I think it is good that you are starting psychotherapy. I hope the therapist is good at teaching CBT so you can redirect your irrational thoughts.

Last night at my Brain Injury Support Group, we had an excellent speaker. He spoke about chronic pain but what he said also applies to chronic anxiety.

He spoke about PNE, Pain Neuroscience Education. This is a well research but new way of understanding how pain is triggered. Just like PCS, pain can be triggered by memories of past pain. The common struggle people have with pain is they connect it to an injury and add worry about a new injury. This worry about reinjury or a new injury magnifies the pain "FELT".

The worse situation is when worry about the original injury prevents the person from 'allowing' the original pain to resolve to a historical normal or no pain. Instead, of resolving to a 0 or 1 on a 10 scale, the pain resolves from a 8 to 10 on a 10 scale to just a 6 to 8. They see a parallel with this remembered pain and the pain experienced by an amputee when they experience phantom limb syndrome.

The same thought patterns impact PCS. The thought and worry about a new injury makes the symptoms of the original injury manifest. It is a PTSD like flashback. It has no basis in physiology but appears as real as the original concussion symptoms.

PNE is being promoted as a partial solution to the opiate overdose epidemic. Properly taught PNE has a high success rate of reducing pain and restoring function when compared to drugs (opiates, gabapentin, etc). 1 out of 3 will experience pain recovery with PNE versus only 1 out of 6 who take nerve pain blocking drugs.

I believe the same problem is plaguing the PCS community that struggles with prolonged symptoms. Most with prolonged symptoms struggle with the reinjury thought patterns even when the 'reinjury' is of such a minor impact force that is cannot cause a concussion. As the science shows, those who had a predisposition to anxiety prior to their concussion will statistically experience a must longer and troubled recovery. The doctors can predict who will have a long recovery.

Vania, I believe you need to start with trying to convince yourself that your bump was not a concussion. It may have been a subconcussive impact but that is doubtful. More likely, you just slept with your head jammed against your headboard and this caused an inflammation response at the point of contact. You may have even strained your neck with your head jammed against the headboard posture. You did not cause yourself to experience more brain damage. Once you convince yourself of this, your recovery will begin.

The symptoms you are experiencing are not common concussion symptoms. They are more likely sleep deprivation induced brain fog/fatigue with a big dose of anxiety. Anxiety prevents proper restorative sleep creating a vicious cycle of sleep deprivation brain fog and other symptoms that induces anxiety that prevents good sleep and starts the cycle all over again.

A sleep study might be worthwhile. You may have other issues adding to your lack of restorative sleep. They find that poor sleep also contributes to chronic pain.