I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this/could offer help or insight. I, like most here I imagine, am very afraid of hitting my head again. Numerous times throughout the past year and a half I've had an experience where, in immediate hindsight, I'll realize that I could've hit my head. The most recent one happened today, where I was leaning down to unlock my bike from a railing in a building, and upon standing up I realized that there was a low outcropping against which I could've easily hit my head. I didn't notice this when I locked my bike to the railing in the first place, but did upon unlocking it.

I didn't feel my head hit the ceiling, or a jolt or brush of any kind, and that knowledge is pretty clear in my mind when I first realize how low the ceiling is. It's not as though I have a panic attack at this point or anything like that, but I sort of test and re-test the movements I made, trying to see how likely it was that I hit my head. In the particular instance, from testing it out I determined that it certainly was possible that I could've hit my head, i.e. the ceiling is low enough, but I likely didn't, given my movements, and the fact that I DIDN'T FEEL a bump.

At this point, I'm 99% convinced (I'm not really 100% convinced of anything) that I didn't hit my head, based on the evidence. Yet the back/top part of my head starts to hurt at this point, presumably about where I would have hit my head had I actually hit it (which again, I'm pretty sure I didn't). This happened earlier this evening, and the pain persists, despite being relatively calm after a well-timed mindfullness-based stress reduction class.

Similar instances have happened numerous times throughout the past year and a half. I guess I'm just sort of astounded at the power of my imagination, and the specificity of where I feel the pain, and how it corresponds to where I think I could've hit it. Sometimes I get accompanying symptoms of feeling generally a bit worse, less able to focus, etc. etc., all of which I believe can easily be chalked up to anxiety. I'm just perplexed about this "imagined pain". As much as I tell myself, and believe deep down that I didn't hit my head, the constancy of the pain there creates this nagging opportunity for doubt.

Does anyone else experience this and have suggestions? Anyone have references to studies on this kind of "imagined pain"? I think having a thorough understanding of the biology of how I can imagine pain that persists for so long in a specific place would help me let go of it more completely.