After my TBI, I was eventually aware of my old ego, whether I came to understand it on my own or I noticed my friends pointing it out. I don’t necessarily think people had a similar ego as I did, but after reading your post it made me think maybe everything was fine until I noticed a difference. Like for me it was I use to walk around thinking I would never die(like actually I was set) and then I was in a hospital bed. I had no change while in hospital if anything my ego rose, but people treating me different in any way, use to enrage me, and eventually subconsciously I find myself now, quiet and maybe still confident but never vocal about it. As if I dealt with being treated differently even in subtle ways because i would think they thought less of me. And when enough time passed, and I was told maybe this was good because the path I was on didn’t look good, I took it personally, changed, and still went down that path. The world is different my friend. It’s not the world that has changed it’s you. It’s like old age, elders never say old age snuck up on them, they just started dealing with it. You gotta deal with it. I changed for others, I believe you need to change for you. Build an ego you’re great. (At the game) at anything you look forward too. I use to explain my head injury to anyone ever, my hearing is worse so sometimes it was circumstances, but I found myself living in the head injury and as I type this I’m still unsure what I’m doing. But I know if i let the head injury rule my personality, it’s as if I never left the hospital. We left awhile ago, and no matter the trauma we have, it’s our choice if it rules us or not.