#141 It’s Still Them… Right? Stroke & Personality Changes

🔔 If this episode helped you, please share it with another care partner!If your loved one’s personality feels different after a stroke, you’re not imagining it. Right hemisphere strokes can affect emotional awareness, social judgment, and self-control—leading to blunt speech, impulsivity, and a seeming lack of empathy.

It’s not a personality choice—it’s a brain function change. But for care partners, it doesn’t always feel that way.

🎧 In this episode, we cover: ✔️ Why right hemisphere stroke can cause personality changes ✔️ How to separate the stroke from the person (so it doesn’t feel personal) ✔️ Why self-awareness is affected—and how to gently encourage it ✔️ Concrete strategies for handling impulsivity, emotional disconnect, and social struggles

🛑 This is Part 3 of our 4-part Right Hemisphere Stroke Series! 🔹 Go back to Episode 138 to learn about how right hemisphere stroke changes how survivors process information. 🔹 Listen to Episode 140 to hear about emotions, relationships, and why social cues feel different. 🔹 Stay tuned for Episode 144, where we’ll explore life from the survivor’s perspective—what it actually feels like to navigate the world after a right hemisphere stroke.

📢 Feeling overwhelmed as a stroke care partner?

When your world feels out of control, the first step is building a support system.

We’ve found that when care partners have strong support, everything changes. They move from overwhelmed and reactive to in control and proactive—and that shift helps them not just care for their loved one, but promote real recovery.

That’s why we created First Steps to LIFE Beyond Aphasia: Build Your Support Map—a 90-minute course designed to help you get out of survival mode and reclaim balance in your life.

✅ Learn how to rebuild your support network—so you’re not doing this alone. ✅ Find stability so you have the energy to learn about stroke & adaptation. ✅ Shift from feeling lost to feeling confident & in control.

📌 Learn more and enroll today → https://dolifespeechpathology/first-steps

🎧 Listen now to understand personality changes after stroke & what you can do.