Is a Brain Injury/ brain damage the same as a mental illness?
Question:
Answers:
No, but having a brain injury could possibly cause someone to become mentally ill. A brain injury is when trauma occurs to one or more brain regions and would usually result in behavioural changes. This could be pretty much anything from a change in personality, memory deficits and motor inabilities (problems with physical behaviours-shaking hands for example) to name a few. However these changes do not mean the person is mentally ill. Alternatively, the trauma could result in damage to brain neurons causing malfunctions in the release of neurotransmitters. This may lead to the person becoming depressed or experiencing some form of psychosis, which would likely be able to be controlled to a point with medication, depending on the severity of the damage. It is also possible that the person may suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) if their brain damage resulted from a serious accident. On the whole though brain damage does not often result in mental illness. Contrary to one of the previous answers, as you have already read in my answer, many mental illnesses do stem from malfunctions in the brain, although these do not need to be caused by damage. Schizophrenia and serious depression are 2-these can be caused by malfunctions of neurotransmitters (depression is believed to be caused by an ineffective use of serotonin in the brain, for example) and are often treated with medication. If mental illness was purely psychological and not biological, medication wouldnt work would it?! Use of most illegal drugs (Heroin, Cocaine, LSD, Ecstacy) can also cause mental illness over time through destroying brain regions and depleting neurotransmitter levels. Anxiety disorders can be also treated with medication-I'm sure you get what I'm saying about how biological mental illness often is!
As for the last part of your question, Alzheimers disease can often make elderly people confused about 'time'-they may believe they are only 25 years old when indeed they are 70. This is because the disease affects (among others) the brain region known as the hippocampus, which is closely related to memory.
Abuse could make someone act much younger than they are because they feel as though their childhood was stolen and hasn't yet been lived-this is prominent in sexual abuse, where the individuals were forced to partake in very adult behaviours as a child.
I hope this all makes sense for you! All the best!
Other Answers:
no its not
i dont think so.
Brain Damage is physical damage to the brain, whereas mental illness is a problem with the working of the brain.
See these for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_damage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_illness
no its not
No, however some people confuse the two.
of course not! brain injury means you were injured. brain damage could possible cause mental illness. but they are not the same.
you mean like split personality or bi polar.
No. Brain injury is physical - mental illness is psychological. An older person who retreats or regresses may be suffering from dementia, altzheimers or some other condition. Have the older person get a physical to rule out nutrition deficiencies or other causes..
no its not a mental illness is for example dementia older people tend to get this or confusion when they forget who they are and revert back to childhood. Brain damage is a trauma or accident that has injured the brain causing the person to have brain damage if part of the brain is damaged.Abuse could cause an older person to revert back to childhood or as i said before dementia or confusion not knowing what is going on around them
I'll go against the flow and say "yes".
Brain damage can take many forms.
Mental illness can be result of damage at birth, whether physical or genetic. People that undergo severe trauma experience profound neural re-wiring, and even neural "collateral damage".
You question was "is it the same?". Brain imaging and psychometric tests, for all intents and purposes, indicate yes.
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