Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs) often occur suddenly and without warning. One common symptom of a TBI is fatigue. There are many thoughts about the interrelationship between fatigue and TBIs. What we do know is that every person and their TBI affect them differently. Some people will have challenges with more short-term fatigue symptoms whereas others will seem to have lifelong fatigue. This blog post will explore the relationship between fatigue and TBIs as well as provide some ideas for managing TBI fatigue during recovery.
How Do TBIs Occur?
TBIs may occur in a variety of settings and at any point in someone’s life. There are two main ways TBIs occur. One is by external force. This can be from football hits, falls, car accidents, physical altercations, or gunshot wounds, for example. The other way to sustain a TBI is from internal infections, loss of oxygen, as in a stroke, or a brain bleed.
Why Does Fatigue Follow Some TBIs?
This question continues to be researched. It isn’t directly known what causes the fatigue levels some people with TBIs experience, whereas others experience more short-term fatigue. Many of the ideas that contribute to fatigue after a TBI include the body physically healing from injury, mental exhaustion, and/or mental health and trauma effects. The Minnesota Brain Injury Alliance has a short PDF article linked here if you’d like to learn more about fatigue and TBIs and methods to manage fatigue.
Three Ways to Manage TBI Fatigue
- Maintain physical health and strength – our physical health is crucial to not only our mental health but also to regaining strength lost after the TBI. Being in good physical health can help to increase our fatigue tolerance.
- Listening to your body to get the rest your body needs to heal. Sometimes it is great to push through the fatigue. However, it’s also important to listen to your body during the healing process and rest when needed.
- Challenging our brain with activities, puzzles, or other cognitive games to strengthen focus, concentration, and attention. This can help to increase our cognitive abilities to focus on tasks if we begin to experience fatigue while at work or later in the evening.
Find A TBI Therapist Near Milwaukee, WI
TBIs can create challenges at any point in our lives. At Revitalize Mental Health PLLC, I provide TBI-focused mental health therapy to support you and your recovery process. Many times, TBIs create mental health challenges related to anger, trauma, grief, self-esteem, or loss of identity. I focus on helping you heal from these challenges that follow a TBI.
I offer in-person TBI therapy sessions for those living near Milwaukee, WI and online therapy for those living throughout Wisconsin and Colorado. If you would like to start TBI therapy, you can call 720.295.6703 or submit an online form here. From there, we’ll schedule a free 15-minute consultation call to determine if we are a good fit to work together. If so, we’ll schedule our first appointment during this call. I look forward to hearing from you and supporting you in your TBI recovery process.
