TBI (traumatic brain injury) The Invisible Injury

Let's say you've gone into the ER, and they've given you the once over and they say, "Well, your scan looks good." That doesn't mean that you don't have a traumatic brain injury.

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is typically any sort of trauma to the head that may be with loss of consciousness or without.

A traumatic brain injury happens when some type of external force hits a person's head. TBI could be caused by anything, like the person is walking and they slip on the ice and they hit their head, it can be when they're in a car accident and maybe their head hits the windshield. Any of those types of situations can cause a traumatic brain injury.

An important thing to keep in mind is you might have a completely normal brain scan. Let's say you've gone into the ER, and they've given you the once over and they say, "Well, your scan looks good." That doesn't mean that you don't have a traumatic brain injury.

Sometimes a person has a brain injury and can talk and walk and seems just fine. 

The thing is, it's the invisible injury, you can't see the behind the scenes, what's actually really going on. That person might not remember what you said in that conversation.  They might have had to use a strategy to even get to that medical appointment; there are so many things that can happen behind the scenes that you won't even know about when it comes to a brain injury. Progressive Therapy Associates helps people to make those unseen difficulties actually go better for that person.

We offer a really caring, individualized, approach to helping individuals become more functional in their environment. Whatever caused them to have difficulty in their environment is what we address.

Many people don't recognize individuals with a traumatic brain injury are struggling.   It is not intentional that they're not taking their medication as prescribed, and not eating and showering regularly. That happens due to impairments from traumatic brain injury.  Progressive Therapy Associates work on getting people back into those “normals”, being able to get a structure and routine, identifying how your brain can work, and optimizing that. Then building skills, so that we can see it all come together. That's really rewarding, we see people that start to feel quite poorly about themselves, reporting, "I used to shower every day, and now I'm too tired, I shower once a week." Well, that's embarrassing for them to experience and share that sort of information, so we're addressing getting basic skills back in place; this has quite a big impact.

 A big piece that comes along with traumatic brain injury is disrupted sleep schedule, or a loss of appetite. All of these foundational skills are addressed and need to be in place for a person to function, for their brain to function, for their body to function, and for them to continue in their recovery. 

Therapy for brain injury is not just about paper and pencil tasks. Those have a purpose, they help to build skills, but rather more along the lines of functional strategies that the person can use. For example, here are some things that have helped people who have had a brain injury. 

A big part of our therapy here at Progressive Therapy Associates is to build awareness. Sometimes when a person has a brain injury, they can't see the injury. In fact, they might actually think that they are performing perfectly well. We’ve worked with adolescents and adults who could not see that they even had an injury, but it was very obvious to everyone around them that something was quite different. In one case, a person did not remember to shower, they were not thinking to clip their fingernails, they really weren't doing a lot within the home to be a contributing member of the family. Yet this person thought that things were going beautifully, and that there were no problems at all.

Part of our role as therapists here at Progressive Therapy Associates is to build that insight.  Until people can actually see that there is an impairment, and there's something that they need to do about it, it is challenging to live life more effectively.

If you've seen one patient with brain injury you've seen one patient with brain injury. This looks very different from one person to the next.  We focus on treating and evaluating each individual and providing specific care to meet specific needs, every time.   

So many people, they get to a point where obviously their troubles aren't gone, but they've become really efficient with using strategies to the point where they can compensate and they no longer experience the same struggles as they did before.

Some will still have problems, but they're able to use skills to really compensate and support those things they have trouble with. 

There is definitely hope for people who've had a brain injury, no doubt about that.

Whether it's been two months, two years, or twenty years, there is definitely help and hope for brain injury. There are skills that you can obtain that maybe you don't have now.  I would encourage you to call us here at Progressive Therapy Associates and schedule a free consultation so that we can determine what we can do to help you.

If as a family member you're recognizing some of these symptoms that we've discussed, it would be incredibly important to give us a call at Progressive Therapy Associates and let us see what we can do to help.

There are multiple ways that you can get the treatment you need at Progressive Therapy Associates. You can call here for a free consultation; your medical provider can refer you to our clinic.   You can request a consultation on our website at (http://www.progressivetherapyassociates.com).   
Any of those steps can help you initiate the treatment you need.

If you're wondering if Progressive Therapy Associates services could be of help to you, just give us a call. We will help you to figure out if what we provide is a match, and we'll let you know if it isn't.

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