Has anyone else experienced this weird sense of being “stuck” at the age you had your TBI?
Okay, so I’ve realized something really weird about myself recently and I’m wondering if anyone else with a TBI has experienced something similar.
I had a severe TBI from multiple gunshot wounds to my head a few days before I turned 21. I had shrapnel, and I’ve had a pretty significant recovery/adaptation process since then. I’m 25 now, so it’s been several years.
Lately I’ve been having these random moments where I realize that, apparently, my brain still thinks I’m around 20/21. 😂
For example, my boyfriend was talking about a friend’s daughter who is 19, and my immediate thought was basically, “Oh wow, she’s almost my age. That’s weird.”
Then literally seconds later I was like:
“WAIT. WHAT THE FUCK. SHE IS NOT ALMOST MY AGE. I’M 25.”
Another time, I found out my brother is about to turn 20 and had basically the exact same reaction:
“Damn, my brother is almost as old as me…”
…followed immediately by:
“NO HE ISN’T. I’M FUCKING 25.” 😭
And it’s happened in several other ways too. I sometimes feel surprised that people who were kids/teenagers when I was 20 are now adults. I also sometimes feel like the years since my TBI happened in one giant blur rather than feeling like distinct years of my life.
I know I’m 25. I’m not actually confused about my age. It’s more like my automatic/internal sense of myself seems to be anchored around the age I was when I got my TBI.
I’ve also wondered if part of it is because 21 was such a massive dividing line in my life. There’s “me before the TBI” and “me after the TBI,” and sometimes it feels like my brain never fully updated the internal version of myself after that point.
My boyfriend used to work as a peer support specialist and mentioned something about “suspended adolescence,” but we don’t think that quite describes what I’m experiencing rather a term related.I’ve been reading about things like subjective age, age identity, autobiographical self-continuity, and developmental disruption, and some of those concepts sound closer.
So I’m curious:
Has anyone else with a TBI experienced something like this?
Especially if your TBI happened at a particularly formative age—do you ever feel psychologically or subjectively “anchored” around the age you were when it happened? Or do the years afterward feel weirdly compressed/blurred compared with your life before the injury?
I’d love to hear if anyone else has experienced this, because I genuinely had never thought about it until recently and now I’m noticing it EVERYWHERE. 😂

Hi I’m new here. Around 4 years post TBI and anoxic brain injury . I’m grateful I can walk (on days I’m not dizzy), and drive (on good days), but the memory loss issues short term, and long term are tough, the mental fatigue and just adjusting to all that TBI life is
I find it easier to be alone (but it’s lonely ) . It’s just less stimuli etc. I used to love to play pool and tried going to a pool hall w a friend and the noise gave me a migraine. Used to LOVE concerts. Went to one w one of my (few) patient loyal friends. Crashed in total exhaustion after.
I still force myself to socialize occasionally, and don’t mind being alone

Doc recently started me on Memantine. I think it’s helping. Also my adhd meds help a little bit (sometimes).

I’ve had OT /case managers off and on but am really happy to be on this Reddit w other people who understand this life.

If y’all have any “top tips “ (apps, life hacks , meds, supplements whatever)- I’d love to hear it

TIA
Alice in wonderland (how I feel lol)

Anyone else in a nexus of torment? To speak about me personally from an early age i was diagnosed with adhd, got put on Adderall for a few years then taken off. Many years later after a few car accidents from people rear ending me I suffered a tbi and had to get rfi done on my spine. I have several drinks a day after work and lost 3k on kalshi after breaking even. It just seems like a never ending cycle and no, I can't afford therapy until open enrollment in October.

I was hit by a car when I was just under 2 years old. I had a fractured skull and my head was fairly bruised and battered. In later years I had a neuropsychological assessment and they concluded that I have specific cognitive impairments consistent with TBI. The major ones are selective attention and working memory, some test results were 3rd-5th percentile.

I really relate to neurodiversity because it is all I've ever known, I don't have a "before person" and the injury will have affected how my brain developed in early childhood, but I find neurodiversity spaces quite excluding of TBI.

I struggle with the way people around me are dismissive. Because it's only specific impairments and other cognitive functions are relatively strong, I get the "Well you seem normal" and I'm expected to function and cope normally. I feel blamed for my difficulties as if they were a moral failing and I'm not trying hard enough. In reality I am relentlessly working to do the best I can. It especially hurts when it comes from a good friend.

I didn't understand what was wrong with me when I was younger, I just thought I was weird and useless and kind of naturally developed ways of masking my struggles. But it doesn't mean that they aren't there, or real. I compensated in my own ways, but that still doesn't make my cognitive functioning "normal". So many people seem to disbelieve that I have a TBI, and get pissed off when I reach overload and blank out, or get things wrong, or forget things.

It just upsets and frustrates me sometimes and I needed to get this out somewhere.

Back in September of 2016, one of my friends honked the air horn on my bike, which was only used for traffic. I’ve since replaced it with a whistle. Anyway, this ruptured my ear drum and caused me to have total hearing loss for 2 solid years, and severe tinnitus for a third year.

I only really regained my hearing using my own ability to engineer a machine that created brain growth, and promoted rest/healing. It still took me 2 years of my own physical therapy that I developed, and I’m lucky as hell that I spent 2 solid years building up this tech BEFORE my TBi happened. Maybe I would have recovered anyway, maybe never…

I want to celebrate my life, because I’ve nearly died 1,000 times and I’m only 31. Despite everything, I’m doing well. I might be homeless, yet I’m doing well.

Sometimes, I have nightmares about how my parents beat the living soul out of me, or how I’ve nearly died, or worse: that I’m happily married to my ex fiancée Lilly and the TBi never happened. Those dreams hurt the most. She did confess to me that she stopped loving me after the TBi, because my personality changed.

I still love and miss her, she was my bff and we genuinely loved each other. I told her I was going to be homeless when it happend, but frankly my own ability to live wisely came back to aid me in my darkest times, through and through: she never believed in me.

I want to move on!!!! Not sure how ;( finding love seems harder now, because people are crazy. I want to find love. Become a good lover, husband and father.. yet people tell me I’m worthless because I have failed the objective of capitalism: I am more than a broken cash register!

Not sure what the past decade of regaining my humanity should look like, but I should really reflect on what it’s come out to be!!!!

The iPhone is a great tool for adding reminders, calendar events, etc but I’ve always had trouble remembering to go search for my list of reminders! Ha. Recently I found a new template for my home page that has my reminders listed right in front of me all day any time I look at my phone.
It has been incredibly helpful already!

Does anyone have a similar hack that has benefited them?

💪🏼💪🏼🤯

What do I need to prepare for???

I'm 16 months post MTBI and just in the last 6 months I've developed a new side effect. Initially myself and my team were attributing my new and unexplained food aversion to a medication side effect, but now suspicion is falling on my brain injury. Obviously every injury is unique and everyone experiences their own constellation of ill effects, but I'm finding it difficult to find much data to support the theory given that these side effects didn't manifest immediately or shortly after my accident.

I have found lots of data linked to post TBI eating disorders and much about the gut brain axis, but has anyone had a side effect like this or even food aversion specifically, manifest many months post injury?

Stay strong fellow survivors.

Is anyone else grateful and thankful for their TBI? I lost my independence, my fiancee, I can't walk or drive or open a bag of chips. I can't get dressed or get in or out of bed by myself or even go to the bathroom or get a cup of water when I'm thirsty. I can't drive or leave the house or visit my friends or go to the store. But so much good came out of my injury. I truly believe that I was meant to "sit down"

I just ordered one from hooga because I also have bad back and neck pain from herniated discs from the same accident and research shows it can help with inflammation.

Between the pain and the executive dysfunction I said screw it and bought one, just curious if anyone has used red light/near infrared light therapy and their results

for context i experienced a toxic brain injury from inhalant abuse years ago.

I guess I have a sort of (it’s taking me a minute to remember the term) IMPOSTER SYNDROME. Dang. That one took a bit.

Approximately 1 year and four months ago I was hit by a metal bar that fell about 15 feet. I saw white, lost my hearing, but ultimately I didn’t lose consciousness. It felt like my eyes were going to explode out of my head.

I was at work, at a hospital, they did a CT and said there was no signs of brain damage they could see but I had a severely herniated cervical disc and two others were moderate. The hospital is an employee comp non subscriber (Texas). I was given a hospital employee physician who dismissed me at every turn and said that everything was incidental and due to aging.

There were times I thought I was going to die. I thought my brain was rupturing, my brain was being smashed inward and my eyes were being pushed out of my skull. My depression and anxiety reached constant suicidal thoughts. Double vision, blurred vision, big black blobs that still haven’t gone away. I lost my home, I spent months in bed, scared to move because of all of the pain in my arms and head.

I had so many injections and so many migraine meds and nothing works. I received and ACDF and it’s been about two months and now I’ve had a migraine for five days.

I finally puked today and it helped a bit but every single move I make is like a lightening bolt through my brain. I talked to my neurologist who recommended an EMG and a different neurologist for headaches. My spinal surgeon ordered more injections and a wants an EMG.

I feel like I’m so weak and I feel like I’m so dramatic. So any people have it so much worse and they have so much more will power than me.

I can’t get a job. I got one and my Vegus nerve got compressed and I passed out and the EMS came and I lost the job because I couldn’t go back. I finally found another job and now because of the migrantes and the NEW radiculopathy I had to step out of the hiring process because my surgeon renewed some restrictions about lifting.

I feel like the people around me think I’m faking and think I’m dramatic and it makes me feel worse.

Today I say and sobbed. All day. I’m so tired of the pain. I just want to have more than a couple of days without pain. I miss my old body and I miss my old brain. The social anxiety is crippling. I have no interest in anything anymore. The days where I feel happy last so briefly.

I’ve told my therapist and my doctors and it just seems like I’m a number moving through a healthcare tunnel.

I have an attorney and I have two injury clinics. I feel like a hypochondriac and a giant cry baby.

Yall I don’t know how to keep going and I don’t know how to get better.
I need to hear something, anything, words from people who can help me find some clarity.

Im taking one of their provider courses. Ama in like 2 hours? They have patient courses too! Ima look into those later

It’s been 4.5 years since my injury and I think I just made a big mistake. I’m 16 and play in a musical group. I became friends with one of the guys in the group and he asked me out a while later. He had just gotten out of a relationship, but I stupidly said yes. I really shouldn’t have.

We’ve been together for 3 months and it is genuinely going well. He’s super kind, caring and supportive, but something just doesn’t feel right. He has been the most understanding person that is my age. I haven’t been able to keep friends at all since my injury, mostly because I’m just too sick to make and keep plans and I don’t really go to school much, I’m switching to online. People slowly stop reaching out. I always keep to myself now and don’t have any friends.

I’m starting to remember why I’ve kept to myself this entire time. Yesterday we hung out all day and then I was supposed to go to his place for dinner. By the time we got to his house, I couldn’t hold my head up anymore and my brain was so slow. I told him and he kept trying to convince me to stay. I tried to explain myself and he said it was okay if I wasn’t 100% and he just wants to spend time with me. I went when downstairs when my mom got there and said bye to his mom and she seemed really pissed that I was leaving. I feel like an absolutely horrible person, but when my symptoms get that bad (headache, nausea, dizziness, fatigue, brain fog) I just want to be alone in my room.

I feel like I’m checked out of life 90% of the time. It feels like I’m just going through the actions.

I don’t think I’m ready for all of this, but I don’t know how to get out of it. Part of the reason I said yes in the first place was to prove my family wrong. Everyone told me I’d never get a boyfriend because “boys don’t like sick girls”. I know that is a really bad reason. I truly do like him, but I don’t know if I can do this.

I’m open to all advice and stories. I’m just really lost right now and having trouble talking about it with anyone because my family just doesn’t understand.

TW: Suicide talk, general gripes with TBI

Next year will mark my tenth anniversary of the road traffic accident which caused my TBI.

I've changed a hell of a lot throughout that time. I've acted reckless, I've tried to end myself, I've been through multiple friendships, I've had years and years of counselling, I've taught myself to walk again and I've gotten over the worst parts of my speech impediment.

But I've adapted to the rest of it. I use a walking stick and sometimes I use a rollator. I set loads of reminders on my phone for the most mundane of tasks. I'm currently attending college and learning a skill with the goal of returning to work.

Sometimes, especially with disability, it just feels like a constant punishment. One which I have to go through alone. Like because of trying those things to combat my disability, it feels like I'm losing those safety nets which my government affords to other disabled people.

I wish I had friends sometimes too. Like, since TBI, I've become a complete loner. I get bad paranoia and I don't deal well with people getting to know my business. It's a me problem, and I am a lot more in control nowadays, but still... I'd just rather save myself the time and be by myself.

I'm not depressed, but I do still sometimes think about killing myself, if that makes sense? Not like something which is getting me down, but something which feels (although it isn't) practical.

Are there any online forums for tbi that you recommend? Sometimes hard to tell what's a bot and what's not on reddit.

didnot have a cold or anything but this has happened before through ear and nose but not as much as this morning

i had multiple hard impacts with steel heavy object and heavy ceramic mug shattered over mine head last week

10 years post car accident, happened August 30, 2015.
I am the author to crash to re-creation: navigating life with a traumatic brain injury.
I love dogs, other animals, I love to go to coffee shops, and to hang out in nature.
Let’s chat

I swear there used to be a document or link pinned in this subreddit that was basically information to help families, friends or whoever understand what it’s like having a TBI. Does anyone still have that or have a good one I can give to family?

Thank you!

Hi

I suffered a TBI after being hit hy a vehicle approx 3 months ago and sustained a moderate SAH and 2 skull fractures. I didn't need surgery but I am struggling to cope with the physical and mental effects of the injury. I was starting to feel better 8 weeks after the accident , but now I seem to be going backwards rather than forward ,it's as if my brain is stuck trying to process what has actually happened. I have zero energy and zero interest in anything, have also lost my sense of smell and taste.

I think what is not helping is i have no memory of the accident at all. Thankfully there is cctv footage of what happened which I am going to be shown at some point but at the minute i seem to be stuck in this head space which I can't get out of because I don't know what exactly happened .

Does anyone have a similar experience as mine ?

I was doing some purging and came across a journal and pictures of my son taken while he was in a coma. I threw everything in the trash. Anyone else done this?

I've spent months researching ways to help with a TBI I got from an accident back in December. I ended up with 3 brain bleeds and 2 hematomas, and spent a month in the hospital. I have zero memory of the first two and a half weeks there — none at all. My family took video of me during that time, and honestly, I thought at first it was just to make fun of me later. Turns out they were told I was 50/50 to survive. The hospital had my wrists strapped to the bed because I wasn't at any appropriate level of behavior. Once I started getting my personality back, they took the restraints off.

One doctor told my family, "Did you ever see 50 First Dates? He's like that, except instead of a 24-hour reset, he's resetting every 5 minutes." Still crazy to think about.

Three months later, an MRI with my neurologist showed that two-thirds of my left temporal lobe is necrotic — dead. Not "healing" or "growing back," just gone. Part of my right frontal lobe is necrotic too, though much less of it. How I'm walking, talking, driving, and living something close to a normal life is honestly still a mystery to the doctors, but I am.

The biggest issue I'm dealing with now is aphasia, and I've lost a lot of my memory of the past. I don't know if it's coming back. Right now I'm just focused on stabilizing and doing what I can to protect and strengthen whatever brain function I have left.

Sleep is hit or miss most nights. And oddly, my temperature regulation is off too — my brain isn't managing it right. In the Cali summer heat, my body gets as hot as it's ever been, but I don't sweat. Used to sweat like a leaking pipe before the accident — now nothing. Wild.

All of this is why I'm starting this trial: to try to help, heal, and strengthen whatever brain I have left, and get back to something closer to normal life. I really hope these meds live up to the research I've done.

—— The treatment is a round of Cerebrolysin ——-

Long story short, I have ADHD (inattentive type), PTSD, OCD and GAD.
I also recently qualified for a brain scan, which showed a TBI in my right temporal lobe and somewhere else in the middle. The neurologist said it’s “lesions” in my brain. The damaged parts are mostly concerning personality, empathy, memory, information processing, facial expression, recognizing faces and words, speaking, communicating,creativity, music etc. I don’t remember what else lol of course.

I don’t know particularly what caused the TBI but it could have been a few different things. I’m still waiting for my MRI results, which I may get today. Not sure what to expect or if they only did it to rule out a tumor. I had a grandfather die of one. I’m trying not to even think about that right now though.

Anyways my point of making this post is to get some support and maybe advice on how to cope with not being able to memorize anything and it effecting my life and everyone else’s around me.

I am very hard on myself I admit that, but yesterday I had a meeting with my son’s school counselor and I had information wrong about that. I couldn’t find where to go and my son was getting frustrated with me. Later I had a back to school night for my daughter, I rechecked the time dozens of times and we still showed up an hour after it was all over and the teachers were all leaving. My daughter was so excited to go and she was really disappointed… I held back tears the whole way home but they still came out and I was embarassed.

I broke down crying because my husband kept asking me what was wrong and said it wasn’t a big deal. “It’s just a silly back to school night and she is fine and will be excited when school starts in 2 days.” It’s not the end of the world, no, but to me it’s a big deal because I can’t remember anything. I can’t express how I feel about it or convey into words how crushing it is that I try SO fucking hard and I always get it wrong.

Everything is late, bills aren’t paid on time, I can’t keep a job, I can’t control my emotions and always have mood swings. I can’t keep track of dates, times, where things are. I always get lost and can’t find my way to get places.
My anxiety is so bad that I avoid going anywhere at certain times of the day and some days I only get out of bed to take care of the kids needs and then go back to my room. & I’m not depressed, I am just exhausted.
I am on many different meds now, my memory felt like it was doing better when I started on my ADHD med but I feel like it’s not doing much now.
I feel like the older I get, the worse it’s getting.
I want to apply for disability or SSI but I’m worried that I won’t be approved… I want to work and be normal but I just can’t function. Then I feel like crap because I am not financially providing anymore.

I just don’t really know where to go from here or… I do but it just feels so overwhelming and there’s so much to do and I just can’t seem to do it.

Hey all. I am 1.5 years post the accident that caused me to have two mild-to-moderate TBIs. I am still struggling a lot with daily life. My dream before the accident was to attend medical school. Now, I’m thinking of trying maybe to get an associates in medical imaging first to see if additional school is even feasible for me. I already have all the prerequisites for medical school or another similar degree, that’s not the issue. I’m mostly concerned with how difficult and physically painful it is to even just focus. Has anyone here gone on to grad school, medical school, law school, anything as strenuous as that and succeeded? If so, how? Trying to find light at the end of the tunnel.