What destroys relationships and isolates survivors from their friends and families?

There is plenty of confusion and endless mishaps just learning how to compensate for the physical and cognitive deficits caused by the brain injury. Negative emotions are at a high; and the ability to control them at a low. Family/care-givers and professionals unfairly become the target for this misdirected anger. If the survivor doesn’t learn how to control outbursts, relationships are permanently damaged over time.

The three MIS’s contribute to escalate relationship conflicts – MISunderstanding, MISinterpretation, and MIScommunication.

Here’s one example  because the abilities of the survivor are easily and quickly affected by many variables, (sleep disturbances, inability to pay attention, poor memory, pain, medication side effects, rapid wear-down, environmental influences - to name a few) they demonstrate an inconsistency to follow-through with therapy or to develop new habits. Lack of follow-through is often interpreted by family/care-givers or professionals that the survivor is not trying hard enough.

The survivor feels hurt because their efforts are not being recognized. They feel frustrated that others do not understand “how” difficult and exhausting that learning anything new is for them or how much longer it takes.