First time I've hit my head on anything in the past year

I was getting into bed of a night and as I went to lay my head down without thinking misjudged how far up I was sitting and connected with the back of my head on the metal horizontal pole that makes up the headrest of the bed. It was more than just a little tap as it definitely hurt for a minute.

Of course, straight away the headache returns, but i'm very aware of the increased focus you have on symptoms after any sort of slight hit.

It really does not matter what the cause of the headache is, one just treats the symptom (pain). You could have some surface pain from the nerves in the skin. They can be symptomatic longer than a related headache. They take longer to heal from the skin trauma.

The headache could be from the bump or anxiety over the bump or a memorized reaction to head contact.

Ice the area and go easy for a while, trying to relax.

Thanks for the help mate. I just hate everytime I hit my head now, I don't think I could tolerate going back to step 1 again and it can happen so easily.

I really wish there was some sort of 'guidelines' as to how hard of an impact you actually need to make for it to be a concussion. That way we weren't left in limbo of self reporting.

There are guidelines. A concussion causes an immediate feeling of confusion, maybe dizziness, maybe a metallic taste in the mouth, maybe blurry vision. These will last for a few seconds to a few minutes, sometimes longer.

Local surface pain from a head contact without at least a moment of confusion or vision struggle is just a skin/scalp injury.

Thanks for the clarification mate.

Is that in all cases? I'm not suggesting that a light hit is necessarily a concussion, but I thought it was possible to be completely asymptomatic for a couple of days afterwards.

A concussion where the immediate symptoms only last for a few minutes can start to manifest new or more symptoms a day or more later. But, those immediate symptoms will always be present first. For most, these delayed symptoms do not manifest.

A person who has anxiety about head hits can become anxious with their anxiety building to a point of causing similar symptoms eve if the hit was not a concussive hit. Touching the contact spot and finding it to be tender can reinforce this anxiety. But, a scalp injury is not a concussion any more than smashing your thumb with a hammer is a broken arm.