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Member
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Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 214
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Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 214
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Hopefully it doesn't take two weeks as I'm traveling next week to attend a workshop that will involve a fair amount of screen time. I still don't understand why anxiety would cause pain where I bump my head, and not just an exacerbation of pre-existing symptoms, but there's a lot I don't understand about all of this.
I feel like I am getting better at managing anxiety, and these extremes of anxiety/depression are getting shorter lived, but it's just so hard to go from feeling the best you've felt in a while to feeling back at square one. Throughout the past 15 months it seems like every time I see a light at the end of a tunnel, something stupid happens that shoots me back. I'm worried the longer this cycle goes on, the less likely it'll be that all my symptoms will go away and I'll feel relatively like myself again.
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26 year-old PhD student in evolutionary biology, slipped on ice in Feb 2014 while clipping my fingernails and walking to save time (dumbest reason for PCS ever?). Initially just had headaches and didn't feel quite right, but a minor head bump 5 days later started a downward spiral of anxiety, depression, insomnia and fatigue. Had trouble concentrating on reading/looking at screens
April 2014 - did exertion test, passed, started exercising and doing more, but didn't feel much better.
May 2014 - Went on backpacking trip OK'd by doctor, trip itself went fine, but felt worse a few days after getting back, more difficulty concentrating, worse headaches.
June 2014 - Bumped head on ceiling walking slowly down stairs, no immediate symptoms, but caused worsening headahces, more difficulty concentrating and looking at screens. Have not felt as good as I did before this since this bump.
December 2014 - after feeling relatively better I went xc skiing and fell but didn't hit my head (something my psychologist who specializes in brain injuries told me he hoped would happen so I saw it was OK), felt worse
Feb 2015 - back in grad school, light teaching load and some research, nowhere close to operating at my full capacity. Still have constant headaches, difficulty reading/looking at screens, mild anxiety and depression, and just not feeling like my normal sharp self.
Trying, but struggling, to believe that I'll get back to my old self, or at least get close.
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