Brother just got home after rehab - eyes closed all the time

[Rayoflight123-]

Hi. My brother got home a month ago after a 18 month stint in hospital following a brain injury. I’m finding his progress hard. He can communicate and occasionally he is relatively chatty. However largely he sits with his eyes closed, even when folks talk to him. He responds briefly to conversation but doesn’t engage. He prefers to do nothing. Just sit. He had covid 2 weeks ago but has been clear a week. Has anyone else experienced this?

[Kirk5w7]

Hi Rayoflight,I sit with my eyes closed a lot still. I’m 10 years on.

What it does for me is it shuts out visual stimulation, so means my brain can deal with the audio stimulation.

I used to have to sit with noise cancelling earphones to shut out the audio too.

You cannot close your ears as easily.

I have to listen and join in conversations with my eyes closed if I have to concentrate hard on what is being said or if I have to dredge around my brain to keep focus .

I’m sure that this will be what is happening to your brother.

It is a lot to expect your healing brain to make sense of the bombardment of stimuli from all around.

J🤗

[Rayoflight123- in reply to Kirk5w7]

Wow thank you. That really helped !

[sashaming1]

I had eye closing issues, but, I now concentrate to keep them open when necessary.

[cat3]

Hi Rayoflight. Like Kirk5w7, I think your brother may be struggling with the new type of stimulus at home and needs to shut out visuals to fully concentrate on thoughts and words. He'll be experiencing a new atmosphere to where he's been for the past 18 months and his brain will be working overtime to adapt.

I was hospitalised for only 3 months yet after returning home I woke each night for many months, panicking and wondering why the ward looked so strange. It was as if my brain had 're-set' and the 'new' me belonged in Salford Royal hospital !

Ten years after a brain haemorrhage I still find the combination of sights and sounds (especially verbal) quite exhausting and I'm told that closing my eyes to minimise the stimulus can look like ignorance or disinterest. But it's an issue for many of us after brain injury, as is impaired memory, confusion, mobility etc...

Stay around m'love to talk and compare notes with brain injury carers & survivors along the way. I've found great comfort here and still look in most days for my daily fix of familiarity. 😏

Cat x

[JULIETstevens]

It sounds like he may be depressed. You may want to talk to his medical professional

[JULIETstevens]

Speak to his medical team about whether he needs anti depressents. I was a withdrawn lump until I was put on them. Now I'm almost back to my old self

[Chat2U]

Hi,

HEADWAY FACTSHEETS

Headway has alot of information that you might generally find useful in it's factsheets, see link below:

headway.org.uk/about-brain-...

FLOODING (OVERSTIMULATION)

But this is actually a good info page about "flooding" which is when your senses become overwhelmed by too many inputs for your brain to deal with:

braininjury-explanation.com...

It has some useful short videos that you might want to watch.

STRATEGIES

It sounds like your brother is instinctively employing a strategy by shutting down his vision so he can concentrate on sounds.

I never leave home without earplugs and sunglasses and still feel sick and struggle to stand every time I go to any supermarket bigger than a Tesco Metro after 9 years!

You can really help him to manage this.

Ax

Flooding videos

[Rayoflight123- in reply to Chat2U]

Thank you (again) so much for your help and support. I wish I’d used this group months ago !