The brain can be injured by a hit on the head, having a very high fever, being starved of oxygen or poisoned by chemicals such as pesticides, alcohol and chemotherapy. It is now recognised that psychological stress and trauma, particularly if it goes on for a long time, also causes damage to the brain. Many have sustained a brain injury sometime in their life, although they often don’t make the connection with their current symptoms and the injury. At Brainwise I always probe to uncover a possible brain injury. A QEEG helps to determine if there is a specific area of the brain that shows traces of an injury. It also helps to see if the brain has become stuck in a slowed down state, which may have been helpful in the earlier stages of recovery but no longer serves the person. Some of the signs of a brain injury, physical or psychological are:
- depression
- fatigue
- difficulty managing temper, irritability
- memory problems
- sensory disturbances such as patterns in front of the eyes, noises or voices in the head, strange smells
- sensory sensitivity, things are too bright, too loud
- tinnitus
- easily startled and slow to recover equilibrium
- difficulty concentrating
- easily overwhelmed