Aphasia Explained

HOLLYWOOD, CA – AUGUST 19: Actor Bruce Willis attends Premiere of Dimension Films’ “Sin City: A Dame To Kill For” at TCL Chinese Theatre on August 19, 2014 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Bruce Willis announced he was stepping away from Hollywood to deal with having aphasia.

Now many experts are explaining what the brain disorder is.

According to CNN, it affects about two million people, and it is more common than Parkinson’s Disease, cerebral palsy, or muscular dystrophy.

They state, “Aphasia is a devastating condition that steals a person’s ability to communicate, making it difficult to write or speak or even understand what others are saying.” They add, “People with aphasia can have problems finding words, use words out of order, speak in a choppy, halting manner, or use short fragments of speech.”

Different things can cause aphasia like a stroke, a traumatic brain injury, an infection, a tumor, or dementia.

Complete recovery from aphasia is unlikely, but it does occasionally happen.