What Should You Not Do With a Brain Injury?

If you suffer an injury to the brain, whether due to a car accident, a sports incident, or for any other reason, you know how important it is to take care of yourself and recover your health.

However, you may not be an expert when it comes to brain injuries so here is a list of suggestions for activities to avoid to speed up healing. If you are struggling with your medical bills, Roberts | Jeandron Law recommends that you reach out to a brain injury attorney and start fighting to get the compensation you deserve.

After all, you need to concentrate on recovering your health and not on fighting with insurance companies to get someone to answer the phone and give you the funds you seek.

Avoid These Situations to Get Your Brain Healed

Do Not Get Another Injury

It may sound obvious, but stacking another brain injury on top of the one you are dealing with now is something to be avoided at all costs. Give your injury time to heal and do not add to an already problematic situation. Stay home and rest and follow your doctor’s instructions.

Stay Away From Sugar

Sugar has been described as one of the most detrimental addictions in today’s society. This is likely because sugar contributes to increased inflammatory processes in the body and is guilty of worsening cognitive function and memory.

If you consume sugar immediately after the injury, you will be blunting your body’s immune system and slowing down cellular repair mechanisms. Sugar is also responsible for stressing the hormonal system by increasing the presence of cortisol.

Although there are different types of sugars, and each one affects the body a bit differently, at this stage in your recovery process you should avoid it, regardless of its source.

Keep Stress at Bay

You likely experienced a spike in your stress levels when you received the official diagnosis of a brain injury. Still, applying additional stress to an already stressed system is not the right way to achieve any improvement.

Since brain injuries are so hard to measure due to their location in the body, it becomes hard for anyone to fully recognize their impact on whoever suffers from such an injury.

This makes it difficult to get the social and environmental support necessary at a time when it would seem you would need it the most.

You may be at a point in your healing journey where you might need to take some days off work, get someone to take care of the kids for a few hours every day, or find someone who might be able to drive you around, whether to your doctor’s appointments or to go buy some groceries. Do not be afraid to ask for help.

Stay Away from Loud Noises and Bright Lights

When you suffer a concussion or another form of brain injury, your neurological system will be extremely sensitive and inflamed. Noises that never bothered you before now sound as if an entire orchestra is playing at full volume in your head.

Lights that did not merit a second thought, now look as though you had the sun shining directly into your eyes. Noises and sounds are exaggerated to intolerable levels when you have a brain injury.

Being exposed to these types of external stimuli can not only be irritating, but they can also generate constant headaches or migraines.

That is why it becomes essential for you to pay attention to the signals sent out by your body and avoid lights and noises that will disrupt your recovery process, causing you to experience more stress and irritation.

In general, during your recovery process stay away from anything that gives you a headache or causes you to feel fatigued or to have mood changes. It may be helpful for your doctor if you keep a journal of your progress and of any items that impede your progress.

Stay Away From Sports

It is not recommended that you engage in any type of highly stressful activity such as sports until you have been cleared by your doctor and given the green light to do so.

Moving and doing strenuous activities while your brain is still healing can result in long-term issues such as headaches, memory loss, and problems with your balance and coordination.

No matter how much you enjoy sports, it is smart to take some time off while your brain heals before starting to throw a ball again.

Do Not Drive

It is not recommended that you get behind the wheel of any vehicle until your brain has had a chance to heal.

This includes not riding a bicycle or motorcycle and not operating any machinery. You do not want to cause an accident that may impact your brain again or make the injury that you have now worse.

At this point, your reaction times will not yet be normal and even your decision processes may be slower. Wait until your doctor approves these activities before heading out to your car.

Be Careful When it Comes to Pain Medications

Whether due to a brain injury or for any other reason, it is never a good idea to abuse pain medications. At this point in your recovery, you must recognize the natural responses of your body to outside stimuli and other situations in which there is a need for a painkiller.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) can be supportive in doing what they are named for – lessen any head injury inflammation.

But if you increase your need for pain medications and move away from them and into opioids, you may be causing a whole slew of additional problems. Also, continued abuse of these substances may make it impossible for your doctor to measure any progress.

If you feel that NSAIDs are not enough or are experiencing excruciating levels of pain, contact your doctor right away and appraise them of this development. It may mean that the injury is more severe than originally diagnosed.

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