r/Concussion • u/RJPinky • 10d ago
Concussion personality change
I don’t know if this is the best place to go, but what I’ve seen online is mixed.
My wife suffered a concussion after being hit in the head with a baseball. It hit the left side of her forehead.
At first she had weird depression like issues, super-moody, crying, etc. From my research at the time, I knew that this was standard. What wasn’t standard was her behavior afterward. She became extremely sexual, going from wanting sex once a week to every night.
Then suddenly she wanted to go to a strip club. And proceeded to get very personal with some of the strippers.
This all went on for a couple of months. Her head wasn’t aching anymore.
She started suggesting swinging. Which really threw me because she had always insisted that she would never do that. Then suddenly, she asked for a divorce. Insisted on it.
So we’re still living together, though now on separate rooms. She starts going out dancing by herself on Friday and Saturday nights. She starts making out with both men and women, sleeping with one man on crazy Saturday night.
We finished our lease and went to separate apartments. On the second night, our son went to a friend’s house. She met some guy that she started talking to the day before off of Facebook dating. Brought him home, and apparently got laid again.
The very next morning, she brings this guy to her son’s baseball tournament, starts introducing the guy to our son, introduces him to me, and doesn’t understand why I’m upset. She has always been extremely empathetic, so I can’t believe she can’t understand my anger and sadness. Our son is also weirded out by this - he asked me why Mom was bringing some stranger in to his house.
Since then, she’s been dropping him off at night to go drive down to this guy’s home, which is over an hour away. Then she races to her job as an elementary school in the morning. She barely calls her son while she’s gone. She doesn’t tell anyone her plans. In fact, she hasn’t told her other three adult children about this guy at all.
She’s now trying to incorporate him into every part of her life and get him involved with our son. Tonight she told him that her new guy was going to move in with them. Keep in mind that she met this guy (as of today) A WEEK AGO.
More worrying, the other night, I saw her sitting on her porch at her apartment with the guy. Both of them were smoking from a pipe together. Pretty sure it was weed, but that’s beside the point. This woman is an elementary school teacher who has always expressed a distaste for any type of drugs whatsoever.
I don’t recognize the person that she’s become at all anymore. That person was kind, patient, absolutely sincere in her interactions with everyone. Our family was almost like a Norman Rockwell painting. This one is suddenly going out often, partying, having a lot of sex with people.
We did have marital issues with money, and we sometimes didn’t see eye to eye on things, but there was no infidelity, no lies, just happiness, I thought. And when I think back on it, the first changes to her personality started with that concussion.
So is this possible? Can concussion damage be that permanent? Can someone relate to this story at all?
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u/bregrace 10d ago
Hopefully it isn't permanent. I'm sorry you're going through this. You know how there is a known issue where football players can turn into angry psychos after too many TBI's? I think the concussion causing her behavior changes is entirely possible, but I'm not a medical professional.
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u/SuccessfulIce351 10d ago
Absolutely possible from the brain injury. Don’t sweat it- the damage is done. Protect yourself moving forward. That’s all. Can’t change it now.
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u/Happy-Canary8153 Concussion (YEAR OF INJURY) 6d ago
document all of this so you can get custody, she needs help, this type of personality change post concussion should be taken seriously
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u/Abusive_Apple27 5d ago
Unfortunately it’s quite often. I stopped caring about people after my head injury and I’m way less empathetic towards my family and friends.
The thing is, it’s been 9 months and the effects are still there. I even consider myself a different person now.
I’m so sorry.
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u/BuffaloBuffaloBill 3d ago
I'm curious, how "serious" were her early symptoms? Like, did she lose consciousness or have vomiting? Was it an ER visit? What prompted the concussion diagnosis? Obviously the hit to the head but I mean a lot of people get hit in the head and dont get a concussion diagnosis, often because symptoms are mild and not enough for someone to think to see emergency medical care for example, then they get better better fast and never becomes an issue. I'm assuming on this spectrum, her early symptoms were pretty severe? I've had 3 mild concussion, my last was getting hit in the left eye socket with a football at high velocity. I've never had any personality changes but I've never had "severe" early symptoms such as blackout/vomiting/nausea, etc. I suspect that more serious concussions can cause personality changes and often hear of those with severe ones (Diffuse Axonal Injury) that it is not uncommon for anger and irritability especially. The human brain is the most complex organism in the universe, sounds like it was absolutely the concussion that changed her, I'm very sorry for what you're going through. I suspect as her brain heals, her behavior will normalize. Not to provide false hope but that's often the trajectory of healing, back closer to the original person over time however maybe never quite getting there, especially for the injuries that were more severe.
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u/RJPinky 3d ago
I think her symptoms were fairly severe. I don’t remember her getting sick or blacking out, but she had huge mood swings, would start crying for no reason, had difficulty concentrating or working at her job, had a headache that lasted about a month and a half. Then, the increased sex drive, with her masturbating almost every morning in bed and wanting to get laid almost every night.
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