Trymunity is here to help you and your loved ones cope with a traumatic brain injury. You’re sure to have questions, frustration, and feel overwhelmed. Someone you dearly care about has been altered by an injury to the brain and you want to help. We offer an online support network that can lead you to medical support and emotional support. When a traumatic brain injury strikes, it affects not only the victim, but everyone who cares about that person. Let us be an emotional support foundation, providing you with the resources you need on the road to recovery.

One of the most important tasks that will lie ahead is memory stimulation. Memory loss and other difficulties with cognitive functioning are common after a brain injury. Your loved one will need to train the brain to do what came naturally before. It will mean a concerted effort on the part of family and friends to engage a loved one’s brain once more, providing stimulation and thinking challenges. Use it or lose it is the philosophy.

It Is All About Cognitive Rehabilitation

When the brain has been injured, it is important to start making connections again and restore patterns of thought. Depending on the extent of the damage, it may mean re-learning cognitive skills all over again. Brain games, or brain building, is something that everyone can do to help the victim of brain trauma. There are a variety of enjoyable activities that challenge the brain. At www.brain-train.com, Brain Train cognitive retraining software is available with specific activities to assist those with brain injuries. There are also helpful insights on continuing rehabilitation. Lumosity.com is another excellent resource with tried and true memory games that result in memory recovery. The TBi National Resource Center recommends crosswords, word searches, computer games, and reading as well.

Find Resources Here

At TryMunity, we can help you to find valuable ways to engage your loved one. Discover our links as well as many online sites that focus on brain games. Find exercises that stimulate the brain and are based on sound research. Try scavenger hunts and mapping a trip or doing mazes. Games that make a person focus on a picture and remember details are helpful. It’s time to sign up for TryMunity today and take advantage of our free support system to discover games and other avenues to better brain functioning.

At TryMunity, it’s our top priority to provide resources, information, and support when it comes to traumatic brain injury prevention. We know how challenging it can be when a loved one, especially a child, has suffered a brain injury—it has an impact on everyone who is involved in the life of the victim. Even harder to imagine, the road to recovery can be long and difficult. In some cases, a life may be permanently changed.

Much coverage has been given to new reports linking contact sports and traumatic brain injuries. While sports are fun ways to kids to exercise, learn life skills, and socialize with others, the prevalence of concussions make them dangerous. Below, we explore some ways you can protect your sports-loving children from life-changing brain damage.

Proper Gear is Essential

Brain injuries in sports are common and of great concern. On a national level, the NFL and other contact sports are making changes to ensure fewer brain injuries occur.

One of the most notable incidents of a brain injury making an impact on the world of sports was the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. As a result of his tragic accident that involved brain trauma, all drivers were required to wear helmets with a full face shield and neck restraints to reduce the chance of severe injuries. Racing courses were also designed with more protection.

Families can take measures at home to protect their children. Having the proper head gear is a must, no matter the sport.

• Helmets should be of good quality and fit correctly.
• Helmets should be worn during contact sports, while riding a bike, while rollerskating or skateboarding, and when skiing.
• While other types of padding are always recommended, the brain and head should always be emphasized.

Be Prompt with Treatment

In any instance of a head injury, no matter how small, treatment should be immediate. When there is any doubt, it’s best to call the doctor or head to the emergency room. This plan of action applies to injuries at home, school, or during a sporting event.

You should also be on alert for concussion symptoms. A concussion is considered a brain injury and can result in serious problems, affecting memory, balance, concentration, and overall coordination. Common symptoms include:

• a headache
• dizziness
• loss of consciousness
• nausea
• problems with speech
• buzzing in the ears

If your child experiences any of these symptoms after a blow to the head, seek medical attention immediately. It’s always better to be safe than sorry in these situations.

Educate Yourself and Your Family

Family members must find their way in dealing with the consequences of a traumatic brain injury, assisting an individual in overcoming day-to-day obstacles. New coping skills may be necessary with the care and support of an entire household.

Take advantage of the valuable resources that are available to you at TryMunity. Sign up for your membership today and start enjoying our support services, helpful blogs, and inspirational stories.

Let’s work together to deal with brain trauma and prevent it!

When an accident strikes and affects the brain, it changes the lives of everyone involved, not just the victim. Here at TryMunity, we offer an online support network for traumatic brain injury survivors and their loved ones, families, and friends. We are here to give you the emotional support you need during the process of recovery and recuperation. Our goal is to provide the resources needed to get your life back. Here you will find advice, a direction to turn for any type of assistance, and a community of caring individuals who understand the burden you are carrying.

Understanding the Changes that Have Happened to You

You may wonder if anyone else is experiencing the same kinds of problems you are currently facing. Your loved ones want to help you and understand why your behavior and emotions have changed, but it can sometimes be difficult to find this type of information. They want to know what to do and so you you. But until now, there hasn’t been a comprehensive resource for brain injury victims.

Our social network is devoted to assisting you in any way possible to ride out this storm. Everyone on our site has experienced the exact same thing you have and are here to support you.

You Are Not Alone

There are many other individuals who have been through traumatic brain injuries. Each case may be unique, but the symptoms are often similar, as well as the way that such an injury can change lives.

Our social media site is designed to help you:

• Join a network of others to be a part of their stories, share your own, and learn invaluable information.
• Find encouragement to overcome obstacles and difficult times.
• Discover the light at the end of the tunnel.

You may have a long road to travel, but there are helping hands to lift you up along the way.

Find Other Avenues to Get the Help You Need

In addition to our blogs, inspirational stories from other survivors like you, and important information, we can connect you to other essential sources of support.

• The Brain Injury Association of America
• BrainLine.org
• The Family Caregiver Alliance
• Centers for Disease Control

TryMunity is here for you with a large network of others who are going through the same thing as you. Become part of the community. Find strength and comfort from others who know exactly what you are going through right now. There is hope!

Guest post by Dean Dowd

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) can occur anywhere, but perhaps no place they occur has captured the public’s attention in the past year like the football field. From National Football League arenas to high school football gridirons, players are suffering concussions with frightening regularity.

General Electric, one of the world’s largest companies, is partnering with the NFL on a $60 million project to develop new and improved concussion-detecting imaging technology. This technology will be used to study not only football players, but also others that have high rates of head injuries, such as soldiers.

The more we know about head injuries, the better prepared we are to prevent them and treat them effectively when they occur.

Head Injuries: A Part of Football?

In the past year, serious head injuries sustained on the football field have come under scrutiny for their effects off the field.

More than 3,350 former players are suing the NFL because they say the organization did not take brain injuries seriously and treated concussions as just a part of the game. Doctors pointed to hit-induced brain damage after Pro Bowler Junior Seau committed suicide in May 2012, and questions were even raised about the role head injuries might have played in a December murder-suicide carried out by an NFL linebacker.

The Brain Injury Law Center brings you this infographic chock-full of statistics about concussions on the football field.

A football player need not even suffer a concussion to experience long-term brain damage, according to a recent study.

All this talk has prompted football officials to begin using helmet sensors in an attempt to understand how brain injuries occur. The military is doing the same thing. The partnership announced between General Electric and the NFL will develop imaging equipment to better care for people who suffer head injuries, whether football players or not.

It is the NFL’s biggest private partnership to date, and its price tag speaks to how seriously the league is taking the issue—even if it didn’t for many years.

Concussions Are No Minor Injury

Three-quarters of the roughly 1.7 million head injuries sustained by Americans each year are concussions. Studies are increasingly showing that their effects can be long-lasting, even if the incident that causes the concussion is unremarkable.

In a recent CNN story, one of the network’s own editors documented her difficult recovery from a concussion sustained in a car accident — an accident she walked away from seemingly unharmed. She had thought, as many people do, that a concussion only occurs when someone is knocked unconscious.

Despite walking away from the car crash, everyday tasks like reading and writing became a challenge. A complete recovery is unlikely.

Many, many Americans – including some of those active with TryMunity – have similar stories to tell. If this has happened to you, you know the difficulties. If it hasn’t, be sure you know the signs of a concussion.

About Us

The Brain Injury Law Center is based in Virginia. We provide legal representation to people who have suffered TBIs and do our part on our blog to educate the public about head injuries. On the prevention front, we have offered free bicycle helmets to at-need children in our community to help keep them safe.

We support the work TryMunity is doing to provide a network of support for head injury victims. If you haven’t already, be sure to visit TryMunity’s site and join their community if a brain injury has affected you, a friend or a loved one.

Many people who suffer traumatic brain injury also suffer from behavioral changes afterwards. The best-known example of this is the story of Phineas Gage, a mild-mannered railway worker who suffered a major brain injury when an explosion sent a steel rod through his head. Gage survived the accident, but he was said to become rude and ill-tempered for years afterwards.

Brain injuries don’t have to be nearly this extreme to cause significant behavior changes. Even relatively mild concussions can affect personality. Since many different parts of the brain can be injured, the effects vary between patients. Below is more information about the types of issues that many TryMunity members have experienced and how caregivers can best help overcome these obstacles on the way to recovery.

Types of Behavioral Problems

Behavioral changes associated with TBI include changes in social behavior, emotional regulation, and the ability to reason and concentrate. Neurological dysfunction is at the root of these issues, but their effects on behavior can vary widely.

A person who seems to be willfully misbehaving may be having problems processing stimuli or following directions. Someone who is disruptive may be suffering from intense agitation that compels them to move and speak. It’s important to try to understand the situation before launching into disciplinary measures; far often than not, a TBI survivor is not acting this way out of their own will.

Mood Swings

Many brain injuries affect the frontal lobe of the brain, damaging the areas involved in emotional control. Afterwards, sufferers may have rapidly changing emotions, regularly going from angry to happy to crying in only a matter of moments. Some TBI survivors have difficulties controlling their emotions and impulses with increased stress, which is worsened by cognitive problems and loss of independence.

The period after a traumatic brain injury can be frustrating and scary for a survivor. They often do not understand what happened to them, and realizing that they have losses in memory or motor skills can be upsetting. The best way caregivers can help is to remain patient and supportive throughout the healing and recovery processes.

Anxiety & Depression

Depending on the parts of the brain that are injured, anxiety and depression may be caused directly. For many patients, these emotions develop later in the recovery process, when insight has improved. Stress about making mistakes in tasks at which they used to excel, being overstimulated, and having major changes of plans can cause anxiety and panic. Over time, this can add up and cause depression.

Just like with mood swings, caregivers need to understand that this is part of the recovery process for TBI survivors. Stay positive, encouraging, and loving throughout recovery to help your loved one through this very difficult event.

Recognition of Problems

Early in recovery, many TBI sufferers don’t realize the deficits they may be experiencing due to damage in the parts of their brain involved in awareness. This can contribute to difficulties following instructions and completing tasks correctly. However, this lack of insight passes with time for many people. There are also many ways you can stimulate and help your loved one re-learn these skills, including games, mental exercises, and daily brain challenges.

Getting the Support You Need

It’s important to remember that while some TBI sufferers have no symptoms, others have a number of them. Every traumatic brain injury case will be unique and different; as our own survivors have found, no two stories are ever exactly the same.

At TryMunity, we can never stress enough to family members and friends that they should take care to be supportive of the person experiencing these issues. Educate yourself on traumatic brain injuries, their manifestations, and their long-term effects. Most of all, encourage your loved one to find and connect with others who have been in a similar situations.

Our online support community is designed to help survivors connect to other survivors and is free to join. Share your story, read others’ stories, and get the support and education you need during this stressful time.

Brain Injury Awareness Day in Washington, D.C. will commence Wednesday, March 13, 2013 on Capitol Hill. TryMunity founders, Tom and Bernadette Coleman, will be on-site as advocates of traumatic brain injury research and potential legislation from Congress.

Congressional Brain Injury Awareness Day, fronted by U.S. Representatives Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ) and Tom Rooney’s (R-FL) Congressional Brain Injury Task Force (CBITF), is an effort to educate members of Congress and generate support for funding research and rehabilitation initiatives. Rep. Rooney joins Rep. Pascrell as co-Chair of the task force this year, founded in 2001, and will be on hand at the Capitol Hill event on Wednesday.

Rep. Pascrell said in a statement on his website last week:

Brain injuries can impact anyone at any time, which reinforces the need for increased advocacy,” said Rep. Pascrell. “I am proud to have fought for the last 11 years to protect our athletes on the ball field and our brave soldiers in the battlefield from TBI.  I look forward to working with Rep. Rooney along with my other colleagues on the task force in continuing to raise awareness for this devastating injury while helping to promote research and improve access to rehabilitation and care.

The events of the day will include the yearly awareness fair and a briefing covering the investment of Congress into federal programs supporting TBI and the need for partnerships, both public and private, to advance care for brain injury victims.

Mrs. Coleman is also CEO of Advice Interactive Group, and Internet marketing firm in McKinney, TX. Advice Interactive and Coleman launched TryMunity in 2012 after her son, Michael Black, suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2011. Online support and information on TBI was not easily available for Black and his family. The non-profit organization and service, TryMunity, seeks to increase awareness and provide support for individuals and families who experience TBI by providing an online social community for survivors and supporters to share their story and offer encouragement.

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Recovery from a traumatic brain injury (TBI) relies on the brain’s ability to use other areas of the brain to take over the function of the damaged area. The newly-discovered ability for the adult brain to generate new cells may play a significant role as well. Games and activities intended to increase memory and critical thinking skills may help TBI patients rebuild brain function.

Engaging the Brain with Games

Games and activities that engage multiple areas of the brain are more helpful in improving memory that those that rely on repetition. Studies have shown that while learning by rote can help a TBI patient become better at accomplishing a specific task, it does not seem to improve overall cognitive function.

Games that people played as a child may trigger forgotten skills and increase brain activity. Try any of the following:

• Crossword, Sudoku, and Jigsaw Puzzles
• Card games like Solitaire, Go Fish! and Crazy Eights
• Drawing activities like Hangman and Mazes
• Electronic games like Simon

Apps That Enhance Memory and Critical Thinking

Computer games intended to improve brain function range from costly online courses available only by subscription to apps that users can download for free to their smartphones and tablets.

There are hundreds of apps marketed as memory enhancers. Here are four to consider:

• Memory Screening Test – Designed for use in acute care settings, this app is used by healthcare professionals to access levels of memory impairment. The app presents series of images to analyze and costs $19.99.
• Memory – Memory is a simple, $0.99 app in which players match pairs of pictures that appear on a grid, engaging the part of the brain that processes images. Users can select various levels of difficulty, ranging from 15 pairs of images to 150 pairs.
• Twinoo Brain Training – Twinoo combines numbers and colors to improve critical thinking skills. This free app presents math problems on one side of the screen and color combinations on the other, engaging both sides of the brain.
• MatchDrops – This free app presents images of colored balloons and asks users to memorize the sequence. After a few moments, the balloons begin to move to music, testing the user’s ability to retain information.

Playing games to improve brain function should never feel like a chore. A study conducted in Sweden in 2005 showed that brain-training can alter the brain’s dopamine receptors, not only improving the brain’s ability to retain information but improving the person’s mood as well. Games that are interesting, fun, and engaging are likely to produce the best results.

Share your favorite games and apps for brain training with us at TryMunity! We believe in the power of community after a life-altering accident and want to help you grow and develop. Join us today by signing up online.

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When one thinks of a traumatic brain injury, images of people suffering through comas or from debilitating paralysis easily come to mind. However, many people are unaware that concussions are surprisingly common and are considered traumatic brain injuries. As a result, a number of people will suffer some form of concussion without even realizing that it has occurred.

It can be difficult to find people both willing and able to understand the difficulties that people who suffer traumatic injuries often face. TryMunity is a social website dedicated to creating a space for brain injury sufferers to gather in support of one another. Additionally, TryMunity also offers a number of resources to help community members to be informed about brain injury.

How can you tell if you have suffered a concussion due to head injury? Below are some ways to identify if you may be suffering from a concussion.

How Do Concussions Occur?

Concussions occur when an individual is involved in some sort of jarring event that causes the delicate brain tissue to violently impact the inside of the skull. Events that can cause a concussion include:

• car accidents
• sports injuries (football, boxing, etc.)
• falls
• combat injuries
• physical assault or abuse

Although many concussions can be caused by a direct blow to the head, a concussion can also be caused by a devastating shaking of the upper torso, such as in whiplash. Any motion that causes the brain to slosh inside of the skull in such a way as to cause injury can be responsible for a concussion.

In smaller children as well as in the elderly, falls can be the cause of concussions. It can also be much more difficult for a child or an elderly adult to be cognizant of the concussion.

How Can I Know If I am Suffering from a Concussion?

In spite of the fact that many people suffer concussions without realizing it, a number of symptoms may be evident. They may include:

• a loss of consciousness
• a feeling of extreme tiredness or fatigue
• nausea and upset stomach
• memory loss
• difficulty speaking
• tinnitus or ringing within the ears

Concussion symptoms in a small child can be almost unrecognizable, but careful observation for any of these signs can help parents correctly identify a concussion. It is imperative that a person suffering from a concussion be put under immediate observation and prevented from continuing or participating in any rigorous activity until the signs and symptoms have disappeared.

If you or anyone you know has suffered from long term problems due to a brain injury such as a concussion, TryMunity is here to help. Our website has many resources to assist and connect you with others in the same situation. Our ultimate goal is help educate people about brain injuries and to offer brain injury support and resources to the people who need it the most. Join us today.

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