Why Do Personality Changes Happen After Brain Injury?
Personality changes after brain injury can make survivors feel like a completely different person—unable to speak clearly, think the way they used to, or connect with the activities that once defined them. These shifts often stem not just from the injury itself, but from disrupted retinal and visual processing that keeps the brain in sensory overload. A neuro-optometric evaluation can uncover these hidden processing mismatches, and individualized therapeutic lenses (Brainwear™) may help relieve the visual stress contributing to those changes.
When a Car Crash Steals Your Sense of Self
Personality changes after brain injury are among the most disorienting symptoms a survivor and their family can face. The person looks the same, but something fundamental has shifted—the way they speak, think, react, even the hobbies and skills that once came naturally. For Meg Scrivner, a mother of four and girls’ gymnastics coach from Andover, Kansas, a 2015 car crash set off exactly that kind of transformation.
Meg was driving with two of her daughters, ages 11 and 15, when their vehicle was broadsided. She sustained a traumatic brain injury that would go on to strip away her ability to process information, read, do math, and tolerate sound or light. Her speech dropped to a first- or second-grade vocabulary. She felt like “a blank sheet”—the person she had been was simply gone.
This is her story of losing, and slowly rebuilding, the identity she thought was gone for good.
Important context: Mind-Eye does not provide a remedy for the brain injury itself. The institute’s focus is on alleviating the visual stress and retinal processing disruptions that can follow concussion or TBI.Key Takeaways
- Personality changes after brain injury can strip away skills, emotional range, and the sense of self that once defined a person—leaving survivors feeling like a “blank sheet.”
- Mind-Eye does not provide a remedy for the brain injury itself. Its focus is on alleviating the visual stress and retinal processing disruptions that often follow concussion or TBI.
- Individualized therapeutic lenses (Brainwear™) alter how light disperses across the retina, helping the brain resynchronize sensory signaling between eyes, ears, and deeper brain structures.
- Meg Scrivner, a Kansas mother of four and gymnastics coach, went from being unable to form sentences or tolerate light to “feeling like I am almost back to my full personality”—and even discovered a new talent for music.
In April of 2015, I was in a pretty serious car accident with my two daughters. And, at first about 30 minutes, I felt pretty good. And then the symptoms kicked in. the symptoms were, quite severe. I couldn't find myself in space, so I was struggling with my peripheral vision. I couldn't figure out where to put my feet.
my limbs were not coordinated. I had a, brutal, serious headache for. Over a year. my speech deteriorated. I lost words. So not only my speech, but my, communication skills, my vocabulary went down to that, probably about a third grade level, maybe lower actually my quality of life after the accident went down to, no quality at all. There was not, any quality to it. I was struggling to exist on a daily basis just for, a main function. So trying to get back into, coaching competitive gymnastics was a challenge, because I could not. Give directions. I really was so confused as to what event I was even supposed to be coaching or what level of gymnastics I was supposed to be teaching.
that caused a lot of problems in the gym. both of the owners were very patient with any progress that I made. however, not, any real progress occurred until after I got my glasses, everything that I had tried prior to getting the glasses. Failed. once I received my first pair of glasses from Mind, eye connection, that was when, my life was altered, and then I was able to start giving concise directions.
I knew what I was doing. I had my memory back, not in full, but I could actually coach and teach enough to get by in a small period of time. I'm now back up to coaching at four hours at a time. but at that time, I. I really shouldn't have even been coaching a half hour class. I found, a book that was written by Clark Elliot.
It's called The Ghost in My Brain, and that, I. Let me know that there was other help available. When I finally saw Dr. Zelinsky, there was some initial testing that had been done for regular eyesight, and then I moved into the room and got to see and meet Dr. Zelinsky. I explained to her the symptoms that I'd been having and how it had altered everything in my life.
And I told her I was bound and determined to find something that was gonna help. And she said, you're a fighter and I can tell that if you get these lenses, you're gonna work hard to make this. Better, your quality of life will improve. And I took that, those words really serious. And it's been an uphill journey ever since.
When she did the ze belt test on me and I could actually hit my finger onto the bell, it was like this connection that happened in my brain, ooh. You're better with that. That is what feels comfortable to me or that is what is gonna make a difference to me. And it was really neat knowing that the eyes are part of the brain and that they're giving all of those signals and all that information to the brain all the time, even with our eyes closed.
it will change the way we use lens wear from here on out. And there's so many different entities of it, health issues. Autism, brain injury, dyslexia. there's, so many different facets that what she's doing is unbelievable. My quality of life has changed dramatically since, especially that first 14 months.
I, I am, I'm able to just a little bit extra communicate. I'm able to exercise. I'm able to make meals for my family. as a child, I had taken some piano lessons, but I was forced, and I don't mean that in a negative connotation. It wasn't my, it wasn't my passion. Since the glasses I can hear myself sing and I can hear the notes and how they go together.
So I hear the different chords working in conjunction with each other and it's made all the difference in being able to play the piano. I had to go by the great big being on my way A to be seen by Dr. Z. I heard she's on optical queen. I wrote a song about Dr. Zelensky and it's titled Dr. Z. and I really wanted.
It to be just this fun, exciting, like presentation about who Dr. Zelinsky is. She is this amazing female Einstein, with all this math and science background, and she, in essence saved my life and I wanted her to know how important I think she is, not just to me, but to, to the future of anybody that's going to prescribe lens wear to any human being.
For the rest of time, I think what she's doing is revolutionary and so I wanted her to know that, she is made such an impact on me and that she has a huge impact on, the future.
The TBI Personality Shift Nobody Understood
In the weeks after the crash, Meg’s world shrank dramatically. She could neither hear correctly nor tolerate light. Indoors, she and her husband hung curtains over blinds and switched to low-wattage bulbs. Outdoors, she wore a hat at all times.
Her speech deteriorated severely. “The word ‘student’ became ‘stewdant’; I was simply spelling phonetically,” she says. “I had no idea when to use ‘to,’ ‘two,’ or ‘too.’” She stumbled, bumped into things, and could not read signs while driving. Horrible headaches became a daily companion.
Meg was diagnosed with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but despite seeing several healthcare practitioners in the Andover and Wichita area, her symptoms persisted. The conventional approaches she tried did not seem to reach the underlying sensory disruptions driving her difficulties.
The personality changes were especially hard for those around her. The Meg they knew had vanished. She had difficulty in restaurants, where too many conversations and too much movement competed for her overwhelmed brain. A scrolling news ticker on the television would make her dizzy. Watching a movie on a large screen was “devastating. Too much information. Mind-boggling.”
Meg’s symptoms included:
Light sensitivity and sound sensitivity
Severe speech and word-retrieval difficulties
Cognitive changes, including loss of mathematical ability
Severe headaches
Balance problems and spatial disorientation
Feeling like a different person after TBI
Inability to concentrate or follow conversations
A Book That Changed Everything
Instead of staying home, Meg pushed herself back into activities to challenge her brain—including returning to her coaching position at the Andover public school system. She could no longer coach higher-level gymnastics, but she compensated enough to work with younger students.
Her condition improved “a little” over a 14-month span, but Meg continued struggling with everyday tasks. Then came a fateful trip to the local public library, where a recently published book caught her eye: The Ghost in My Brain by Clark Elliott, PhD, a DePaul University professor.
In it, Dr. Elliott details his own two-year journey back to health following eight years of symptoms from mild traumatic brain injury. He credits his recovery in large part to Deborah Zelinsky, OD, founder and executive research director of the Mind-Eye Institute in Northbrook, Illinois, and cognitive restructuring specialist Donalee Markus, PhD, of Designs for Strong Minds.
With the help of her husband, Meg read the book—and took the plunge. She contacted the Mind-Eye Institute for an appointment.
Her symptoms spanned nearly every dimension of daily life:
What Happened During Meg’s Neuro-Optometric Evaluation
During her first visit, Meg underwent extensive testing—far beyond a standard eye exam checking for 20/20 clarity.
“I recall Dr. Zelinsky telling me that my head injury had changed my environment and that she would help me resynchronize and rebalance my sensory systems,” Meg says.
Dr. Zelinsky, a retinal processing expert who serves as founder and executive research director of the Mind-Eye Institute, explains the approach: “The right mix of filters, lenses, and prisms can readjust a patient’s visual balance and eye-ear connections by altering the way light disperses across the retina. Mind-Eye Brainwear™ glasses selectively stimulate light on the retina to help patients redevelop visual processing skills during recovery from debilitating symptoms of brain injuries.”
Because Meg’s symptoms included both sound sensitivity and difficulty hearing correctly, her evaluation also incorporated the patented Z-Bell℠ Test. This test evaluates the synchronization between a patient’s auditory and visual spatial maps—in other words, whether what someone hears and what they see are being located in the same place by the brain. When these maps are misaligned, the brain must work overtime to reconcile conflicting signals, which can contribute to sensory overload, fatigue, and the kind of cognitive and personality changes Meg was experiencing.
The retina, composed of brain tissue, serves as a two-way conduit between the outside environment and internal physiological systems. When a brain injury disrupts how retinal signals are processed, the ripple effects can include everything from dizziness and headaches to speech difficulties and personality changes after TBI.
Why Brain Injuries Can Change Who You Seem to Be
It may seem surprising that a pair of specialized glasses could influence something as complex as personality. But the connection runs through the retina and the brain’s sensory processing systems.
Visual processing is what enables people to respond appropriately to changes in their surrounding environment. That environment includes facial expressions, gestures, spoken words, background noise, traffic patterns, and the thousand small signals we read every second without thinking.
When a brain injury disrupts the synchronization between what someone sees and what they hear—a visual-vestibular mismatch—the brain can become chronically overloaded. It spends so much energy just trying to integrate basic sensory input that higher-order functions, including speech fluency, emotional engagement, and the cognitive skills that define someone’s identity, may be suppressed. The result: a person who looks present but feels—and behaves—like a different version of themselves.
By using therapeutic Brainwear™ lenses to alter how light disperses across the retina, Mind-Eye clinicians can help the brain develop new informational signaling pathways. These new pathways may circumvent disrupted neurological “communication” lines and promote more balanced signaling patterns between the retina and deeper brain structures.
“You Have Just Given Concise Directions”: Meg’s Progress
Meg remembers wearing her first pair of therapeutic glasses from the Mind-Eye Institute—and not initially realizing how much they were changing.
“The other teacher with whom I was coaching gymnastics also happens to be a speech pathologist. We had divided the girls into groups, and I started giving directions to my students. The pathologist was astounded. She said, ‘You have just given concise, specific directions that everybody understands. You haven’t been able to do that.’ It was then she realized I was wearing my new glasses.”
Over time, the changes compounded. By her fifth pair of prescribed Brainwear™ lenses, Meg reported feeling “like I am almost back to my full personality.” Her math skills remained “a little rough,” but she could do her checkbook. She continued reading every night in an effort to replace what she called “some missing pages in my brain dictionary.”
An Unexpected Gift: Music Fills the Void
Perhaps the most surprising development in Meg’s recovery was a talent she never had before the injury.
“A piano teacher once told me I would never learn to play the instrument; I did not have the talent. But after getting my prescription glasses, I started hearing music in my head. So, I sat down at the piano. Now, I have a book full of songs.”
Meg began singing in a band and writing songs at the piano—new abilities she attributes to the way her brain reorganized after the injury and the support of her therapeutic lenses. “Music seems to have filled the void in my brain once occupied by my math abilities,” she says.
This kind of neural reorganization illustrates the brain’s remarkable plasticity. While Mind-Eye cannot reverse the injury itself, the institute’s focus on relieving visual and sensory processing disruptions can sometimes create the conditions for the brain to forge unexpected new pathways. Meg’s story is a vivid example: the personality changes after brain injury that once felt permanent were not the end of her story, but the beginning of a different chapter.
Note: Although Meg Scrivner reports progressive symptom relief, her experience is individual and not guaranteed for every patient. Results vary.
Could Visual Processing Disruptions Be Contributing to Your Symptoms?
If you or a loved one is experiencing personality changes, cognitive difficulties, or persistent sensory symptoms after a brain injury, a neuro-optometric evaluation may uncover processing mismatches that standard exams do not assess.
Take the Mind-Eye Symptoms Assessment to see whether your symptoms align with the visual and retinal processing disruptions our clinicians evaluate. Or contact us to schedule a comprehensive neuro-optometric evaluation.
Medical Disclaimer: The content on this page is for informational purposes only. Mind-Eye Institute clinicians are Doctors of Optometry (ODs), not medical doctors or neurologists. Neuro-optometric care alleviates visual and retinal processing disruptions; it does not cure or reverse traumatic brain injury. Individual results vary. Always consult a qualified medical professional regarding health concerns.
FAQs
FAQs
A traumatic brain injury can disrupt the sensory processing systems the brain relies on to navigate everyday life—including how it integrates what it sees, hears, and feels. When those systems are out of sync, the brain may redirect its limited energy toward basic survival-level processing, suppressing higher-order functions like speech fluency, emotional engagement, and the cognitive habits that define who a person seems to be. The result can feel like a fundamental shift in personality.
Not necessarily. The brain is remarkably plastic—capable of forming new signaling pathways even after injury. How much personality recovers depends on many factors, including the nature of the injury, the support systems in place, and whether underlying sensory processing disruptions are identified and relieved. Meg Scrivner progressed through five pairs of Brainwear™ lenses, with each prescription building on the gains of the last, gradually returning to what she described as “almost back to my full personality.”
A standard eye exam primarily checks eyesight clarity (e.g., 20/20). A neuro-optometric evaluation at Mind-Eye goes further, assessing how the retina processes and distributes light, how the eyes and ears coordinate spatial awareness, and how efficiently the brain integrates sensory signals. Testing may include the patented Z-Bell℠ Test, which evaluates the synchronization between a patient’s auditory and visual spatial maps.
Brainwear™ is the term for Mind-Eye’s individualized therapeutic lenses. By varying the angle, intensity, and amount of light passing through the retina, these lenses can help the brain resynchronize sensory signaling pathways—especially the connection between what a person sees and what they hear. For some patients, this may relieve symptoms such as light sensitivity, dizziness, sensory overload, and the cognitive difficulties that contribute to personality changes.
No. Mind-Eye clinicians are Doctors of Optometry (ODs), not medical doctors or neurologists. The institute does not provide a remedy for the brain injury itself. Its focus is on alleviating the visual stress and retinal processing disruptions that can follow concussion or TBI. Individual results vary, and neuro-optometric care often works best alongside other rehabilitation providers.
Yes. When the brain is overwhelmed by unprocessed sensory input—lights too bright, sounds too loud, conversations too fast—it may shut down higher-order functions as a protective measure. This can manifest as withdrawal from social situations, difficulty communicating, loss of skills that once came easily, and an overall flattening of the emotional and cognitive range that friends and family associate with “who you are.” A neuro-optometric evaluation can determine whether visual and auditory processing mismatches are contributing to that overload.
For more general questions about our treatments, visit our Full FAQ Page.
