The Invisible Brain Injury Cognitive Impairments in Traumatic Brain Injury, Stroke and other Acquired Brain Pathologies After Brain Injury: Survivor Stories Series

The Invisible Brain Injury recounts, in her own words, the experience of Aurora Lassaletta, a clinical psychologist who suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) after a traffic accident. Presenting her unique dual perspective as both a patient and a clinician, Aurora highlights the less visible cognitive, emotional and behavioural symptoms common to acquired brain injury (ABI).

This moving account showcases Aurora?s growing awareness of her impairments, their manifestation in daily life, how they are perceived, or not, by others and the tools that helped her survive. Each chapter combines Aurora?s perspective with the scientific view of a professional neuropsychologist or physiatrist who provide commentaries on her various symptoms.

This book is valuable reading for professionals involved in neurorehabilitation and clinical neuropsychology and for clinical psychology students. It is a must read for ABI survivors, those around them and clinicians, who are all an essential part of the rehabilitation, adjustment and acceptance process involved with ABI.

List of contributors

About the author

Note

Preface

PART 1: THE INVISIBLE BRAIN INJURY

1. The invisible brain injury - Aurora Lassaletta

Introduction

The history of the book

PART 2: COGNITIVE SYMPTOMS

2. Cognitive symptoms related to attention - Aurora Lassaletta and Amor Bize

Neurological fatigue: continuous energy calculations

Attention difficulties

Just one intense thing a day! The saturated hard drive

Brain sluggishness. Orders take time to arrive.

3. Cognitive symptoms related to executive functions - Aurora Lassaletta and Amor Bize

Need for external guidance with organisation

Complicated decision-making

Difficulty adapting to changes

Impaired creativity

4. Cognitive symptoms related to memory - Aurora Lassaletta and Amor Bize

Memory difficulty: the need for "cognitive crutches"

Slow learning curve

Not learning from experience, nor remembering it

5. Cognitive symptoms related to thinking - Aurora Lassaletta and Amor Bize

Difficulty summarising

Concrete thinking

6. Cognitive symptoms related to lack of awareness - Aurora Lassaletta and Amor Bize

Lack of awareness of the real situation

PART 3: BEHAVIOURAL, EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS

7. Behavioural symptoms - Aurora Lassaletta and Amor Bize

Impulsivity and verbal incontinence

Tendency to passivity

Loss of improvisation

8. Emotional symptoms - Aurora Lassaletta and Amor Bize

Affective flattening and emotional inexpressiveness

9. Physical symptoms - Aurora Lassaletta and Susana Pajares

Body awareness and sensitivity

Sleep disturbance and loss of satiety sensation

Loss of balance

Hypersensitivity to medications

Asymmetry

Auditory and optical hypersensitivity, diplopia, hyposalivation

PART 4: LONG-TERM ADJUSTMENT AND CONCLUSIONS

10. Identity reconstruction - Aurora Lassaletta and Christian Salas

Long term emotional adjustment following an ABI

Awareness of deficits and integrating the new me

Internalising compensatory tools

11. Concluding remarks - Aurora Lassaletta

References

Index

Aurora Lassaletta had to stop her work as a psychotherapist in a public mental health service in 2005 due to her TBI. She undertook a path of learning and improvement that she still follows today. At her new pace, Aurora enjoys helping other survivors learn to live with ABI through psychological support groups.