Full Description
The Invisible Brain Injury recounts, in her own words, the experience of Aurora Lassaletta, a clinical psychologist who suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) after a traffic accident. Presenting her unique dual perspective as both a patient and a clinician, Aurora highlights the less visible cognitive, emotional and behavioural symptoms common to acquired brain injury (ABI).
This moving account showcases Aurora's growing awareness of her impairments, their manifestation in daily life, how they are perceived, or not, by others and the tools that helped her survive. Each chapter combines Aurora's perspective with the scientific view of a professional neuropsychologist or physiatrist who provide commentaries on her various symptoms.
This book is valuable reading for professionals involved in neurorehabilitation and clinical neuropsychology and for clinical psychology students. It is a must read for ABI survivors, those around them and clinicians, who are all an essential part of the rehabilitation, adjustment and acceptance process involved with ABI.
Contents
List of contributors
About the author
Note
Preface
PART 1: THE INVISIBLE BRAIN INJURY
1. The invisible brain injury - Aurora Lassaletta
Introduction
The history of the book
PART 2: COGNITIVE SYMPTOMS
2. Cognitive symptoms related to attention - Aurora Lassaletta and Amor Bize
Neurological fatigue: continuous energy calculations
Attention difficulties
Just one intense thing a day! The saturated hard drive
Brain sluggishness. Orders take time to arrive.
3. Cognitive symptoms related to executive functions - Aurora Lassaletta and Amor Bize
Need for external guidance with organisation
Complicated decision-making
Difficulty adapting to changes
Impaired creativity
4. Cognitive symptoms related to memory - Aurora Lassaletta and Amor Bize
Memory difficulty: the need for "cognitive crutches"
Slow learning curve
Not learning from experience, nor remembering it
5. Cognitive symptoms related to thinking - Aurora Lassaletta and Amor Bize
Difficulty summarising
Concrete thinking
6. Cognitive symptoms related to lack of awareness - Aurora Lassaletta and Amor Bize
Lack of awareness of the real situation
PART 3: BEHAVIOURAL, EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS
7. Behavioural symptoms - Aurora Lassaletta and Amor Bize
Impulsivity and verbal incontinence
Tendency to passivity
Loss of improvisation
8. Emotional symptoms - Aurora Lassaletta and Amor Bize
Affective flattening and emotional inexpressiveness
9. Physical symptoms - Aurora Lassaletta and Susana Pajares
Body awareness and sensitivity
Sleep disturbance and loss of satiety sensation
Loss of balance
Hypersensitivity to medications
Asymmetry
Auditory and optical hypersensitivity, diplopia, hyposalivation
PART 4: LONG-TERM ADJUSTMENT AND CONCLUSIONS
10. Identity reconstruction - Aurora Lassaletta and Christian Salas
Long term emotional adjustment following an ABI
Awareness of deficits and integrating the new me
Internalising compensatory tools
11. Concluding remarks - Aurora Lassaletta
References
Index
