**8. Conclusion**

The intention of this study was to demonstrate the need to deeply examine the psychosocial and existential realm present in individuals who are recovering from TBI. As mentioned throughout, each participant had a deeply singular experience of recovery from their major head injury. Participants who were able to conjure perspective, context, and a sustained sense of meaning around ending of their athletic career were able to recover a high level of psychosocial functioning, existential purpose, and, coincidentally or not, their symptoms were ameliorated.

Maryann and Philip were able to offer some unique perspective around the end of their career and the experience of no longer having the ability to participate in endeavors that caused their original TBI. Despite the myriad of trauma associated with her experience, Maryann continually described how she is grateful for rock climbing and how she can contextualize this experience with the longevity of her career. However, despite a traumatic ending and an injury that almost cost her health and life, she is able to put her career into perspective and expresses a sense of gratitude for her ability to engage in rock climbing. She knows that she cannot return to this arena

#### *Social Support, Identity, and Meaning: A Phenomenological Analysis of Post-Concussion… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95541*

of competition, however, she is cognizant of the sense of strength and confidence the sport offered her. The sport built her body and offered a consistent emotional release for her throughout the physical and somatic ailments she carried through her life. Even without the ability to return to this arena for the physical, emotional, and psychological strength it provides, she conceptualizes her career in sport as having deep and lasting meaning and is grateful for this experience despite any trauma incurred.

Similar to Maryann, Philip expresses a sense of gratitude and context around his full playing career despite experiencing a bevy of head injuries and abrupt ending to his career during his senior year. Though Philip acknowledges that sacrifices were made and injuries were incurred throughout his commitment to the sport, similar to Maryann, there is a sense of sustained meaning from and gratitude for his career and experiences in football. There is a similar sense of cognizance around what the sport offered despite what was taken from him through the trauma of his career ending injuries. The connection to his teammates, the emotional catharsis of competing and engaging in a contact sport, and the lessons learned and mindsets formed through discipline and commitment form a sense of sustained meaning for Philip. Ultimately, he is not blinding his awareness from the sacrifices made and asked. Instead, he is grateful for the game along with the trauma and struggles that were incurred in his career. Like Maryann, this sense of gratitude correlates with a sense of psychosocial wellbeing after the TBI and after his career has ended.

The aftermath of Roger's injury was undoubtedly the most physically, somatically, and psychosocially traumatizing. At least initially, he was offered little social support and struggled deeply to conjure a new identity without football. As he described, for some time, he felt like he was having a dissociative break from his identity, purpose, and experience of reality. However, in time, a novel sense of purpose and identity are conjured and the cognitive, somatic, and psychological symptoms of his TBI begin to subside.

Moving forward, more phenomenological research should be devoted to unearthing the lived experience of human beings who are recovering from traumatic brain injuries. Our argument is not that these psychosocial and existential factors have a causal effect on ameliorating somatic symptoms of TBI, however, it is possible that they play some significant role in aiding the holistic recovery of the traumatized person. The less we medicalize these injuries, the more we can build a holistic conceptualization of the traumatized human being. Ultimately, further phenomenological analysis of these lived experiences might be able to unravel the nuanced and complicated relationships between these systems.
