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Without a doubt, a traumatic brain injury affects you in many different ways, including your memory after the accident. The severity of memory loss will vary from person to person, but there are some commonalities that can be found among TBI survivors. Here are some of the ways you can anticipate traumatic brain injury to affect your memory, or the memory of a loved one.

Short-Term Memory Is More Likely to Be Affected

It is pretty normal to expect moderate to severe traumatic brain injury survivors to experience some form of memory issues. But, fortunately, it is much more likely for long-term memory to be left untouched; short-term memory is typically what is most affected. This can prove to be just as frustrating, however, because someone who struggles with short-term memory issues will forget important details, have the tendency to lose things, be unable to recall details of their day or something they just did, etc.. It can be very frustrating for them, so patience is necessary.

Prospective Memory

Your prospective memory includes things that you plan to do in the future. These could be doctor’s appointments, errands or places that you need to go, important occasions, and other similar instances. This can be especially upsetting for new TBI survivors. Though they are still adjusting to life with their condition, they may feel as though they are constantly making mistakes.

Trouble Linking Things Together

Perhaps it is your first time getting together with friends and family after the incident that resulted in your traumatic brain injury. People are coming up and hugging you, asking how you are, and you recognize all of them. But for the life of you, you cannot remember some of their names, even if you have known them for years. This is one of the ways TBI can affect memory. You can struggle to put names to faces or have trouble inserting the right word in conversation, despite having retained excellent vocabulary skills.

Join TryMunity Today

These are only some of the ways that traumatic brain injury can affect your memory moving forward. Everyone’s experience will be different, but one thing that every TBI survivor has in common is their desire to not feel alone in their new way of life. This is precisely why TryMunity was created: to be a community for traumatic brain injury survivors and their families to share their stories with one another. Join TryMunity today at http://www.trymunity.com.