The Reality of Brain Injury
Over 2.8 million brain injuries occur annually in the US. They are often invisible–you may know someone living with one! Brain injuries can be caused by car accidents, falls, concussions, domestic violence, assaults, blast injuries, strokes, and more. They can occur to anyone, at any time, and can last a lifetime.
Visit our blog for video interviews with BESTies as they share their brain injury experience. Click the links below to view videos on specific brain injury-related topics.
My Brain Injury Experience Webinar (short videos)
- BIA Month Kick-off
- What Happened to Me
- Finding Help
- Psychosocial Impact of Brain Injury
- Loss of Identity After Brain Injury
The Reality of Brain Injury (short videos)
Learn More about Brain Injury
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- 69 million traumatic brain injuries annually worldwide
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- At least 1.8 million Americans each year sustain a TBI
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- 2nd most prevalent disability in the US
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- Every 9 seconds a person in the U.S. experiences a brain injury.
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- $76.5 billion in annual costs for TBI alone in 2012 for care and lost productivity
Concussions
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- According to CDC estimates, 1.6-3.8 million sports and recreation-related concussions occur yearly in the U.S.
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- 10% of all contact sport athletes sustain concussions yearly.
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- Brain injuries cause more deaths than any other sports injury.
These numbers understate the actual number of brain injuries because many people to not seek treatment and thus are not captured in the above statistics.
Stats provided from:
Impact of Brain Injury
Injuries impact all aspects of everyday life, disrupting:
Learning & cognition
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- Inattention
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- Lack of focus
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- Memory
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- Self-regulation
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- Time management
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- Executive function
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- Confusion
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- Brain fog
Family dynamics
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- Relationships
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- Divorce
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- Family roles
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- Caregiver burdens
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- Communication
School performance
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- Learning
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- Grades & test scores
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- Social skills & relationships
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- Self-esteem
Professional
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- Loss of identity
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- Loss of social status
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- Loss of colleagues & relationships
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- Loss of self-esteem
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- Loss of confidence
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- Loss of career after a lifetime of effort
Emotional well-being
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- Depression
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- Anxiety
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- Frustration, anger & outbursts
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- Suicide
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- Isolation & loneliness
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- Impaired social skills
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- Impact on relationships
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- Feeling left behind by society
Speech
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- Reading comprehension
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- Writing
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- Spelling
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- Thought organization
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- Auditory processing
Financial/Employment
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- Loss of job & income
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- Loss of future income and retirement savings
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- Loss of health insurance
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- Loss of home
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- Food & housing insecurity
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- Drain savings
Brain injury can have a profound impact even on those you don’t notice. Imagine investing a lifetime in learning, education, experience, and hard work to achieve your ideal job, professional status, and financial security, only to have it disappear without warning at the moment of brain injury. You feel robbed of your life and your future. Can you and your family survive the change? How do you rebuild, relearn, and reframe a new future?
Brain injury can have a profound impact even on those you don’t notice. Imagine investing a lifetime in learning, education, experience, and hard work to achieve your ideal job, professional status, and financial security, only to have it disappear without warning at the moment of brain injury. You feel robbed of your life and your future. Can you and your family survive the change? How do you rebuild, relearn, and reframe a new future?
What if you became me? That’s the question one BEST participant asked a neurologist after he dismissed her concerns about “average” and “above average” test scores after brain injury. After decades of academic achievement and success as a trial lawyer, the survivor knew that her cognition, learning skills, memory, and processing speed were nowhere near what they used to be – or what they needed to be for her to continue her career as a lawyer. She asked the Harvard MD/Johns Hopkins PhD if he could continue his career if he drove home that night, got in a car accident, and woke up tomorrow with her post-injury struggles. What if you became me?
Too many healthcare professionals dismiss the losses endured by professionals and other high achievers who spent lifetimes building their education and careers, only to see them lost in an instant. At BEST, we believe that all brain injury survivors deserve a chance to become the best they can be.