My Pet Peeve

For my pet peeve, I’m talking about how head trauma and brain injury is depicted in pop culture.

Be very clear, brain injury is nothing like it is shown in the movies. Too often when watching the screen, I see the hero experience some horrifying crash, an explosion, utter destruction — head smashing into the ground or a flying car — mayhem followed by darkness — it’s clear that there has been severe head trauma.  Cut to the next scene hours, days, or even weeks later and everyone is gathered around the surviving hero.  Eyes flutter open, the hero sees the loving crew gathered round — everyone shouts, “Oh my God!  You’re alive!  How do you feel?”

The hero takes a long moment, perhaps a few blinks, “Me, uh, I’m...I don’t really remember what happened.  How did I get here?  Wait...hold on...(takes a deep breath)...okay, now I’m ready to Save the World!”

This is absurd!  But time and time again it is shown as how people blink awake after head trauma.

And it’s overlooked in the news as well — news of real events.  A local station might cover an accident, or factory accident, or some catastrophe where a person or many people are seriously injured, and the focus is entirely on do the people live or not.  Granted, this is important information, but the extended rehabilitation and life long debilitating effects that come from the trauma are almost always overlooked or entirely ignored.

Now, I do understand why the media depicts stories in this manner.  Acknowledging the full process of recovery just isn’t that exciting, and most audiences don’t find the long, monotonous, grueling process particularly gripping — believe it or not, brain injury isn’t sexy.  The problem is that the depictions TBI portrayed by the media is how many people come to understand what happens in brain injury — that once a survivor opens his or her eyes its all over and things can return to how they were before. This sort of understanding can result in friends or family members having false expectations about recovery when someone close experiences TBI and can cause the survivor to be pushed into situations that he or she is not ready for.

So, whenever I see a false depiction of head trauma on a screen, it agitates me.  I hope that after reading this, seeing such depictions might frustrate you as well, so I ask that if you see this nonsense of instant recovery in the media, please point it out to any people you are with.  Don’t let it ruin the film, but you can say something like, “Yeah, that — coming out of a coma so quickly and easily like that — that’s bullshit.”  

I don’t expect the media landscape to change, but any person becoming slightly more aware about the reality of brain trauma in what is being watched will benefit to the world.

And whenever you do that, know that I thank you for helping to remedy my pet peeve.

Please leave comments below and share with anyone who might be interested.

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