Does getting moderately smacked on the head cause brain damage?

Cymothoe
Fri, 26 Apr 2013 04:44:09 +0000

Digging up an old thread but I thought I should put in my two cents.

Moderate slapping with an open hand over a person’s head can cause brain damage. Age does make a difference, but even with an adult it’s possible. This sounds more severe than you may think. Sometimes brain damage can be so severe that it leads permanent disability, personality changes, coma or even death. More commonly though, it leads to temporary brain inflammation and/or nerve damage. Unlike what was previously thought, brain cells can regenerate and nerves can heal over time, but usually it happens slowly over the course of years.

From my experience, collisions to the top and back of the head from skiing or falling off a bike leads to concussions and memory loss type brain damage. It doesn’t even have to be that traumatic. My cousin got a concussion once from just head-banging to music alone in her own bedroom! Typically though, when a parent hits your head it contacts side or diagonal-top part of your head. The strength matters less than the speed of the hit. If it’s low and fast enough like this [How to Do an Ear Clap | Self Defense](http://www.howcast.com/videos/511186-How-to-Do-an-Ear-Clap-Self-Defense), it can lead to ruptured ear drums, nose bleeds, and bitten tongues. I had a hard time not reporting my father to a family doctor for this reason. However, if you take care not to hit or dirty those ear canals, they heal as well over the years. The sharp recoil of the head to the side can also cause nerve damage and conditions like this: [Occipital Neuralgia: Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatments, and More](Occipital Neuralgia: Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatments, and More).

My theory is that recurrent “moderate smacks” to the side/diagonal of the head is more likely to lead to lingering physical maladies rather than mental damage since areas around the back of your head and neck area is where your senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch, balance, pain, pleasure, and movement are located. I believe you’re more likely to become paralyzed than stupider from your parent repeatedly hitting your head. I’m Chinese-American and I believe that the common adult Chinese’ neck/head strain, dimmer senses, and the less emotional responses is caused by this. Sure, the advent of field of straining computer, academic, and clerical work also leads to this issues. But these characteristics seem evident in the therapeutic trainings and beliefs of the Zen monks way before those fields of work became prominent. And I believe recent, more Western approaches to parenting in these past few decades has led to the growth of a more vibrant and colorful youth culture in China.