smutsik,

[Do you think that a symptom returning is a gradual thing? Because sometimes I can feel slight hints of dizzyness or eye strain when reading or watching videos without it being very uncomfortable.]

It sounds like you are trying to micromanage symptoms and track micro symptoms. This is not good.


[Do you have a zero tolerance policy against all symptoms? I feel like I know that some symptoms are more common when I have some anxiety than others and thus I try to not get riled up when I suspect that a symptom might be coming with a lash of slight anxiety.]

Good, anxiety can take a symptom at a level of 1 and make it at level 5 to 10. Anxiety is the great magnifier.

[The executive functioning thing: I've noticed that my brain gets tired and notice signs of feeling off or a little dizzy when I've been doing things that require my brain to exercise selective attention focus while dismissing something else. This includes ignoring the lyrics to a song playing on low volume in the background while having a conversation with someone or shifting the focus from typing out something on the computer to a conversation with someone close to me repeatedly, at a quick pace. I am a psychology major but I haven't spent a whole lot of time researching executive functioning, so if my understanding of the concept is off that is why.]

This is an issue of filtering. The PCS brain often loses much of its ability to filer out background sensations, auditory, visual, and tactile. Those of us with experience with PCS use ear plugs or other ways to reduce background stimulation. I have had this lack of auditory filtering at a permanent level for almost 20 years.

[Regarding going to sleep when I feel sleepy: I am strange in the sense that I never go to bed when I feel restless or have anxiety. I just stay up for hours upon hours and procrastinate sleeping - in the past this hasn't caused a lot of problems because it's usually just one night in a row of several where I sleep okay, but now I feel like I can't give myself the freedom to risk messing up my sleep over something stupid. This is why I've tried establishing a routine of going to bed the same time - if I don't have one I'll move my bedtime further and further into the morning only to realize one day that I have to move it back. This results in poor sleep across the board.
I actually took your advice on longer naps a couple of months (or weeks, I don't know - time seems to go by differently with my PCS) ago and since then I think I've been sleeping better.]

You need to be disciplined to get up early and at the same time. Then, start shutting down your thought load and other stimulation a hour or two before bed.

[I haven't been checked, no. I've had pretty bad experiences with neurologists and doctors, so I've resorted to just keep at it with my current routine since I've been improving pretty steadily anyway.]

There are plenty of vestibular therapists, PT's are the most common. You don't need a doctor. Getting assessed will help you determine if it is vertigo or one of the many different sensations.


[Routine and patience has been the two factors that seem most effective for me - trying to sleep well, not exposing myself to too challenging stimuli, eating alright, walking a little bit each day and meditating have made me significantly better over time. I'm sure I could be helped by a professional if I could just find one who wanted to help, but up to this point I haven't had much use for them since they don't seem to understand.]

I think you course work in psychology may be working against yourself. You may be too prone to self-assessment. It is like watching TV medical shows. Everybody is suddenly complaining about the malady mentioned on the show. Dr OZ is one of the worst. Many of the minor PCS symptoms are just part of life. We don't even notice them until we put a PCS name on them.

Studies show that those who do best have accepted their PCS symptoms as part of life and just move on.

Don't forget than the stress of course work can contribute to many symptoms.