this thread since it's not flattening of affect strictly speaking, or the "Odd PCS symptoms" thread, but here it is anyways.

The other day, TSN (Canadian version of ESPN) aired an interview with former Canadian Football League star quarterback Matt Dunigan about his battle with post concussion syndrome. One of the emotional changes that was effected by PCS was ... losing his sense of humour.

The video for the interview: http://watch.tsn.ca/featured/clip498028#clip498028

15 years and still suffering with daily symptoms!! Depressing. Even when he talks he seems out of it. Not sure it makes sense. I appear normal and also pretend normal in many occasions (though I have symptoms 24/7) and I seem out of real world. I have always cloud (in short for all my symptoms) in my head for the past 2 years.

My emotions have been very wacky - can't say I've been emotionally flat overall.

However, my emotions tend to run wild over small, unimportant things. When it comes to things that actually do matter and should concern me, I simply don't care. There's a definite "emotional flatness" that occurs.

For example, I might cry for hours over the tone of your voice when all you did was give me a simple, innocent, "Hi, how are you?".

On the other hand, if you walked up to me and told me you hated me and all the reasons why, chances are that it simply wouldn't register. I wouldn't feel anything positive or negative about it. It might suddenly register several days later, but often I can talk about big issues in life and why they're matters of concern without actually feeling anything about them.

This is slowly normalizing, but it's been an interesting life!

Chitowndizzy, I'm not taking any meds that should have this type of cause and effect. Although, I have asked my neuro if the anti-seizure meds could be lending to it. He doesn't think so, but I'm always sceptical about any "brain" med and if they really know all of the effects on the brain.

Katie, you said:

"On the other hand, if you walked up to me and told me you hated me and all the reasons why, chances are that it simply wouldn't register. I wouldn't feel anything positive or negative about it. It might suddenly register several days later, but often I can talk about big issues in life and why they're matters of concern without actually feeling anything about them."

That's exactly how I feel. When it's something I "should" be angry about. Like right now, I'm dealing with my lawyer and the insurance company about benefits not being paid the way they should be...Before my BI, I would have walked up one side of their rear-ends and down the other giving them a piece of my mind. Not anymore...Whatever I'm feeling is so dulled that it's easy to just shrugg it off. The only exception might be if someone were harming one of my loved ones, I think that might wake the dragon in me lol!

ConcussedJ, Thanks for sharing that story...It soooo belonged here. I can hardly wait to share it with my family. And bravo to Matt Dunigan for putting it out there to the public and raising awareness.

Hi I was very much like you as above. I simply didn't feel anything strongly,was a little short tempered and impatient with my family at times, but that was it.

I don't think I had the energy to cry - even when my husband left me I didn't. More or less shrugged my shoulders and thought oh I had better go to work. (all 3 hours a day that I was trying to cope with at the time)

My psychiatrist told me it was a sign of depression. I still think a contributing factor was and still is tiredness.

My GP says I am stoic - ha ha - I ended up looking that up in the dictionary as I didn't think we had the same definition.

The above was 10 years ago - now I think it is more likely that I can no longer cope with a lot of emotion.

Maybe you are hanging on by a thread to not lose control. I do know that I am/was a control freak. Maybe you could be too. Also I don't chose to waste my energy on things that I know I can't deal with.

I have had two moments of tears in the last 10 years;

the first when the ER doctor insinuated I did not have a head injury and merely wanted compensation,

then the second was 3 years ago when a client fired me and I simply burst into tears and went home and stayed home.

Hope that has been of some help - all part of the self awareness problem I think!

Lynlee

hi
all I can add is I don,t have feelings I can remember what the appropriate feeling, response, should be, but feel emotionality flat, one would think it would bother someone that has lost emotions ,but I find myself the practician of logical empathy and responding to others emotions the best I can living with TBI is All about work arounds