Many stroke survivors become depressed because tasks that used to be easy are now difficult. Stroke often causes people to lose feeling in an arm or leg or have diminished sight in one eye. They may forget or ignore their affected side, have trouble reading, dress only one side of their body or bump into furniture on their affected side. Usually stroke doesn't cause hearing loss, but survivors may not completely understand speech. They may have trouble saying what they're thinking, which is known as aphasia.
Stroke can affect muscles used in talking, and speech can be slow or slurred.
Chewing and swallowing can be a problem. Part of the mouth can lack feeling, increasing risk of choking. Stroke can affect the ability to think clearly. Planning and doing simple activities may be hard. Survivors may not know how to start a task, confuse logical steps in tasks, or forget how to do tasks they've done many times before.