Mild traumatic brain injury is invisible because it is a closed head injury, and the symptoms can vary and tend to seem more like annoying behaviors to onlookers, rather than what it really is: brain damage. Unlike a broken leg or severe gash, a closed head injury can't be seen or understood by anyone simply by looking at the person. Even an "open head" injury only means that the skull has been fractured or displaced, and does not provide an indication of the injury to the brain, which often cannot be really seen or grasped by other people. More often with mild or moderate head injuries, the brain will appear as normal on any brain scans that are done.

The use of the word mild in describing any brain injury is questionable, albeit the standard practice of doctors. Because of the type of symptoms and the invisibility of the actual injury, brain injury patients often find themselves in the situation where family, friends, employers, sometimes even doctors and lawyers, do not take their injury or their symptoms seriously. That's unfortunate not only because of the emotional pain it causes the patient, but also because of how much support a brain injury patient needs in order to cope, and to improve.

But it's so hard sometimes, when the patient is walking, talking, maybe even arguing, to believe that he cannot remember to brush his teeth -- or maybe cannot remember if he just finished brushing his teeth! These all seem like such minor issues, until you are the one dealing with them. Finding yourself no longer able to rely on your ability to do or remember even the most basic things is a very frightening and unsettling thing to face. Having no one truly believe that your deficits exist makes it all the more frightening.This is the nature of mild and moderate brain injury; it is common that the patient remembers many things, but not all, or can manage some things, but not others, all of which adds to the belief that the patient is being lazy, or attempting to fake an injury.

Symptoms of brain injury can be anything from mild forgetfulness, word finding difficulties, irritability, and so on, to coma. For milder brain injuries, the symptoms tend to be forgetting every day schedules and routines, such as forgetting to brush one's hair or teeth, brushing only the front of the hair and forgetting to brush the back, irritability, confusion with minor tasks and conversations, frustration, and similar "minor" issues, headaches, dizziness.

You've been cooking all your life, and suddenly everything you cook tastes too awful to eat! The worst part is you have no idea why -- you believe you're doing the same thing you've done for years, but the food just isn't right. The reason is you are forgetting ingredients in some cases, and adding the ingredient multiple times in other cases. But you can't remember doing that, just like you didn't remember to add it, or that you'd already added it while you were actually doing the cooking.

You have dizzy spells that hit out of the blue, maybe when you turn your head, or maybe after hours or days of no dizzy spells. Of course, these can hit you most often when you are expected to function -- walking from the car, carrying the baby, going somewhere by yourself. When you know you may have a dizzy spell at any time, it becomes scary to do normal activities by yourself, such as driving, taking a walk with your child, walking the dog, going to the doctor alone. Everyone is busy and they don't understand why you can't take yourself for your check up, or why you can't walk your own dog anymore.

Your hygiene may suffer because you often think you already performed your daily hygiene activities -- or you may have completely forgotten those routines that are standard for everyone after the 1st grade. So you take a shower, but forget to brush your teeth or your hair. You try to leave the house with your clothing disarranged, or without your purse, keys, or wallet.

Perhaps you remember how to do calculus, but have trouble adding basic numbers, especially in your head. Or perhaps you can't do any math any more. Another possibility is that you can talk normally, with seemingly no difficulty, but in reality every word is a struggle, or you can't follow step by step instructions as well. Perhaps you once had a very good memory and now find that you can't remember to get milk when milk is the only thing you went to the store for!

These seem like very minor things, until your family and friends begin questioning your behavior, and want you to "snap out of it". When you find yourself speaking to the cashier, your child's teacher, or the doctor, and suddenly realize (or have your spouse inform you) that you've neglected to brush your teeth all day, or that the back of your hair is completely unkempt, these minor issues can quickly become major and quickly destroy relationships and self esteem.

Traumatic brain injury is very common as a result of car accidents, sports injuries, falls, and many common accidents. The symptoms can last a week or a lifetime, and unless your injury is severe to the point that you must learn to walk and talk all over again, don't expect much in the way of rehabilitation or understanding. There are some things you can do to improve your chances of getting proper help.

• If you are the patient, try getting your spouse, parent, or close friend to read as much about brain injury and dealing with the symptoms as possible. The more they learn about brain injury, the better able and more willing they will be to help and support you.
• Push for a referral to a head injury specialist, and take someone with you who can help describe your behavior and symptoms and also help keep notes and remind you of what the doctor wants you to do.
• If you were involved in a car accident, work accident, or other similar situation where someone else may be liable, look for a very good, experienced brain injury lawyer. Do not just work with any lawyer. Get someone to help you research to find a lawyer that truly understands brain injury. That lawyer will be worth her weight in gold in being able to look out for you, as well as steer you to the right rehabilitation help.
• Get as much rest as possible, daily. Any time you lose sleep, or fail to get extra rest, you are setting your recovery back by days or weeks.
• Try to work on your own recovery, as well as following doctors' and therapists' orders: play computer games (not very fast games, but more strategy type games), work puzzles, any quiet, non-stressful activity that can work your brain -- but don't over do it, especially in the beginning. You want to exercise your brain, not add more stress.
• Try to cut as much stress from your life as possible. Stress will worsen your symptoms, just as lack of sleep will.
• Keep the communication lines open with doctors, and especially with family and close friends. Your family and friends, if they can understand a bit of what you're going through, will be able to provide the support and love that is essential to recovery, as well as being able to remind you of those little things you forget. Sometimes it is helpful for a spouse to put up little post-it notes all over the house, reminding the brain injured spouse to brush teeth, check the back of the hair, put on both earrings, remember their wallet, etc. In fact, it's a good idea to change the position of the stickies every few days, so that the injured person does not get too used to seeing them and just ignore them.
• If your loved one is the one with the brain injury, remember that they need you very much right now, even if they are not able to tell you so, and they need not just your emotional support, but they probably need you to fight for them, with doctors and insurances companies. Be on their side. And try to remain patient when you have to remind them again and again and again of the very same things. It may last for months, or for their entire lifetime, but one thing you can be sure of, they are not doing it to annoy you!

Here is an excellent hub to learn more about types of brain injuries and the mechanics of head injuries.

And an excellent hub about dealing with all kinds of invisible disabilities.

A medical, legal, and informational resource for persons dealing with traumatic brain injury.

How to Choose a Good Brain Damage Lawyer

Brain Injury Association of America