u/liam66035

4 years ago in Italy I was attacked and robbed at random which caused a traumatic brain injury. The bleeding in the brain and subsequent concussion and seizures which persisted for months changed me. At the time I was a confident medical student about to graduate who after the injury I lost so much of my memory I couldn't pass any exams or remember much of University. I went from being about to be a doctor to being told I would have to start University again from year 1. Since then some of my memory came back but it feels like it comes and goes.

However I feel robbed, since the injury so much of my personality has changed, I am nowhere near as confident as I once was and I feel like a failure for not being able to graduate as a doctor. I have gone on to get graduate certificates in medical sciences but I just feel like my injury has let my family, friends and myself down. They tell me they are proud of me, but I feel like they just pity me knowing how the injury changed me. I suppose the change in personality is normal in someone who is subject to an attack like this, but I wonder if the feelings of depression and anxiety will persist for the rest of my life wondering what could have been? Even recently I had a 2 hour long conversation with a friend on facetime and I do remember speaking with him and looking at the records it was 2 hours 12 minutes, but he asked me if I had any thoughts about what we spoke about and I realised now that I have no recollection of this 2+hour long chat.

These memory problems are so common for me it seems now I forget things I have recently been told which is a problem as I am currently employed in a pharmacy and I work in a medical laboratory but after a day it is like my brain resets and I forget so much. I had some seizures in the immediate months from the injury and was prescribed pregabalin, valproate and clonazepam to prevent them.