Staying on Topic Conversations with Brain Injury

Stories about Staying on Topic After Brain Injury

The following are stories of real life survivors of brain injury.  Clicking on the titles will take you to their actual story.

Cognitive Challenges: Sequencing, Staying on Task, Topic

She also has a hard time staying on topic in conversation. She explains: “I seem to jump from topic to topic. I’m sitting with a couple people and they’re talking about how one time that they had gone on a trip and they lost their luggage all of a sudden I’ll click in and I’ll say oh well I went to college in New Orleans and I flew down there a couple times I just   I mean, it has nothing to do with what they started talking about and then they look at each other as if to say okay why did she just do that. Because they had been talking about one thing and I inappropriately at times also change subjects and say things that are not appropriate.”

Frontal Lobe and Executive Functioning Challenges After Coma

Certain aspects of all of the issues we have discussed previously relate to frontal lobe injury, such as her challenges in conversation.

Gina – Current Cognitive Functioning

When asked – Do you feel like you can control the conversation more by talking versus listening? Her response was; “Yeah, I talk, sometimes I talk way too much. Other times, I think I’m a little bit better a listener. I’ve gotten more empathy but it’s got to be people with brain injuries. That’s about the only thing that it’s like, okay I can listen to you. I know when
people have cut me off over things so I try not to do that.”

Michael – Hesitant Speech Post Brain Injury

If you get the sentence out your memory is much better?: “Memory is much better. It’s kind of funny. Say if you and I were just talking and say outside somewhere, there’s a pretty good chance two things could happen; one would be we would be having a good conversation and all of a sudden I forget what we’re talking about, that one’s not the bad one because I usually just ask. But the other one is rather hard because I’ll forget who you are. I’ll be like okay, what is his name, what is his name, and I feel really embarrassed to ask you. I have no problem asking you what we were talking about but I find it very embarrassing to ask who you are.”