And this month, the Brain Injury Association of America is putting a special emphasis on concussion with their campaign “A concussion is a brain injury. Get the facts.”
I’m really happy they’re doing this. As someone who has sustained a number of concussions in the course of my life — several of them during sports events — this topic is near and dear to my heart.
The more we know about it, and the better trained coaches are to recognize and respond to these events, the better off we will all be.
Because concussion doesn’t just affect the individual who’s been injured. It affects all the people they interact with, their families, their teachers, their peers. And in the long run, it can affect society on a very large scale. Violent crime and repeat offenses have been connected with TBI,
About eight years ago, a study was conducted which tested the hypothesis that TBI is related to violent crime. What they found was that more than half of the participants in the study (half of whom had been convicted of domestic violence, half of whom had no convictions) had sustained a TBI — the violent offenders had had more severe injuries.
Knowing about TBI and responding appropriately to it is important not only for the criminal system, but for all of us in everyday society. Whether it’s dealing with anger management issues, attention issues, poor performance which cannot be explained any logical way, or a host of other issues that come up after TBI (sleep issues being a big one for me as well as many others), the after-effects of TBI (even “mild” TBI) can have dramatic and long-range impact on many, many aspects of our lives.
And since we know, deep down inside, that none of us is really an island, we can safely way that individual problems can and do become collective issues.
So the more we know about TBI as a whole society, indeed, a whole world, the better equipped we can become to respond appropriately to it.
I hadn’t actually intended to write about this today, but m reminded me that it’s Brain Injury Awareness Month, so I’ve got to make mention of it.
I guess maybe I’m supposed to give more thought to the other things I was going to write, before I write them.
All good 🙂
Broken Brain - Brilliant Mind 
Good points – they believe that it may be that as many as 80% of the prison population have had significant head injuries. Ditto the homeless population. Many many vets turn to alcohol and drugs because they have not have their TBI and PTSD issues recognized – and end up in jail or homeless as well. THink of all the folks who are given psychiatric meds and labels (which may deny them life insurance and even mortgages) but really are experiencing TBI.
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