Stroke Behavior

A stroke happens when the blood flow to the brain is interrupted. Strokes have different causes, and different strokes cause different symptoms and behaviors in victims. Strokes result in brain injury, which can affect the senses, motor activity (movement), speech and understanding. Strokes can also affect thought patterns--including both memory and emotions--and self-restraint. Paralysis or weakness commonly affects one side of the body, and the effect can remain with a victim long after the stroke.

Causes

• The primary cause of strokes is a thrombosis, or blockage by a clot to an artery in the brain. An embolic stroke happens when a piece of plaque breaks loose from an arterial wall, travels through the arteries and lodges in an artery in the brain. Cerebral hemorrhages occur when a blood vessel in the brain ruptures and bleeds into surrounding tissue. Subarachnoid hemorrhages happen when blood leaks from an abnormal blood vessel or aneurysm. Vasculitis strokes occur when blood vessels become inflamed and swell. Sometimes a migraine headache can induce a stroke when the blood vessels narrow.

Cognitive Changes

• Cognitive changes include dementia and memory problems as well as challenges with problem solving and communication. Injury to the areas of the brain used for memory can make it hard for stroke survivors to complete simple tasks. The American Stroke Association reports, "Stroke survivors may not know how to start a task, confuse the sequence of logical steps in tasks, or forget how to do tasks they've done many times before."

Communication Disorders

• Common communication disorders caused by strokes include aphasia and motor speech disorders. Aphasia, loss of the ability to communicate, normally results from damage to the left side of the brain. This can affect verbal expression, the ability to get words out; auditory comprehension, the ability to understand what is being said to you; and the ability to read, write or work with numbers. Motor speech disorders cause slurred speech due to muscle weakness and lack of coordination.

Emotional Changes

• When areas of the brain that produce emotions suffer stroke damage, emotional lability (unstable emotions or mood swings) sometimes results. Some stroke survivors do not seem to care about anything. This apathy often gets confused with depression.

Awareness and Perception

• Stroke often causes patients to lose strength, feeling or mobility in an arm or leg on one side of the body. When the stroke affects the left side of the body, patients tend to suffer from neglect, meaning they ignore things on one side of the body. According to the American Stroke Association, "Neglect can run the gamut from someone who doesn't recognize paralyzed limbs as their own to those who ignore food on one side of the plate or words on one side of the page." Patients often bump into furniture and doorjambs because they forget about one set of limbs. Since strokes affect seeing, touching, moving and thinking, a patient's perception of the world can suffer greatly. Survivors may not recognize familiar objects, and the damage may cause near- or far-sightedness.

Providing Support

• Dealing with changes in a stroke survivor's personality or physical disabilities may be incredibly difficult. As a caregiver, look into counseling or support groups to help you through this trying time. To best help your loved one, keep your own emotions under control and remember that your loved one is not upset with you. You should be positive and supportive, but be firm about what kinds of behavior are not okay. Keeping the patient distracted and soothed helps to keep both of you calm. Finally, try positive reinforcement to help teach the patient control and to accept the limitations of his new situation.