TBI! Can Anxiety Disorders Come from a Brain Injury?

Anxiety disorders can be challenging, and it’s natural to want to know what causes them. Can they come from a brain injury? Anxiety disorders, like all mental illnesses, are disorders of the brain. The brain is an organ of the body, and it can experience disease and/or injury just like any other organ. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can cause serious damage inside the brain. Depending on what part of the brain is damaged, TBI can lead to mental illness. Anxiety disorders can indeed come from a brain injury.

Because March is Brain Injury Awareness Month, this is an opportunity to consider the impact brain injuries can have on mental health and mental illness. According to ScienceNordic,

If you suffer a head trauma, your risk of developing certain mental disorders increases significantly – in some cases by more than 400 percent.

Anxiety disorders are among the “certain mental disorders” that can come from a brain injury.

The Connection between Anxiety Disorders and Brain Injury

Life can feel frustrating and difficult after a TBI. Just as a broken leg doesn’t work right in moving you from place to place, an injured brain doesn’t work right in its many and complex tasks. Among other things, an injured brain can be an anxious brain. The VA San Diego Healthcare System reports that approximately 58% of brain injury patients develop anxiety.

Depending on where and how the brain is injured, the connection between TBI and anxiety disorders can be deep and multifaceted. Anxiety itself is brain-based, so damage to certain areas of the brain can cause anxiety disorders.

Also, the very symptoms of brain injury can be so disruptive, so bothersome to someone’s life that they cause anxiety:

• Concentration difficulties
• Memory problems
• Organizational and/or planning issues
• Decision-making difficulties
• Being easily overstimulated by crowds, noises, etc.
• Increased susceptibility to pressure and stress
• Fear and worry that others will judge you as stupid, incompetent, unreliable
• Worry about making mistakes
• Anxiety about the brain injury symptoms themselves

There is Hope for Anxiety Disorders That Come From Brain Injury

The human body possesses an amazing ability to heal. To be sure, many times brain injury involves permanent damage. However, a degree of healing does occur, and people have remarkable capacity to transcend their difficulties, to adjust, and to fix what can be fixed. Anxiety is very treatable (unfortunately, it’s not always quick and easy, but it is indeed treatable).
Some things that people can do when faced with anxiety disorders that come from brain injury include:

• Rest, rest, rest – that’s how the brain–and with it, anxiety–heals
• Attend to your environment (reduce noise, keep light levels low)
• Practice self-care
• Establish a routine to reduce the need for decision making/concentrating and to lower stress
• See medical doctors and follow their instructions, medications, etc.
• See a therapist to help deal with the anxiety

My own experiences with anxiety came from a brain injury. I was anxiety-prone before the TBI, but the actual anxiety disorders developed post-TBI. Ditto bipolar 1 disorder. Here, too, I had mild symptoms before the injury, but the brain injury exacerbated them. I know first-hand that TBI can contribute to mental illness. That also means that I know that people can transcend their troubles, rising above even mental illness and brain injury. I am sincere when I write that there is hope for anxiety disorders that come from brain injury.

Sources:
Emotional Problems After Traumatic Brain Injury
Head Injury can Cause Mental Illness
Traumatic Brain Injury: A Guide for Patients

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