Many people who has been involved in some type of accident were they have gotten a severe blow to their head may very well be suffering from a closed head injury and they do not even know it. As a matter of fact, a closed head injury may not even be noticed until a couple of years after the injury happened because the symptoms can be very slow and appear gradually over a few years.



One of the reasons why a closed head injury may not be detected right after the injury happened could be because of the drugs and pain medication the person is taking. The reason for this is because one of the first symptoms of a closed head injury is very often small changes in the person's behavior and these are in the beginning often blamed on the medication.

Changes in their behavior may not necessarily be bad but they can be real confusing and aggravating both to the victim and the people around him/her because none of them really understand what is going on. The drastic mood swings can be very difficult to deal with for all the people involved because you never know what can trigger sudden changes in their mood. A state of happiness can turn to rage within seconds but you as a loved one need to know that even if the victim becomes very angry at this point he/she will normally not become violent to anybody unless they have a history of this prior to their accident.

Other signs of a closed head injury that will start showing themselves as time goes by are often confusion, short term memory problems, compulsiveness, problems concentrating and other everyday things we all take for granted and never give a second thought to. It can be very hard for a person, who has just found out that their loved one is suffering from a closed head injury, to adapt to the way the victim is now. The victim will often have many small behavior changes which can be hard to deal with for the people around him/her.

Very often a person with a closed head injury will become loud; they will speak very fast and interrupt in conversations. The mood swing issue is also something that will be very hard to deal with but if you think this is hard getting used to just imagine how it is for the victims themselves. These problems are nothing they can automatically control like the rest of us and it can not be treated and fixed medically either. Can something be done about it at all? Yes it can to a certain degree but it will take a lot of frustration and hard work.

Since a closed head injury is actually damage to a part of the brain which can not be fixed the person will have to train himself to recognize when things like the mood swings are happening. There is no filter in the brain to control these emotions and behaviors. The best thing you as a loved one can do is to educate yourself on how a closed head injury works. After that you need to bite your tongue and have a lot of patience as well as a lot of love. Help the victim recognize the changes without constantly nagging him/her about it, just be kind and loving.