Oh, brace yourselves for a groundbreaking revelation from the world of research: combat veterans with a history of getting their bells rung (aka mild traumatic brain injury or mTBI) might just find socializing a tad more challenging than your average Joe. Who would’ve thought, right? In an astonishing twist, a cross-sectional study involving a whopping 143 participants who’ve had their heads rattled during deployment (the TBI group) and another 80 who’ve managed to dodge that bullet (the Comparison group) was conducted to really get to the bottom of this.

Participants were put through the wringer with self-report measures (because who knows you better than you, right?) on how they’re managing socially, their resilience, how much the horrors of war haunt them (PTSD symptoms), and just how much action they saw. And just to make sure no one was fibbing about their head injuries, a structured interview was thrown in for good measure.

Now, hold onto your hats: despite both groups being pretty much the same demographically (surprise, surprise), those with a history of mTBI reported feeling more like social pariahs. They also had more PTSD symptoms and had seen more things go boom. But here’s where it gets juicy: a stepwise model (because simple is just too mainstream) revealed that resilience had a significant effect on how socially active these veterans felt they were. The more resilient, the more they’re out and about, mingling and whatnot. And guess what? This effect was even more pronounced in the TBI group. Meanwhile, how much combat they saw barely made a dent in their social lives (adjusted R² = 0.28).

The moral of the story? If you’re planning on transitioning back to civilian life or rehabilitating, better stock up on that resilience. It’s apparently the secret sauce to feeling less isolated. Who knew?