Traumatic Brain Injury

Given that your brain controls everything that you do, a brain injury may manifest itself differently, depending on the location and severity of the trauma. Some signs and symptoms may include:

• Physical problems—fainting, seizures, headaches, dizziness and vomiting, problems with balance, and muscle weakness
• Sensory problems—sensitivity to lights, sound, and touch; hearing loss or ringing in the ears; changes in vision or double vision
• Behaviour changes—being more emotional or feeling anxious or angry; feeling depressed or having mood swings
• Problems with thinking skills—difficulty paying attention, remembering, and learning new information; difficulty planning, setting goals, and problem solving
• Speech and language problems—problems being understood because of weak speech muscles (dysarthria) or problems controlling your speech muscles (apraxia of speech in adults and childhood apraxia of speech); problems understanding what others say or what you read; problems finding the words to say what you want or need
• Social communication issues—difficulty following conversational rules, like taking turns and not interrupting; difficulty understanding nonverbal cues, like when someone shrugs their shoulders
• Swallowing problems—trouble chewing, or coughing and choking when you eat (swallowing disorders in adults and feeding and swallowing disorders in children)

*Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association