It’s football season, and fans look forward to Sunday afternoons – sitting close to the television, cheering on their most-loved teams and screaming expletives at the screen when the opposition scores a touchdown.

But I am here to share with you a voice that has recently spoken much louder, not about their love of football, but about the dangers of a sport in which the primary goal is to do everything, and anything, possible to prevent the opposing team from scoring a touchdown, even if it means hurling all two hundred plus pounds of body weight at the opponent and mowing them down into the hard turf. That voice is HealthGrove, whose stated mission is “to turn complicated data into vivid and contextually-rich visualizations and knowledge products. When it comes to football and concussions, they have done just that.

HealthGrove examined data from the U.S. National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), which gathers injury-related reports from one-hundred emergency rooms every year. The NEISS data showed that the football concussion rate far exceeded all other sports, with an estimated 17, 627 concussions occurring every year. This number is nearly double basketball and soccer related concussions combined.

With all the media attention and research focusing on football-related concussions, professional players are retiring and speaking out about their fears of allowing their children to be subjected to a sport whose brutal body maneuvers have proven to inflict lasting harm to the brain.

So if your child asks you to sign him up for Pop Warner football, please, think about it before saying yes. Remember: 17, 627 football related-concussions occur every year.

It’s worth noting that, as of 2014, there were two hundred sixty five million active soccer players in the world. As the sport has grown in popularity, so have concussions. According to NEISS data, out of all the sports they listed, soccer ranks third when it comes to concussions. Just before I finished writing this post, I learned about a New York City teenager, Thomas Jakelich, who died on  October 26 due to a head injury sustained in a collision with a soccer player of the opposite team. My sincere condolences go out to his family and friends.

Are you struggling with depression as a result of a traumatic brain injury (TBI)? Do you feel as if you are emotionally drowning, as if your existence is meaningless? Or maybe you don’t have a TBI, but also feel saturated with hopelessness. Depression is as real as a broken bone, a slipped disc, a migraine. It is more than feeling blue. Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. It can impact every day life: work, sleep, relationships.

About fifty percent of those who have sustained a TBI suffer from depression within the first year of injury, and two-thirds are affected within seven years. More than half of all TBI survivors who are depressed also experience significant symptoms of anxiety. In the general population, the rate of depression is much lower, affecting one in ten people.

TBI survivors may suffer from depression as a result of changes in the level of chemicals in the brain, and injury to the area of the brain that regulates emotions. Depression also stems from an emotional response to the struggles of adjusting to life after a TBI. Some people have a family history of depression, placing them at greater risk.

On October 4, I joined Donna O’Donnell Figurski, the host of “Another Fork in the Road,” and Juliet Madsen, a TBI survivor, on the Brain Injury Radio Network for a discussion about TBIs and depression. If you missed the show, here’s your chance to listen to the archived version.

*If you, or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, here are a few resources.

Suicide prevention

Crisis text line

Vermont Department of Health

If you are suffering from depression, please know: You are not alone.

* The information provided in this post is intended as a suggestion, and not my endorsement of any or all of the resources listed.  Nor am I providing medical or professional advice of any kind.

Since October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, I thought this would be a perfect time to share with you a societal problem that has been largely ignored. Not only do war veterans, football players, and accident survivors sustain traumatic brain injuries, but women who are victims of domestic violence sustain TBIs too. Here’s the tragic truth: Close to five million women in the United States experience domestic-related assaults every year, and the injuries they suffer are mostly to the head, neck, and face. Men experience approximately three million domestic-related assaults each year. The CDC estimates that nearly one hundred sixty thousand TBI-related deaths, hospitalizations, and emergency room visits in the U.S. every year are a result of physical assaults. But the actual numbers are unknown. Why?

Many victims don’t report the abuse to family, friends, or the police because they worry others will not believe them. And victims are often dependent on their abusers, financial and physically. Also, a TBI can make it difficult to communicate clearly, preventing victims from reporting the abuse. The perpetrator may convince others that the victim shouldn’t be taken seriously because of her TBI-related cognitive problems, and victims may be unwilling to admit that they have a TBI out of fear of the fallout: losing custody of children for instance.

An obvious trauma does not have to occur for a TBI to exist. Women who suffer a blow to the head in a domestic violence incident may not lose consciousness, and, therefore, they may not seek medical attention. Symptoms may not be easily recognized and women are often misdiagnosed with a mental health illness. In an article from the Huffington Post, a woman who was interviewed about her experience subjected to a two-and-a-half year abusive relationship says, “When you are in a relationship with that much trauma and violence, you don’t know what’s physical or what’s emotional or mental.”

In a past study conducted by the American Psychological Association, trained staff surveyed one hundred sixty nine women who visited three different emergency rooms with injuries sustained over a period of seven to nine months. Of the forty-six women who answered all the survey questions, seventy-one assaults were reported. Thirty-five percent of the women were identified as possibly having sustained a mild traumatic brain injury.

Women with traumatic brain injuries caused by domestic violence have below average recoveries and are more likely to develop post-concussive syndrome. Researchers don’t know the reasons for this, but suspect it’s due to the nature of the injury to the head, that female hormones may affect recovery, or that female victims of domestic violence have sustained multiple injuries.

Overall, researchers found that sixty-seven percent of the women who participated in the survey exhibited symptoms of a TBI.

What is being done about this dire reality? Researchers have advocated for further exploration into the nature and consequences of domestic violence and TBIs. They are also proponents of early screening for TBIs, so women have access to treatment, thus preventing further injuries.

The New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence has made available to those likely to encounter victims of domestic violence a list of statistics, TBI symptoms, and questions to ask when assessing for abuse. Though the document is geared toward professionals, I encourage all of us to read it, to be better aware of the connection between domestic violence and TBIs.

On August 2, as part of a three person panel, I had the occasion to discuss learning accommodations available to traumatic brain injury survivors on “Another Fork in the Road,” a broadcast of the weekly Brain Injury Radio Network, hosted by Donna O’Donnell Figurski. Juliet Madsen, a retired military veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, sustained a TBI in 2004 while serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Both she and I discussed post-TBI issues such as indecisiveness, poor attention span, the inability to remember names, and the need to rely on written and auditory cues to accomplish daily tasks. While I found it to be comforting to know that I am not alone with the fall out of a TBI and what Juliet calls a “revolving door” (One day you have a handle on things, and the next day you don’t), I found her zeal to volunteer inspiring.

A quilter for twenty-five years, Juliet founded Stroke of Luck Quilting and Design  and began sewing quilts to raise funds raise for disabled veterans. She developed the fundraiser, “The Ultimate Sew-in,” and, along with other volunteers, has made 500 quilts for injured soldiers. She also serves as an ambassador for the Invisible Disabilities Association (IDA) and speaks publicly about TBI and PTSD. And, as part of the Veterans Book Project, Juliet worked collaboratively with dozens of other veterans to write Objects for Deployment. She gathered unsettling images of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with the goal of making meaning out of her memories.

Since the radio show nearly one month ago, I’ve thought a lot about why traumatized individuals spend time volunteering, and go back to a memoir I read a few months ago. In Moving Violations, the author John Hockenberry says, “Trauma intensifies existence.” In other words, trauma brings forth experiences previously shrouded by day-to-day routines, and propels us to re-invent our lives. So it’s reasonable to say that volunteering is just one path toward re-invention. And, since traumatized people often struggle with depression and a sense of helplessness, giving back to the community can help boost self-esteem and a sense of accomplishment. From that, unfolds a better sense of emotional wellbeing. And since volunteering usually involves being around other people, it makes one less isolated, a core risk factor for depression. Of course, these benefits are not exclusive to traumatized individuals; others reap emotional gains too.

Most of us want to be happy, right? A dose of it could come as easily as spending two hours every few months playing music for elders at an assisted living facility, walking three miles once a year to raise money for a national nonprofit, or serving dinner to the homeless at a shelter during the holidays.

Does volunteering make you happy? What kind of volunteer work makes you happy? Please share.

“I dream about blood.” That’s how Erin Maynard, Acting President and CEO of PTSD Survivors of America, begins her tragic story, “I Killed a Man and I Want to Die.” In 2008, she unintentionally drove over and killed a pedestrian on the Long Island Expressway. Maynard was heading home from her job as an editorial aide when she felt a “thump” below her car. That “thump” changed her life. That “thump” reverberates throughout her story. Maynard tells it to us straight, bares her soul on the page with stunning courage. Her story is so powerful, and dense, with the residue of trauma – post-traumatic stress disorder, post-traumatic growth, survivor guilt, forgiveness, and identity – that it must be shared. It must be shared so that others can better understand life after trauma.

To learn how Maynard picked up the shards of her shattered life, I encourage you to read her full story in The Spectrum.

Click here for Erin Maynard’s full bio. 

Do you have a personal traumatic story to share? If so, how has it changed you? What can we learn from your experience?

Join me, Donna O’Donnell Figurski, from Another Fork in the Road, and Juliet Madsen, a military veteran who sustained a traumatic brain injury in 2004 when her convoy was hit by a roadside bomb, on the brain injury radio network this Sunday August 2nd at 830 pm Eastern Standard Time. Many survivors of a brain injury struggle with cognitive decline. We will discuss the various learning accommodations available after a TBI. Feel free to call in during the show with comments and questions at: (424) 243-9540.