Physical

• Sleep problems (can’t get to sleep, stay asleep, nightmares, restlessness)

• Tired, feel like you are “in a fog”, need to nap more than usual in the daytime

• Pain in joints and muscles

• Slow reaction time

• Headaches, head pressure (when doing too much, weather changes, or driving fast)

• Vision Problems: hard to read (problems tracking things on a page or keeping eyes focused, words move, understanding/comprehension), hard to work on a computer (light sensitivity, hard to focus), things are blurry when changing from near to far or vice versa, prescription changes often, difficulty seeing at night, blurred vision, headaches when visually concentrating on something, loss of visual field (periphery), eyes have difficulty working together (convergence), seeing dark spots

• Dizziness, spinning (vertigo)

• Hard to balance, lose your balance, often run into things (furniture)

• Sense of taste is different

• Sensitivity to light/noise, touch, temperature changes

• Ringing in ears (Tinnitus)

• Swallowing problems

• Changes in hormones levels

• Numbness/Tingling

• Increased heart rate, blood pressure, pulse

• Problems with appetite

​

Emotional

• Get mad easily, have a “short fuse”, mood swings or agitation

• Depression (sad, tired, negative, hard to have fun and enjoy things, everything is an effort, worthlessness), shame, guilt

• Anxiety (worried, panic attacks, PTSD, try to control things too much(fear of loss of control), intrusive imagery/thoughts

• Laugh or cry for no reason, or really emotional

• “Who am I?” “what is my purpose” “why did this happen to me?” (Identity los

• Denial

• Difficulty assessing risk

• Rigid or Black and White thinking, less flexible thinking

• Lack of self confidence

• Impatient

• Easily startled, also more vigilant for problems or coming into harm’s way

• May feel the need to self -medicate with drugs or alcohol

• Feelings of paranoia

• Problems with insight

• Feeling "isolated" from friends and family, even when living under the same roof. This is necessary sometimes to minimize sensory input.

​

 

Behavioural

• Take risks (drive too fast, take drugs, unsafe behaviour)

• Do/say things without thinking first, then wish you hadn’t said/done them

• Staying away from other people on purpose (isolation/avoidance)

• Difficulty with family, social or work relationships (feel people are mad at you or don’t understand you)

• Change in Role (Have to rely on other people to do some of the things you used to do like making decisions)

• Increase or decrease in interest in sex

• Overly self -centred (everything centres on them)

• Acting childish

• Overly sensitive

• Aggressive, irritable, or submissive/passive

• Grandiosity, boastfulness

​

Cognitive

• Need more time to understand information, conversations with others

• Hard to make plans, organize, or begin tasks (wanting to read and actually going to get the book and starting to read may be harder)

• Hard to say/know what you are thinking or feeling

• Hard to write things down, or make lists to stay organized

• Hard to concentrate, get distracted easily, trouble with keeping your attention on something

• Hard to learn new things

• Hard to make decisions (what brand of cereal to buy at the grocery store)

• Get stuck on a single topic, idea, thought or activity (perseveration)

• Confusion

• Don’t get jokes

• Memory problems

• Hard to put things in order

• Difficulty multitasking (listening and taking notes)

• Difficulty reading, writing, naming objects

• Losing or difficulty tracking things

• Trouble solving problems, doing simple math

• Trouble understanding written or spoken instructions

• Difficulty finding the words to use, stuttering or stammering, slurred choppy, speech

• Repeat the same activities

• Impaired abstraction, literalness

• Rigidity in thinking

• Trouble processing information, or it takes much longer

• Troubled by changes in routine

• Hard to do accurate reality testing

Adapted from: Brain Injury Canada https://braininjurycanada.ca/en/survivor/traumatic-brain-injury/about-brain-injury#TBI

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Behavioural

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cognitive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometime a brain injury provides opportunities for personal growth. Here are some ways you may have benefitted from your brain injury. Check the ones you have experienced:

 

 

New understanding of yourself

 

Have a situation that when you explain it to family you may become closer

 

Learning how to feel your feelings

 

Taking the time to focus on you

 

Gratitude

 

Slower way of life

 

Learning how to take care of yourself, identify needs and take care of them

 

Meeting new people with a brain injury like you

 

Opportunity to become healthier

 

Opportunity to redefine/express yourself in other ways (creativity in glasswork, crochet, framed word art, window frame art, writing)

 

Learned how to feel your way through a process

 

Opportunity to stand up for yourself (through insurance/legal system, professional complaints)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s Date_________________ My Day (For the survivor or caregiver to fill out)

 

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Morning Symptoms

Notes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Afternoon Symptoms

Notes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

0-5

Evening Symptoms

Notes

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