Patients who had a stroke do not only develop physical problems. In addition, significant personality changes and psychological disorders also occur. Personality changes and behavioral disorders may cause the patient to behave like a different person.
Understanding why stroke patients behave different and accepting the personality changes can be a big step towards changing the undesirable behaviors. Therefore, we will discuss personality changes and psychological disorders after stroke in this article.
Post-Stroke Depression
Depression is very common in the patients who had a stroke. One third of stroke survivors have depression. Causes of depression after stroke:
- Physical impairments in the person; loss of movement, inability to walk, visual impairment…
- Stroke survivors’ experiencing concern about their health or fear of death.
- Fear of not recovering, and the helplessness and hopelessness caused by this fear.
- The damage to the brain caused by the stroke’s directly causing depression.
During the stroke treatment process, a patient who develops depression may lose motivation and their participation in the treatment may decrease. Therefore, it is necessary to seek professional support to deal with depression. It is possible to overcome depression with treatments which involve medication and psychological counseling.
Social Avoidance
Post-stroke social anxiety is a condition which is seen commonly. In a study on the stroke patients, it has been found that one in five of the patients has an anxiety disorder and most patients prefer to avoid social gatherings.
Some patients have disabilities that make it difficult to drive, get out of the house or even get out of the bed. These persons need someone to help them to participate in daily life. To need help in social environments is an important cause of social avoidance in stroke patients.
Loss of Cognitive Skills
Cognitive skills include speaking, problem solving, reading and simple mathematical calculations. In case of the stroke patients, losses in cognitive skills may occur. These patients may forget names, lose things or neglect important tasks because of the forgetfulness. They may have difficulty in solving simple problems that they were previously able to understand and solve. As physical functions can be improved with physical therapy, it is also possible to regain cognitive skills with the help of therapies.
Unstable Emotional Changes
The area of the brain that controls emotional responses may be damaged because of the stroke. In this case, the stroke patients may be more emotional than ever before, can laugh or cry at irrelevant situations. In these patients, mood and emotional changes are unstable.
To control this problem, medication and cognitive therapies can be applied. Taking slow and deep breaths to control emotions, trying to relax the facial muscles and focusing the attention elsewhere may also help.
Loss of Social Restraints
Some stroke patients may behave in ways which are accepted as socially inappropriate. Especially the damage on the frontal lobe of the brain is related with socially inappropriate behavior. These behaviors may include eating from a stranger’s plate, insulting and swearing at people loudly, committing violence, undressing in the public.
These patients generally do not have the insight to understand that their actions are unacceptable. For this reason, it is not likely for them to try to apologize for their behavior. The loss of social inhibitions may cause challenges especially for relatives and caregivers of the patient.
Other Personality Problems Seen in Stroke Patients
- Not realizing having a stroke,
- Change in the sense of humor,
- Being unable to show empathy,
- Lack of motivation and
- Aggressiveness.
Reference: verywellhealth.com
