What Types of Injuries Can Cause Memory Issues? How Can You Tell If Memory Loss Is Due to Trauma, Rather Than Age or Disease?
Have you been involved in a motor vehicle accident or had a slip-and-fall where you bumped your head? Are you having difficulty remembering what happened or even recalling things you did minutes, days, or months before the incident? You’re not alone. The CDC estimates that more than 3 million people seek treatment every year for some type of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Among those who do, memory loss is one of the most common symptoms.
What Types of Injuries Are Commonly Associated with Memory Loss?
Not surprisingly, any time you experience a serious bump or blow to the head, there’s a good chance that you’ll suffer a traumatic brain injury. Furthermore, both the trauma caused by the immediate impact—bruising, brain bleeds, and torn or damaged brain cells—can interfere with cognitive processes, including memory. In addition, your body’s response can lead to memory loss. It’s common for there to be swelling in your brain in the aftermath of a traumatic brain injury. The increased pressure on your brain can also disturb the neural pathways that help you remember.
Though a direct bump or blow to the head—whether from a fall, impact in an athletic event, or car collision—can cause the type of brain injury that impedes memory, you can experience similar symptoms without any impact at all, most often with a whiplash-type injury. The sudden and violent jerking back and forth of your head upon impact in a motor vehicle accident can cause your brain to bounce off the inside of your skull, which can cause the type of injury that affects memory.
Is Memory Loss from Trauma Typically Short-Term or Long-Term?
Though there is no hard and fast rule, studies show that, in the aftermath of a TBI, victims are more likely to have challenges with short-term memory, particularly with remembering events that occurred after the injury.
How Can You Tell If Memory Loss Is Associated with Head Trauma or Due to Age or Other Illness?
Though you may not be able to tell in the first few days after an accident, time will typically provide evidence as to whether memory loss is due to age or illness (such as dementia) or due to injuries suffered in the accident. As a general rule, memory loss due to age or illness is systemic and progressive—it may take a while to get significantly worse, but it generally doesn’t get any better. Memory loss due to injury, however, is most often short-lived. Once your brain starts to heal, many of the memories will return.
Strategies for Rebuilding Your Memory After an Accident
Your brain is a resilient organism. In the aftermath of a TBI, you need a delicate balance between rest and exercise. Pushing your brain too much may increase your recovery time, but you need some brain use in order to establish new neural pathways or find other ways to adjust. A neurologist or other medical professional can help you plan a program for recovery.
