My second visit was interestingly, nothing like my first visit. My first visit was during the baking time as well but everyone there was new to me, except for one individual, Ann*.
The first time I was there, I was told to be wary of Ann since she did not usually like other females, and was often found to be even a little hostile and aggressive towards other females. I made sure to be exceptionally nice to her – although this almost upset me that I needed to be extra nice to someone simply because of my gender…
Before the baking started, we played a quick game of Trivia. Another classmate and I were in charge of asking the trivia questions. It was amazing to see how the members were so good at answering the questions. I’m ashamed to admit, I originally picked the easy ones thinking that their intelligence was altered. One individual (who was amazing at getting the questions right) actually commented that after his brain injury, he was significantly better at remembering facts than anything else. Ann was almost as good as the trivia-master and I would congratulate her every time she answered correctly.
We were all split into teams for baking banana bread – one wet items and one dry items. Funny enough, Ann and I were put on the same team. I was rather hesitant about this pairing but hoped for the best.
Ann was exceptionally knowledgeable in the art of baking, and I like to think that I’m fairly good at it but honestly, she blew me away. She took control and was handling everything like a pro. In fact, I had trouble cutting the butter and she gently took over and helped me out (the butter was rock-solid, I SWEAR!). Essentially, everything was cordial and it was a really great time.
The issue of emotional changes hasn’t really been brought up in class, but rather the emotional impact of going through a TBI for both the victim and the family. However, I thought that permanent emotional changes is something equally as important.
Why was Ann so hostile towards other females? Was she always this aggressive? She definitely displayed a huge difference in appeal to males so what was triggering this aggression towards other females? Did her injury cause her to be this way? So many questions that I want answered but unfortunately, cannot be. Baguley et al. performed a study on the commonality of aggression and found that it is surprisingly common! Roughly 25% of their participants were classified as aggressive. However, does Ann’s situation fall within this spectrum? Again, it is difficult to answer these questions so perhaps someday there will be more information on specific aggressive personality changes.
All in all, it was an entirely different experience, but one that opened my eyes nonetheless!
Mmm Banana Bread
*Changed name to protect privacy
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