Why You Need an Attorney After Suffering Vision Problems From a Traumatic Brain Injury

Vision Difficulties After a TBI Might Linger Longer Than You Think

While vision problems associated with traumatic brain injuries may clear up on their own over time, that is not always the case. Unfortunately, there are no reliable surgical or medical options for reversing damage to eyesight after a traumatic brain injury. 

Medication may be prescribed to prevent problems from worsening, however, such as reducing swelling and pressure on the optic nerve. In cases where vision issues are unlikely to ever go away, you may have to learn coping mechanisms through rehabilitative therapy, such as:

• Changing surroundings to avoid visual overload
• Dimming lights or changing light sources to avoid eye pain
• Increasing color contrast by adding light and dark objects to your surroundings
• Taking breaks during visuals tasks and focusing on an object far away 
• Wearing corrective lenses

How TBI Related Vision Problems Can Negatively Impact Daily Life

It isn’t hard to imagine how any combination of the most common TBI-caused vision problems can drastically alter your daily schedule. Many brain injury patients find it difficult to discern objects or written words at close range and may have to re-read a sentence multiple times for the letters to come together properly.

Vision issues can also cause tension in interpersonal relationships due to easy irritability caused by visual overload and eye pain. Problems with depth perception combined with a lack of peripheral vision may make it difficult to simply walk from point A to point B, creating a feeling like the ground is tilted.

In severe cases, these issues will impair driving ability, or make it impossible to safely drive yourself at all. Those problems springing from a brain injury may further be accompanied by a host of cognitive difficulties that impact speech and problem-solving abilities.