Understanding a traumatic brain injury begins with understanding how the injury affects the functionality of the brain. When someone gets hurt and the injury affects the brain, this can disrupt the way that the brain normally functions. This can interrupt how someone learns and functions on a small or a large scale. Traumatic brain injuries have common symptoms that one should be on the lookout for, should you or someone you know to experience this type of injury.
The Symptoms of a Traumatic Brain Injury
There are numerous symptoms one can experience after experiencing a traumatic brain injury. Some people will experience all of the following symptoms, while others may only experience one or two of the symptoms. The most common symptoms following an injury to the brain include a loss of consciousness, amnesia of the injury’s cause or the events that happened right after the injury, disorientation and/or confusion, short-term memory lapses, headaches and dizziness, blurry vision, ringing from inside your ears, nausea, vomiting, and difficulty speaking like you normally would.
The duration of the symptoms depends on how the injury occurred, as well as the degree of injury your brain sustained. Even if you stop experiencing symptoms, you could still be under the effects of an injury to the brain, and a doctor should be consulted. The worse your injury was, to begin with, the longer and stronger of symptoms you should expect.
The Degree of Traumatic Brain Injury
There are three common degrees of a traumatic brain injury: mild, moderate, and severe. With a mild injury, most commonly called a concussion, people often experience unconsciousness of under 30 minutes, and most of the symptoms the person will experience show up soon after the injury. The symptoms typically fade quickly, however, they can last weeks or months. A moderate injury involves unconsciousness of 30 minutes or more, and the symptoms usually last longer than those of a mild injury. For a severe injury, one will typically experience over 24 hours of unconsciousness, and stronger and longer symptoms than mild or moderate injuries.