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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“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?

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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.

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Do you have post-traumatic stress disorder? A traumatic brain injury? Both? If so, and you can’t seem to rein in the scattered thoughts that disrupt your day-to-day life, you might want to try meditating. Mindfulness meditation – mentally focusing on the present moment – helps alleviate PTSD, and TBI, symptoms. In a study conducted with a large group of marines, researchers had them participate in mindfulness meditation training while monitoring their blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing. Stress-related neuro-chemicals were also measured. Not only did researchers find that the marines were calmer during and after meditating, but they were able to react faster when faced with threats. In other, smaller studies, civilians with TBIs were trained in mindfulness meditation, and the findings showed that nearly sixty-percent recovered from depression. Participants also reported less anxiety and more energy.

Researchers don’t know exactly how mediation alleviates PTSD and TBI symptoms, but they’ve noted that it helps to reduce cortisol levels, a hormone associated with stress and depression. Meditation has also been shown to change the structure of the brain. Harvard researchers followed sixteen people in the general population who participated in an eight-week meditation program at the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness. After completing the sessions, the researchers looked at magnetic resonance imaging studies of the participants, and found an increase in gray matter in the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory, as well in the other structures linked to self-awareness. Since 1979, more than twenty thousand people have completed the program. 

A few years after being diagnosed with PTSD and a TBI, I tried meditating, with the hope of slowing down the mental chatter, and getting rid of the self-critical voice that said, “You’re incapable.” But I gave up after the first day – a cascade of unfocused thoughts kept colliding with the other, more steady voice in my head that said, Breath, breath in and out. I told myself I had failed at meditating. The irony is that, with practice, meditation helps you to accept your thoughts and feelings without judgment. Also, meditation is not some kind of futuristic, Brave New World model designed to erase all thoughts – that’s expecting the impossible. Meditation helps you to view your thoughts from a distance, as if you were standing outside of yourself, watching your thoughts pass by like clouds.

Two months ago, a friend told me she had started meditating five months earlier because she could not live with being self-critical at work and at home. “It’s changed my life,” she said. Her exuberance was powerful, powerful enough to convince me to try meditating again. My friend told me about Headspace, an accessible, user-friendly app for Apple iOS and Android devices. Andy Puddicome, trained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, is the founder of Headspace, and is the soothing voice that guides users through each session. You can try it for ten days at no cost. After that, there’s a $12 monthly fee. The caveat: you need to pay for the entire year upfront. But Headspace is always coming up with offers: two months free, for instance. Once you complete the thirty-session foundation packet, you can choose from various themed packets: creativity, relationships, performance, sleep. And you can meditate anywhere – I recently meditated in an airport while waiting for a flight. It’s been two months since I started using Headspace, and it works. Though I still experience moments riddled with “I should” or “I can do better,” by focusing on my breath, or on the sounds and smells around me, I’ve learned to halt any out-of-the-moment thoughts before they completely unravel. Headspace has made me feel a bit lighter, as if a whole lot of mud has been dumped out of me.

Meditation takes ten, fifteen, twenty minutes at the most out of the day. Most likely you not notice a difference right away; the transformation is subtle. So give it time. After all, time flows, and it always flows forward, toward change.

 

 

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