CTE Is Not Just a Football Problem — Veterans Are at Risk
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When most people hear the words Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, they picture football.
They picture the headlines, the lawsuits, the retired NFL players. They picture someone else’s problem.
They don’t picture the veteran sitting across the dinner table who hasn’t been the same since he came home. They don’t picture the woman in the domestic violence shelter whose headaches never stopped. They don’t picture the hockey player, the soccer midfielder, the soldier who “never had a concussion” but took a thousand smaller hits over a decade of service.
CTE is a silent epidemic. And the majority of the people living inside it — or loving someone who is — have never heard that word applied to their situation.
That ends here.
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What CTE Actually Is
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a progressive neurodegenerative disease — meaning it gets worse over time and currently has no cure. It is caused by repeated trauma to the brain, including subconcussive impacts: hits that never resulted in a diagnosed concussion but accumulated over months and years of exposure.
The disease is characterized by the buildup of an abnormal form of tau protein in the brain. This tau accumulation disrupts normal brain function, kills neurons, and spreads over time — affecting mood, memory, impulse control, and eventually physical function.
CTE can currently only be definitively diagnosed after death through brain autopsy. During life, the clinical presentation is called Traumatic Encephalopathy Syndrome (TES) — and it is increasingly recognized by specialists familiar with the research.
McKee AC, Robinson ME. Military-related traumatic brain injury and neurodegeneration. Alzheimers Dement. 2014;10(3 Suppl):S242–S253.
Who Is Most at Risk
This is where the conversation has to expand beyond the football field.
Military veterans and active duty service members are among the highest risk populations for CTE. Blast wave exposure — even without direct physical impact — causes measurable neurological damage. A soldier who never “got hit” but was repeatedly exposed to IED blasts, heavy weapons fire, or training explosives has sustained repeated subconcussive trauma to the brain. The VA and Department of Defense have acknowledged this. The research is clear.
Contact sport athletes — football, boxing, hockey, soccer, wrestling — accumulate hits over careers that begin in youth leagues and span decades. The damage is not from the big hits alone. It is from the volume.
Domestic violence survivors — particularly women — represent a largely invisible population. A 2019 study in the Journal of Neurotrauma found that a significant proportion of women in domestic violence shelters had histories of repeated head trauma consistent with TBI risk factors. CTE research in this population is still emerging, but the mechanism of injury is identical.
Car accident and fall survivors with repeated head injuries are also at risk, as are children and adolescents in contact sports whose developing brains are more vulnerable to repeated impact.
Mez J, Daneshvar DH, Kiernan PT, et al. Clinicopathological Evaluation of CTE in Players of American Football. JAMA. 2017;318(4):360–370.
Haag HL, et al. TBI prevalence in women survivors of intimate partner violence. J Neurotrauma. 2019;36(5):838–846.
The Symptoms Families Miss
CTE does not announce itself. It creeps in — often mistaken for PTSD, depression, early Alzheimer’s, or just “getting older.” Families watch it happen and don’t have a name for it. That’s one of the cruelest parts.
Cognitive symptoms:
- Memory loss — especially short-term
- Confusion and difficulty concentrating
- Brain fog that gets worse over time
- Poor judgment and decision-making
Behavioral and emotional symptoms:
- Explosive anger — disproportionate to the situation, coming out of nowhere
- Impulsivity
- Depression and hopelessness
- Paranoia and suspicion
- Personality changes that feel like a different person lives in the same body
Physical symptoms (later stages):
- Parkinsonism — tremor, stiffness, shuffling gait
- Difficulty with balance and coordination
- Slurred speech
What families often say: “He was never like this before.” “She knows something is wrong but can’t stop it.” “The man I married is still in there somewhere — I can see him — but I can’t reach him anymore.”
If this sounds familiar, you are not imagining it. And it is not your fault.
McKee AC, et al. The spectrum of disease in chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Brain. 2013;136(Pt 1):43–64.
What You Can Do Right Now
CTE cannot be diagnosed during life with certainty — but that does not mean you are powerless.
1. Name it. Bring the words “CTE” and “Traumatic Encephalopathy Syndrome” to your next appointment with a neurologist. Ask specifically whether your loved one’s history and symptom pattern warrants evaluation by a specialist in TBI-related neurodegeneration.
2. Document everything. Keep a symptom journal — dates, behaviors, changes, triggers. This documentation is critical for specialist evaluation and for VA claims if your loved one is a veteran.
3. Contact the VA. Veterans with a history of blast exposure or repeated TBI have pathways for care through the VA Polytrauma System of Care. These are specialized centers with TBI expertise. Push for a referral if you haven’t received one.
4. Protect the brain from here. No more contact sports. No more situations with high risk of additional head trauma. Each additional impact accelerates the process.
5. Find your people. Caregivers of people with CTE-related decline are carrying an enormous weight, often in isolation, often without a community that understands. We built Robbins Nest Alliance because we needed it ourselves.
This Is Personal
Rob Robbins is a veteran and former Special Forces medic. He has a documented history of blast wave exposure and repeated head trauma over a career of service. What our family lives every day is the clinical literature made real — the anger, the memory loss, the good days and the catastrophic ones, the grief of watching someone brilliant and capable fight his own brain.
We don’t write about this from a distance. We write about it from the kitchen table.
Related Reading
- What Is CTE? Understanding Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy
- CTE Symptoms — Early Warning Signs
- CTE vs. PTSD — Why the Symptoms Can Look Similar
- CTE vs. Dementia Symptoms
- Traumatic Encephalopathy Syndrome (TES) — The Living Face of CTE
- How Repeated Head Impacts Can Lead to CTE
- The Four Stages of CTE
- How to Help a Veteran with PTSD
- What I Wish My Neurologist Had Told Me — Rob Robbins
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Peer-Reviewed Citations
- McKee AC, Robinson ME. Military-related traumatic brain injury and neurodegeneration. Alzheimers Dement. 2014;10(3 Suppl):S242–S253.
- Mez J, Daneshvar DH, Kiernan PT, et al. Clinicopathological Evaluation of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in Players of American Football. JAMA. 2017;318(4):360–370.
- Haag HL, Sokoloff S, MacGregor N, Bronskill SE, Colantonio A, Wodchis WP. Traumatic brain injury among women in a domestic violence shelter: A public health issue. J Neurotrauma. 2019;36(5):838–846.
- McKee AC, Stern RA, Nowinski CJ, et al. The spectrum of disease in chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Brain. 2013;136(Pt 1):43–64.
- VA Polytrauma System of Care. Traumatic Brain Injury and Veterans. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Robbins Nest Alliance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit providing free brain injury education for caregivers, veterans, and families. All content is peer-reviewed and cited. This article is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always work with your qualified care team.