You can’t put your brain in a cast or stitch it up. And yet, it’s one of the easiest parts of the body to break — and the hardest to heal.
When your brain gets hurt, the effects ripple through everything: how you think, how you feel, how you connect with the world around you. The emotional toll can be just as serious as the physical one and, often, even more difficult to live with.
Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) turn life inside out. The headaches, confusion, and memory lapses are only part of the story. What often lingers longer after a head injury — and cuts deeper — is the emotional trauma. Anxiety that won’t go away. Anger that flares without warning. A constant sense that something inside just isn’t right.
These symptoms aren’t just frustrating. They’re evidence of real psychological harm. And in many brain injury cases, they’re just as damaging as the physical effects.
So can you sue for emotional distress after a brain injury? Yes. Illinois law allows victims to seek compensation for both the seen and the unseen wounds. Emotional suffering, when tied to a traumatic injury, has legal weight — and you have every right to pursue justice for it. Working with a skilled brain injury lawyer can help you make that case.
Here’s how it works.
What Is Emotional Distress After a Brain Injury?
Even a mild traumatic brain injury affects your physical health. Moreover, it can cause long-term emotional and psychological trauma. Many people experience what’s known as emotional distress — a range of mental health symptoms that surface during or after recovery from a TBI.
Common emotional effects include:
- Anxiety and panic attacks
- Depression and persistent sadness
- Mood swings or emotional outbursts
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Irritability or difficulty regulating emotions
These symptoms are often part of a broader emotional traumatic brain injury and may not appear immediately. In many instances, brain injury survivors develop emotional distress gradually — sometimes weeks or months after the initial accident. That delay can make it harder to connect the emotional symptoms to the injury, but the impact is no less real.
Emotional distress can affect every part of daily life. Victims may struggle with work performance, personal relationships, memory, or concentration. They may isolate themselves, lose interest in hobbies, or feel hopeless about the future. In severe cases, emotional trauma can be as debilitating as the physical injury itself.
Can Emotional Distress Be Part of a Personal Injury Lawsuit?
Yes, emotional distress can absolutely be part of a brain injury lawsuit.
Under Illinois law, personal injury claims allow for “non-economic damages” — the losses that don’t come with a receipt or invoice. These include pain and suffering, loss of normality in life, and emotional trauma. In a severe traumatic brain injury, emotional distress is often one of the most significant — and lasting — forms of damage a person faces.
In legal terms, emotional distress is typically included under pain and suffering and can be the result of brain swelling or other serious brain injuries. It accounts for the psychological fallout of a traumatic event: anxiety, depression, fear, grief, insomnia, or other forms of mental anguish.
Illinois courts recognize the right to sue for emotional harm, especially when it stems directly from a physical injury like a TBI. In brain injury lawsuits, this means victims don’t just seek compensation for medical bills or lost wages. They can also pursue damages for the unseen toll the injury takes on their emotional well-being.
Challenges in Proving Emotional Distress
Emotional distress is real, but it’s not always easy to prove in court.
Unlike a broken bone or visible scar, emotional trauma doesn’t show up on an X-ray. That makes it more difficult to present as evidence in a lawsuit. In brain injury cases, where emotional changes can be severe and life-altering, documentation becomes critical.
To support a claim for emotional distress, your legal team may rely on:
- Medical records from therapists, psychologists, or psychiatrists
- Expert testimony explaining how your brain injury led to mental health complications
- Personal journals or statements that show changes in your emotional state over time
- Testimony from friends, family, or coworkers who’ve witnessed behavioral changes
A formal diagnosis — such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or major depressive disorder — also strengthens your case. These clinical assessments help establish the seriousness of your emotional injuries and make it easier to link them to the traumatic brain injury you experienced.
Without this kind of evidence, claims for emotional distress can be harder to validate. But with the right documentation and expert support, these claims are not only possible—they’re often a key part of successful brain injury lawsuits.
Why Emotional Trauma Is Especially Common in Brain Injury Cases
A brain injury doesn’t just shake the body. It can fundamentally change someone’s brain function — how a person thinks, feels, and reacts.
That’s because the brain regulates emotions, memory, personality, and behavior. When those systems are disrupted by a head injury, even a mild TMI can lead to serious emotional fallout. Many people report feeling like a different version of themselves — quicker to anger, unable to focus, or overwhelmed by even minor stress. (Imagine what a severe brain injury causes!)
Emotional instability, confusion, irritability, and memory loss are all common signs of a traumatic brain injury. These symptoms don’t just impact mental health. They affect how a person functions at work, connects with loved ones, and maintains daily routines.
Studies back this up. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that nearly half of people hospitalized for a TBI experience emotional symptoms like depression or anxiety one year after the injury. Other research has shown that up to 30 percent of moderate to severe TBI patients develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
These emotional effects are not side issues. In many brain injury cases, they become the main struggle and a key reason victims pursue compensation — and that’s beyond any other legal rights they may be entitled to due to a motor vehicle accident or something else.
Filing a Brain Injury Lawsuit in Chicago
If you’re suffering from the effects of a traumatic brain injury, a lawsuit may help you recover the financial support you need to move forward.
In Illinois, brain injury lawsuits fall under personal injury law. That means your case must show that another party’s negligence — whether it was a car accident, fall, workplace injury, or medical error — caused your brain injury and resulting damages.
Like all legal claims, timing matters. Illinois law gives you two years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit. Miss that deadline, and your case may be dismissed before it’s even heard. That’s why it’s important to speak with a brain injury lawyer in Chicago as early as possible.
The process typically includes the following steps:
- Investigation – Your attorney gathers medical records, witness statements, expert evaluations, and other evidence to support your claim.
- Filing the claim – A formal complaint is submitted to the appropriate court outlining your injuries and the damages you’re seeking.
- Negotiation or trial – Many cases settle out of court, but if the defendant won’t offer fair compensation, your Chicago brain injury attorney can take the case to trial.
While the process may feel complex, having the right legal team gives you a clear path forward — and a better shot at securing full and fair compensation.
What Damages Can You Recover for Emotional Distress?
Emotional distress is considered non-economic damage, meaning it doesn’t come with a fixed dollar amount, but it still carries weight in court.
In a brain injury lawsuit, non-economic damages often include:
- Emotional distress
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of consortium (in cases involving impact on close personal relationships)
These damages recognize the real, ongoing toll a traumatic brain injury can take beyond the physical symptoms. If your emotional health, daily functioning, or personal life has suffered, you have the right to seek compensation for those losses.
At the same time, non-economic damages are often paired with economic damages—like medical bills, lost income, and future care costs. Together, they form a complete picture of how the injury has affected your life.
Standing Up for What You’ve Been Through
A brain injury changes your health — and your life. When emotional trauma follows, it’s not a weakness. It’s a reflection of just how deep the damage runs. You’re not imagining it. You’re not overreacting. And you’re not alone.
The law recognizes emotional distress for what it is: a legitimate injury that deserves to be heard. But to make your case, you need more than truth — you need representation. A skilled Chicago brain injury attorney knows how to tell your story with the evidence, expert support, and legal strategy that turns pain into a claim for justice.
Midwest Injury Lawyers understands the weight these cases carry. We’ve helped clients across Illinois hold negligent parties accountable for the physical and emotional harm they’ve caused. We’ll handle the legal fight so you can focus on healing.
If you’re ready to talk, we’re ready to listen. Contact our team for a free consultation today!