When choosing a therapist, it is important to consider their Areas of Practice. specializes in:

When choosing a therapist, it is important to consider their Areas of Practice. specializes in:

When choosing a therapist, it is important to consider their Areas of Practice. specializes in:

What is memory?

Memory is the faculty by which our mind stores and remembers information. It lets our brain take in, recall, and use information. A brain injury can affect any or all of these aspects or make it difficult to learn new things.

How Is Memory Affected After Head Trauma

Does a brain injury affect memory?

In some cases, a brain injury can cause the person to have a hard time remembering both past and upcoming events. The person might forget some day-to-day tasks or short-term plans. Of course, we are all human and forget things time to time, but a person with memory problems do that more often.

Most of us don’t really pay attention to how often we use our memories in everyday operations. Memory is the basis for almost everything we do – from knowing who’s who in our lives, to knowing how things work, or what we are supposed to do. These memories are the tool that helps us to quickly calculate an appropriate reaction to every event. But some memories can be the opposite of helpful. Certain recollections can be paralyzing, triggering, and overall harmful.

In What Way are You Affected After a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)?

  • TBI can damage parts of the brain that are responsible for learning and remembering.
  • Those with TBI may not remember the event of the injury
  • TBI tends to affect short-term memory more than it does long-term memory.
  • Those with TBI can eventually learn to work around their memory issues and get things done in their day-to-day lives. There are strategies to help with that process.
  • Those with TBI can sometimes have a hard time remembering plans or things they are expected to do.

What types of memory are affected by Traumatic Brain Injury

What types of memory are affected by Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)?

When we think of memory, we usually think of events from the past that can either be recalled or forgotten. But there are actually several different kinds of memory. A head injury can affect all of them, but some more than others.

Long-term and short-term

After a traumatic brain injury, the patient is more likely to remember events and facts from the past, including things that they might’ve learned in school, which is what’s referred to as long-term memory. But a head injury can make it difficult to retain new memories and the events that occurred after the incident. This is known as short-term memory. As it is more affected, let’s look at some potential short-term memory issues that may arise after a traumatic brain injury:

  • Losing track of time, not knowing what day it is
  • Having a hard time retracing a route you’ve just taken not very long ago
  • Forgetting important details of a conversation
  • Often loosing things
  • Repeating the same stories or asking the same questions several times because the person forgot that they have already done that very recently.

Prospective

Prospective memory is what they call “remembering to remember.” This refers to retaining plans and intentions in one’s head long enough to act on them on time. A head injury can seriously affect one’s prospective memory, causing them to forget to do certain things on time, like going to appointments, picking up kids from school, housework, holidays or birthdays, and so on.

Although a head injury will likely affect new memories more than old ones, certain parts of long-term memory can be lost, too. One might easily remember one aspect of an event or object or person, but not the other aspect of the same thing, for example the person might remember how to spell a complicated word but not it’s meaning.

What can one do to help their memory if they’ve suffered a head injury? Research has found that compensatory strategies is the best approach when it comes to memory issues. The strategy encourages the patient to use tools to compensate for lacking remembering ability, as in notepad, alarm or a grocery list – if you can’t remember something, write it down or ask those around you to remind you. This will help strengthen the memory trace in your brain, which will slowly lead to better neuro connections, and better memory with time.

Most of us don’t really pay attention to how often we use our memories in everyday operations. Memory is the basis for almost everything we do – from knowing who’s who in our lives, to knowing how things work, or what we are supposed to do.

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