General Guide to Roleplaying out Concussions, Skull Fractures, and Brain Bleeds.
This guide is to help you role-play these common traumatic brain injuries that occur on SchoolRP. This guide can help give you a fundamental baseline, but you should ALWAYS research these injuries to role-play them properly.
WHAT IS A TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY?
A traumatic brain injury or TBI is an injury that affects how the brain works. It is usually caused by a blow or jolt to the head, but penetrating injury can also cause TBI. Traumatic brain injuries affect many different brain functions, including how someone thinks, speaks, moves, behavior, etc.
The most common ones that occur on SchoolRP are concussions, skull fractures, and brain bleeds.
CONCUSSIONS
There are a lot of ways of categorizing and explaining how concussions work. To simplify it, I am trying my best to condense it to make it easier to understand. When I state "other injuries," I am talking about brain bleeds and/or skull fractures.
Mild Concussion
Though mild, they can still be pretty nasty. Symptoms may last up to a few days, and most of the time, you won't lose consciousness, though, if you do it only for a few minutes. Your character may have headaches, sensitivity to light, memory problems, nausea, weakness, and overall feeling foggy and weak. Some ways someone may get a mild concussion could be falling down some stairs or being in a fight, and someone punches you in the head a few times. Sometimes, people may not even know they have a mild concussion as it might just feel like a regular headache, but this differs from person to person.
Moderate Concussion
It can be associated with other injuries, but not all the time. Some ways this can happen is being knocked out from a bat or wrench, and people have worsening symptoms of mild concussion. Additional symptoms such as problems with balance, persistent headaches, and irritability may also appear. Usually, you will pass out for up to an hour, depending on how bad; these symptoms are also severe enough to start impacting daily activities.
Severe Concussion
Your character loses consciousness for an extended time; this could be a few days to even a few weeks, as these concussions are associated with vegetative states and comas. Alongside the mild and moderate concussion symptoms worsening, there also may be seizures, a headache that won't go away, unequal pupil size, slurred speech, and agitation. These concussions can take months to recover from and have lasting effects.
SKULL FRACUTRES
Skull fractures occur when a force or object breaks the skull open, possibly exposing underlying tissues. Skulls are strong, which means it takes a lot of force to break them, and things like falling from heights, blow to the head, etc., can cause fractures. Moderate and severe concussions are very often associated with skull fractures, depending on how severe they are.
There are many ways to describe a skull fracture, to put it simply I put it in 2 categories:
MINOR FRACTURE
A minor fracture is typically a linear fracture, meaning the skull breaks in just a line. Typically, a moderate concussion is associated with it. The bone does not move, and it heals on its own after a few weeks. Additional symptoms may include pain and/or swelling in the injured area and bruising around the area.
- These do not require surgery to be fixed most of the time and treatment involves resting a lot.
SEVERE FRACTURE
Usually described as a compound fracture, meaning the bone is broken into tiny little bits, and the skin may be broken, or even the bone may be sunken in. Brain bleeds may occur with this type of fracture and are usually associated with a moderate to severe concussion. Additional symptoms can be severe sharp pain in the injured area, facial weakness, abnormality in the skull, and bruising around the area.
- These do require surgery and lots of rest to heal from.
BRAIN BLEEDS
A brain bleed or hemorrhagic stroke is when there is a blood vessel in the brain bursts, causing blood to pour out. There are many different types, and usually, they describe whether there is bleeding inside the brain (intracerebral hemorrhage) or outside the brain in the space that surrounds it (subarachnoid hemorrhage). To simplify it, I will combine them both.
When a brain bleed occurs, typically severe concussions are associated with it, but if it is more of a “minor” bleed, then moderate concussions may happen instead. Additional symptoms that can occur may be:
- A sudden and severe headache called a thunderclap headache, is usually described as the worst headache ever felt.
- Symptoms of a stroke like the inability to move, facial weakness, confusion, and trouble seeing/speaking.
- Seizures
- One eye is larger than the other
- Muscle pain and/or stiffness
Without prompt treatment, brain bleeds can cause permanent brain damage as the brain is susceptible to the lack of oxygen. This can cause your character to come in and out of consciousness before losing consciousness completely.
I hope you all enjoyed reading this guide and I hope it helps you potentially in the future when it comes to roleplaying out these injuries. Remember to always do research and even if you are unsure if it right don't hesitate to ask!
