Posted on May 29, 2012 · Posted in TBI Voices
This entry is part 12 of 36 in the series Michael

TBI Mood Issues Disrupted Relationships: Michael Part Twelve

Michael talks about how his TBI mood issues made relationships very difficult as his friends didn’t understand the change in him.

Before we spend more time talking about Oshkosh, let’s talk about your Louisville friends and the challenges with TBI mood issues and the problems you had with them in that time before you went back to college.

I lost a few.  My best friend who’s, actually my dad told me he was married and I think January of that year or something and I went up for it and I was his best man, from what my dad told me.

So this would have been about a year after you got hurt?

This would have been right before. Right before because I don’t, anything before about ’88 I have, my dad has to fill in, even before then probably.

So you stood up for his wedding about two months before your accident and you don’t have any recollection of it? That’s pretty serious retrograde amnesia.

Yes.

So you’re talking about your friend and how they were dealing with your TBI mood issues.

My friend, he and his wife had a really hard time understanding what was going on for me and had a hard time understanding about the anger issues and all the other issues I was going through.  And they just started fading away.  I mean I think the last time I saw him was right before I got married and that was at, married my first time.

Do you have any specific recollections of what would make you mad and things that would upset you because of your TBI mood issues?

I remember two things; one I said about the filing cabinet, I beat up and there was nothing left.  The other one, I’m sad to say, my sister came home and I couldn’t, actually I was down from Oshkosh if I remember right.  And I couldn’t take kidding.  I didn’t know how to understand it, and I flattened my sister a few times and finally my dad came home and I just left, I went back to Oshkosh because it was my comfort zone.

How old is your sister?

She’s four years younger than me, she is 36.

Did you hurt her?

I hit her on the back, and I don’t think so but she had a hard time with it because at the time her boyfriend was being abusive to her and I didn’t know.



Next in Part Thirteen  – Frustrations Sets off Brain Injury Temper

By Attorney Gordon Johnson

800-992-9447


About the Author

Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
Past Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
g@gordonjohnson.com :: 800-992-9447