Common Myths About Brain Injury

MYTH: A person must be unconscious to suffer a brain injury.

FACT: Even a “mild” traumatic brain injury can have devastating, long-lasting and permanent consequences.

MYTH: If a neurological exam is normal, everything is fine.

FACT: A “gross” neurological exam is not designed to pick up subtle impairments and deficits caused by injury to the brain cells.

MYTH: A person must have a visible injury or evidence of trauma to sustain a brain injury.

FACT: Often there will be no visible injury or evidence of trauma to the head or body because the injury is caused by movement of the brain and brain cells within the skull.

MYTH: Psychological effects, such as depression, are not related to the physiology of the injury.

FACT: A person might often suffer emotional consequences as a result of a traumatic brain injury and its impact on the person’s ability to function; just because the person becomes depressed does not mean that the problems are just “psychological” rather than neurological.

MYTH: One person’s brain injury will be similar to another person’s brain injury.

FACT: Each individual is unique, and the number and location of brain cells injured differ and therefore the individual impairments associated with the brain injury will differ.