The brain is doubly impacted by trauma and addiction. We also know that organic brain disease may increase suicidality, and there are worrisome side effects that come with certain psych meds. Soldiers, football players, boxers, other high-impact sports athletes, car accident victims, and others who have had a traumatic brain injury (TBI) or its milder form, post-concussion syndrome (PCS), are at risk.

Traumatic Brain Injury has two causes:

1. Penetration of the head by a foreign object, such as a gunshot or sharp object.
2. Strong jostling within the cranium from a fall, a blow to the head, a car or motorcycle accident, etc.

The hallmarks of TBI, depending upon the severity of the blow to the head, can be:

• Cognitive impairment, evidenced in poor memory and lack of focus
• Emotional problems, such as depression, anxiety, personality change, aggression, and impulse control
• Impaired motor function, poor balance and coordination, and weakness in the extremities
• Problems with vision, hearing, and touch as well as impaired perception

NFL player Dave Duerson, former star of the Chicago Bears, shot himself in the chest at age 50. Before taking his life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, he texted his family, asking that his brain be given to Boston University School of Medicine to be used for research—which is why he shot himself in the chest rather than in the head.

Researchers in neurology discovered that Duerson suffered from a neurodegenerative disease called CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), which is linked to repeated head trauma and promotes the growth of a protein that is prevalent in degenerating brains like those with Alzheimer’s disease. The symptoms of CTE include suicidality, depression, aggression, and impaired judgment.

In 2006, another NFL player, Andre Waters of the Philadelphia Eagles, ended his life at the age of 44. The forensic pathologist who studied Waters’s brain said that it resembled the brain of an 85-year-old man in the first stages of Alzheimer’s.

The current research indicates that CTE is also found among military veterans and young school athletes, including those who play hockey and football, who take repeated blows to head. The soft-tissue damage to the brain is cumulative and dangerous.

Most significantly, the brain damage caused by CTE and TBI can lead to suicide.