Handling Money after TBI: A Brain Injury Issue

Handling Money after TBI:: Kelly Part Thirty

One of the frontal lobe deficits that brain injury survivors have is making decisions and this can coincide with handling money after TBI.

You said that people say you make bad decisions.  Why do they say that?

Well, this for an example, I have no, I have concept but I just cannot pinpoint the right ways of doing it.  My money; I get X amount of dollars and you have to allot X amount for this, that and the other.  Then, of course, there’s always something that’s going to  jump in there.  And, if I don’t have it, I’ll find a way to get it.  You know, I do it legally.  But now, doing it legally may even set me back long term more than I need to be; where if I didn’t do it that way, and just bite the bullet up front.

When it comes to handling money after TBI  you have poor impulse control?

Yes.

What kind of things do you have trouble with on an impulse? What is it that you can’t resist handling money after TBI that you should?

Going and sitting.  I mean, gasoline is what’s been so expensive.  Right now, I’m going back to school to become a certified nurse’s assistant; so, and I’m working PRN, so I drive my patients home, and he’s an hour from here.  And instead of, instead of staying there when I’m not on duty,  just to hang out before I go to school, I may either drive back here or I may drive to somewhere else just to, to get out of that environment, of caregiver, for a short period of time.  And then I’ll drive somewhere else and have to drive back an hour here to go to school at night.  I’m in school four nights a week.  Well then, that costs money to put more gasoline in the tank to get me on home, which is an hour from where I work and school.

Kelly’s example points also to a time management issue, the inability to plan out her day. Driving a car aimlessly is a perfect example of when time equals money. In her case, poor time management has a direct impact on her pocketbook which coincides with trouble handling money after TBI. More in our next part on these related issues.

Next in Part Thirty One – Time Management Issues After Severe TBI

By Attorney Gordon Johnson

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