Brain Injury: Altering My Mental State and Cognitive Abilities - Essay Sample

Introduction

I experienced a traumatic brain injury after I was knocked on my head while playing rugby that caused my brain and head quickly shake back and forth. This resulted in an altered mental state that included becoming unconscious. The concussion affected the cognitive abilities of my brain which are necessary to function and learn in school. As a result of the injury my brain did not function effectively as it did before which seemed to affect my ability to perform many routine duties that are important to academic performance, consisting but not limited to, the potential to process information, multitask, focus, as well as recall information quickly. This made my school work seem to be harder and it took me longer to complete it. The environments in the school with power points, computer screens, and bright lights, as well as noisy environments, also seemed to exacerbate symptoms and I could not tolerate it (Ransom, Vaughan, Pratson, Sady, & Gioia, 2015). This made me out of school for a prolonged period to get medical assistance then I was left behind with my studies.

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Overcoming this brain injury prepared me to meet the challenges of higher learning as well as how I could overcome these challenges. It helped me gain knowledge on how to control some challenges experienced by students in the higher learning levels such as stress management, anxiety, ways on how to create social connections, how to manage depressions as well as how to control trauma. Overcoming the concussion also prepared me on how to overcome the learning difficulties experienced by most of the students in the higher learning levels through training myself on how to take studies easy and what I should do if I find or I feel like the learning is difficult like consulting a professional or a friend who can help. It has also helped me teach myself to stand up and be counted i.e. reducing self-pity and pampering and take positive actions then take responsibility for ill or good. Through overcoming this injury, I learned how to develop positive mental actions and attitudes that express current activity and activity.

Attending the College of Southern Maryland will demonstrate a determination to rebuild my life in that; it will help me have self-definition i.e. it will make me learn to define myself into the world. I will able to take time and critically think about what is truly important to me and which one is not. I will also able to define what offers the foundation for my values, the values that I want to pursue and espouse for the rest of my life as well as the aesthetic and personal style that I want to present to the outside world. This self-definition is very important and also powerful for it helps a person to put the above set of things into consideration and choose life in that manner. Attending the college will also help me to be prepared to build my future which is determining the kind of life of purpose and meaning that I would like to pursue which needs more than just finding employment. I will also rebuild my life by attending the college for I will have the potential to gain new skills that will help me enhance my career, communication as well as my critical thinking.

References

Sady, M. D., Vaughan, C. G., & Gioia, G. A. (2011). School and the concussed youth: recommendations for concussion education and management. Physical Medicine andRehabilitation Clinics, 22(4), 701-719. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276072670_Academic_Effects_of_Concussion_in_Children

Ransom, D. M., Vaughan, C. G., Pratson, L., Sady, M. D., McGill, C. A., & Gioia, G. A. (2015).

Academic effects of concussion in children and adolescents. Pediatrics, 135(6), 1043-1050. https://hsrc.himmelfarb.gwu.edu/smhs_psych_facpubs/233