Hi everyone, first time poster here...

Kiwis099 - very sorry to hear about your struggles. The unexplained flare-ups sound very similar to what I am currently going through, so I thought I'd share my experience.

For context, I suffered a couple of head injuries in March 2019 and February 2021.

I had my first flare-up in June 2021, around 3 months after I thought the symptoms had gone. I was out walking with friends when I suddenly started to feel odd. It was like a pressure inside my head, a fuzziness all over and mild disorientation. It ended up lasting about 2 weeks then vanished. Not entirely sure what brought it on but it was a very hot day and I was possibly a bit dehydrated.

Then in November 2021, I woke up one morning with the exact same symptoms, although quite mild. No obvious cause for why it came back, That ended up lasting about a week before disappearing as quickly as it came.

Then on 25th August 2022, around 9 months after my last flare-up, I was on a see-saw (that's a teeter-totter in the USA!) with a friend's 3-year old daughter. We were going up and down for about 30 seconds. I stood up and my head was going crazy again. The symptoms came flooding back out of nowhere - pressure around my head, mild dizziness, feeling slightly disorientated, some brain-fog.

You mention falling backwards off your partner's shoulders. It seems similar to my flare-up, like the brain doesn't like the unusual, uncontrolled movement. In your case it was falling backwards, in my case it was going up-and-down quite quickly. I'd be interested to know if there's any rationale behind that and whether sudden movement can trigger the brain's response mechanism.

Unfortunately for me it's been four months of struggles. There have been ups-and-downs (like a see-saw ironically ). After six weeks I had improved a lot, but then suffered another small flare-up and things deteriorated. Then I seemed to be getting better again, but I got a nasty sickness bug at the start of December and went back square one again.

One thing I find helps is exercise. You mentioned your an active person. I enjoy running and find when I do that my symptoms improve. I wouldn't necessarily notice an improvement immediately, and I might even feel worse for a bit, but I can generally see improvements week-on-week.

I'm trying Omega-3 suppliments. Hard to judge whether they're having any effect.

I'm also really trying not to get stressed or overwork myself. I think that helps with not making the symptoms worse... I'm not entirely sure it makes them better.

So I certainly feel your frustration. Great to hear the advice from Drew and Mark, which ties in to what I was thinking already - inflammation is likely to be the root cause. I am definitely a stickler for "looking for symtoms" and over-thinking it too!

I suppose ultimately I'd like to know why these flare-ups are happening in the first place so I know how best to avoid them. It doesn't feel like going on a see-saw or falling 2.5 feet into water should cause this level of suffering!

Best of luck on your recovery though Kiwis099!