I recently went to a local brain injury group and the guest speaker was giving a talk about brain inured people and their problems with relationships and displaying emotions. According to the research the majority of Brain injured people surveyed suffered some form of Alexithymia post injury

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexithymia has a good description

The research indicated that people with TBI not only have problems with their own feelings either containing them (anger / tears etc.) or talking openly but also in recognising emotions in their partners. The study took in both the injured people and their non injured partners. The non injured partners consistent view was that their partners seemed often "cold" and uncaring.

One of the scary statistics of her research was that around 1/3 of the people studied suffered a break up in their relationship - some permanent and rest temporary. Of the rest that stuck with their relationship a third of these said there relationship was not the same and that the person they new prior to injury was not the same person afterwords. Which in some respects given the traumatic nature of many accidents and injuries is understandable.

If people have the time and capability it may be worth doing their own reading on Alexithymia. The statistics brought it home that I must try harder to keep my relationship going .......

Alexithymia is another fancy term for weakness in recognizing social cues and expressing emotion.

Flat affect ( inability to express emotion) is very common with mTBI. The struggle to recognize social cues is also common.

I have had to sort of mechanize my responses to others. I feel fake about this behavior but know that my relationships need this.

It can be practiced when you are alone so you have memorized responses rather than waiting for your emotions to cause you to express feelings.

I can see how women can have more struggle to overcome this lack of emotional response. Some time with a counselor to help for those who struggle.

I was taught to acknowledge all expressions of others feelings, even when they don't make sense. Acknowledge the feeling then discuss the issue. If you feel like the issue is over-whelming you, back away and take some time to settle down and regroup your thoughts.

This one area is the toughest on family and friends.

I lost all of my friends when I suffered an mTBI in 4th grade.

My best to you all as you try to deal with this symptom.

Thanks for your post. I believe there is significant benefit to support groups, both as sources of infomation such as you provided and as a forum to discuss and thereby try to resolve some of these issues.

I relate. Early in my recovery I would begin to cry for no specific reason; later on, I now find myself unable to cry even when that display of emotion is appropriate. Fortunately I have a very understanding spouse who is non-judgmental and has helped me work through the emotional swings.

I continue to try to work on emotional intelligence by thinking about my feelings (if that makes any sense) as they occur. I’ve also begun mindfulness meditations, and while I’m not very good at it yet I see potential there. Thanks again for the post.