A blunt trauma to the head causes our brain to go sloshing around, slamming into it’s skeletal helmet. At best, our brains are bruised, enduring a mild to moderate concussion. At worst, our brains are sprained, experience trauma, and struggle to fully heal the sensitive tissue and the millions of synapses living within it. Traumatic brain injuries can be life changing in all of the wrong ways as our many cognitive functions are impaired due to the impact of trauma on the brain.
New research on the effects of TBI have emerged over the years, especially thanks to pressing research on football players who regularly endure impact to the head. Science has found that a TBI can result in emotional and psychological disturbances which might manifest as personality, mood, or psychiatric disorders. Having a predisposition toward mental health difficulties increases the risk of turning to addictive substances and harmful behaviors to cope. Though it is becoming faux-pair to say that addiction is being broken, the traumatically injured brain is not working in exactly the way it should and consequently, many of the brain’s normal functions act in a broken way.
The Washington Post reports on research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in August which found that traumatic brain injury may increase the risk of suicide in those affected. Researchers looked at data from Denmark, analyzing the cause of death for more than seven million people between 1980 and 2014. More than 34,500 of those deaths were a result of suicide and ten percent of those individuals who died by suicide had documented record of a traumatic brain injury. According to the data analysis, those with a traumatic brain injury had an 81 percent greater risk for suicide than those who did not have a TBI. Three distinct factors were discovered by researchers to pose the greatest threat. First, was how severe the traumatic brain injury was. Second was if the first incidence of a TBI occurred in youth. Third was a TBI hospital discharge occurring within the previous six months.
Of course, the data is only applicable to a small country and population size, however the implications of the study offer new ground for researchers to continue researching, offering insight and opportunity to provide better mental health support those who have experienced a traumatic brain injury.
Addiction as a result of TBI needs to be treated with sepcificity and excellence. At Tree House Recovery, an addiction treatment program for men, we understand the high risk atheltic, active men have for encountering a TBI. Our innovative approach to treatment combined with cutting edge therapeutics offer men an incomprable path to freedom from addiction and total healing for a limitless life. Call us today for information: (503) 850-2474
