It’s fall in America, and that means football. With football comes questions and concerns about concussions in athletes. How long does it take to fully recover from a concussion? What happens if an athlete returns to play too soon after a concussion? How many concussions are too many?
But it’s not just sports where concussions occur. The most common cause of concussion in NCAA athletes is a car accident. The most common cause of a concussion overall is a fall. And a hidden demographic of people experience brain injuries at an alarming rate: domestic violence survivors.
Every minute, 32 people in the United States experience violence at the hands of an intimate partner. Roughly half of American women and 40% of American men will experience domestic violence at least once in their lives. Most incidents go unreported. One study found that just one in five victims sought medical help immediately after suffering a head injury. Nearly all these injuries involve a blow to the neck or head.
Current research indicates that more than 75% of domestic violence survivors suffer one or more traumatic brain injuries. In my experience, the most common response to the question, “How many concussions have you suffered,” is “Too many to count.”
