Hi everyone,

I'm a 25 year old grad student who's had PCS for 4 months. I'll be upfront with the fact that I know things could be much worse and I'm lucky compared with many who frequent these boards. That being said, I'm not in a good place right now and need advice.

I slipped on some ice and banged my head 4 months ago, initial symptoms were just headache and feeling out of it. Rested for 5 days feeling better each day and then lightly hit my head on a car visor (still get headaches there now), sending me into a tailspin of 3 nights without sleep and anxiety, for which I was prescribed klonopin.

Headaches got worse on klonopin, was on that for 2 months while I mostly rested, then started easing back into activities. My concussion specialist told me that as long as headaches weren't getting to a debilitating point at the end of the day, I could still gradually increase activity. 2 months in I took the exercise exertion test and passed, headaches not being exacerbated (but still present) with exercise.

Over the next month I increased exercise and activity levels. The headahces weren't getting better, but they weren't getting worse, and I was able to concentrate on things for longer, look at screens, even watch TV without feeling overloaded or exacerbating headaches.

I was feeling so good that I decided to go on a backpacking trip with some friends in Utah (I live in NY). My doc OK'd it, and I thought it might be just the fun I needed to get out of this funk. The trip itself went fine, I was able to backpack 3 days, about 10 miles a day, without increasing headaches (or only slightly increasing headaches). I got back home, thinking that if I could handle that without getting worse, this bad dream might be behind me.

A few days after I got back I started feeling worse, getting new kinds of headaches and being less able to concentrate and more easily overloaded. This caused major depression (which I normally never feel), from which I've had trouble getting out. A doctor has recommended an SSRI, but I'm afraid it will hinder healing, although maybe being constantly down or anxious is doing worse to my healing.

Then a week ago (as alluded to on another thread) I bumped my head against the ceiling. I've been assured by people here and doctors that it wasn't another concussion, but I have even worse headaches now, and new ones where I bumped it.

I've also been going through a protracted distancing and probably break up with my girlfriend which has been really hard and caused a lot of emotional turmoil in addition to what I'm going through with PCS.

I'm seriously considering leaving my research, going home and starting from scratch, doing nothing all day for a week or two, and then slowly ramping back, hopefully returning to school in the fall. I think getting away from where I am now might distance me from some of the emotional turmoil I've been going through, and home is somewhere I could more easily rest. Is going back to total rest even helpful this late in the game, or am I in too far for healing to occur?

Typing this was too much, brought on a bad headache where I recently bumped it. Thanks for reading and any advice you might give.