After a stroke you might find you experience anger much more frequently, have less control over your outbursts and/or get angry over things that would not normally cause you to feel that way. You are likely to direct this anger at your family and carers.
You may get angry more often after you've had a stroke. It can be linked to many things, including your feelings of grief, loss and frustration about your stroke. It can also be linked with changes in the brain making it hard to control your emotions.
Having a stroke can affect your emotions and personality. You may laugh or cry for no reason. These changes can be hard to adjust to, especially for those closest to you. Emotional and personality changes can get better with time.
Of the 145 stroke patients studied, 32% described an inability to control anger or aggression up to a year after their stroke. Sometimes the emotional eruptions occurred spontaneously and without provocation, and in other cases a family member may have prompted the unusual response.
Anger and aggression
Many people find themselves getting frustrated and angry after their stroke. You may lose your temper for no reason or get angry about things that never would have made you feel that way before. If your anger turns into aggression, you may shout, throw things, threaten people or try to hurt them.
The reason is simple. Stroke impacts the brain, and the brain controls our behavior and emotions. You or your loved one may experience feelings of irritability, forgetfulness, carelessness or confusion. Feelings of anger, anxiety or depression are also common.
First and foremost, it can help to remind yourself that a stroke survivor's anger is often not directed at you but rather at their limitations. Even if the person is reacting in a way that is hurtful to you, try your best to practice empathy for the survivor and also practice compassion for yourself, too.
After surviving a stroke, a stroke survivor may become less empathetic towards others. Empathy is the ability to see things from another person's perspective. Empathy is especially important when it comes to understanding how another person is feeling.
Families of stroke patients sometimes report that their loved one seems uncaring or uninterested in what they are experiencing. That lack of empathy can cause hurt feelings and damage relationships.
Relationship problems
Other things can affect intimacy, like communication difficulties and low mood or anxiety. Having a stroke can affect your confidence and self-image. You may both find it difficult to talk about how you feel, because you think you should 'stay strong' for your partner.
Another personality change that occurs after stroke is impulsiveness. This is characterized as the inability to think ahead or understand consequences. Impulsiveness is more commonly seen in people with right-side or a frontal lobe stroke.
A review of studies published after 1980 shows alarmingly high post-injury divorce rates ranging from 48% to 78%. There is little doubt that brain injury can strain marriages. Spouses often take on many of the injured person's responsibilities, though they may have little experience with their new responsibilities.
Your brain is amazing! It has the ability to re-wire itself, allowing you to improve skills such as walking, talking and using your affected arm. This process is known as neuroplasticity. It begins after a stroke, and it can continue for years.
After a stroke, patients can sustain a variety of serious secondary effects that may affect their independence or ability to participate in beloved hobbies. As a result, stroke survivors may struggle with mood swings, depression, anxiety, and even PTSD.
According to the study authors, anger or emotional upset was linked to an approximately 30% higher risk of having a stroke within one hour of experiencing those emotions. Another potential stroke trigger revealed by the study was heavy physical exertion, although the evidence was less convincing.
After six months, improvements are possible but will be much slower. Most stroke patients reach a relatively steady state at this point. For some, this means a full recovery. Others will have ongoing impairments, also called chronic stroke disease.
If the part of your brain that normally controls your emotions becomes damaged by a stroke, the result can be a change in how you think, feel or behave. No two strokes are ever the same because the part of the brain affected and the extent of the damage differs from person to person.
THERE IS LIFE – AND HOPE – AFTER STROKE. WITH TIME, NEW ROUTINES WILL BECOME SECOND NATURE. REHABILITATION CAN BUILD YOUR STRENGTH, CAPABILITY AND CONFIDENCE. IT CAN HELP YOU CONTINUE YOUR DAILY ACTIVITIES DESPITE THE EFFECTS OF YOUR STROKE.
Usually, self-centered behavior has nothing to do with vanity or selfishness. Rather, it's often a result of the neurological impact of stroke. To help you cope with this change in behavior, you're about to learn why self-centeredness might happen, and how to cope in the meantime.
Symptoms of Prosopagnosia After Stroke
In severe cases, a survivor with prosopagnosia can't recognize familiar faces after stroke – even the faces of close friends and family. Other individuals may have trouble distinguishing between two unknown faces, or even between a face and an object.
Cognitive impairment and memory loss are common after a stroke. Approximately 30% of stroke patients develop dementia within 1 year of stroke onset. Stroke affects the cognitive domain, which includes attention, memory, language, and orientation.
Do not let that person go to sleep or talk you out of calling 911. Stroke survivors often complain of suddenly feeling very sleepy when a stroke first happens. “A lot of patients come in and say they went to sleep for a few hours before they came to the hospital because they were tired,” Dr. Humbert notes.
On the other hand, post-stroke mania is a rare neuropsychiatric complication that is observed in less than 1% of stroke cases. Depression is the most frequently occurring psychiatric disorder after stroke, and secondary bipolar disorder is considered an uncommon consequence and it is only reported anecdotally.
Psychological aspects of stroke adaptation include the risk for depression and anxiety, changes in identity and personality processes, and potential for social isolation. Depression and anxiety are heterogeneous constructs and can affect individuals' emotional functioning and cognitive abilities.