There are many ways that you could hurt your brain. You could slip and fall while at the grocery store. You might hit your head on the steering wheel when someone rear-ends your car. Regardless of how you get hurt, a traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious issue.
If you don’t get the right treatment and take good care of yourself, the symptoms of your TBI could get worse or persist for a long time. Certain groups, including the very young, the very old and those with a history of other brain injuries may have a harder time recovering.
How can you promote faster healing after a TBI?
Minimize what you do for the first few days
Whether you have a full-time job and a family or attend college, you likely need to take a few days off of your responsibilities after a TBI. Staying home and minimizing how active you are can help your body put as many of its resources as possible toward healing your injury. Getting plenty of sleep, staying properly hydrated and taking any medications prescribed to you can all help.
Avoid mentally taxing activities
Your brain has to put more effort into certain activities than others. Visual processing is particularly hard on your brain.
Trying to reduce how much time you spend looking at screens can take a lot of stress off your brain and allow it to invest more of its resources in healing. The same is true about avoiding driving. Sports and exercise can also exacerbate your injuries or slow your recovery time if you are particularly aggressive when you exercise.
Keep track of your symptoms
You need to know if you have started to get better or if your symptoms seemingly plateau or get worse. A lack of improvement or worsening symptoms could be a sign that the bruising or bleeding has continued after the initial injury. You may want to have family members check in on you as well, if someone else may be more inclined than you are to recognize signs of confusion or changes to your personality.
Taking good care of yourself can reduce the impact of a serious personal injury, like a TBI, on your life.