Originally Posted by Xandar

Hi,

Your story resonates with me; I also have a habit of accidentally hitting my head.

It has been demoralising and have found myself wishing for a guarantee that I would never hit my head again. I find it frustrating as it makes work and also socialising more difficult; mainly through a loss of confidence rather than physical side effects.

It is random for me as well, though always seems to happen when I feel I am doing well, recovering and making progress from the last time it happened. Or so it seems, which makes it difficult to accept.

Owing to this anxiety, I have moved from being unaware of rushing to overly vigilant about hitting my head. I think the later is potentially worse, as it means I think about my head much more and when I do hit my head it is harder because it has become my greatest fear.

Unfortunately this anxiety has also led to not knowing quite when I have hit my head. Sometimes I think I may have hit my head, though cannot be sure and would re-trace my steps and check the angles, to gain reassurance that I didn't.

That said, slowing down and being more mindful about the task at hand does help to prevent it, or it at least increase the time until it happens again. Think Mark from Idaho is right about being more aware. Most of accidents can be attributed to a lack of awareness, although this is not always on my part. I have found it difficult to convince myself that I can be aware all of the time and avoid it, which has been a depressing and fatalistic thought.

Anxiety about hitting my head has played a major role in my life for eight years. I have had six concussions; four playing sport, two as a child growing up. I am also 26 and work at a Big Four 4 accountancy firm in London.

As I have my final accountancy exams approaching and a heavy 'work work' workload I have sought therapy to help increase the amount of time I have and reduce the amount of time thinking about my head.

I had my first session last week- the following helped:

First point was that thoughts determine feelings. If I think of myself as 'less than before' then I am only going to feel worse. So I try and avoid that thinking. It is a road to nowhere, which know from running up and down it.

Second point was that have to believe I can end this cycle of thinking and behaviour. If I believe then have a better chance.

This is the second set of therapy I have had. The first set followed a concussion whilst skiing. I managed on and off in between and always thought 'I will be ok as long as it does not happen again.'

The most useful parts of the first therapy sessions was the thought that:

Either you have done some damage to your brain and you need to accept it or you haven't damaged your brain and the problem is psychological, in which case you need to work on that psychological problem.

I was also encouraged to diarise and focus on good posture to improve confidence. Both helped/ help.

So- have found there is no magic bullet for this problem, but a combination of the right thought and actions can make you less conscious of it. If you are less conscious of it, you will be safer.

Aside from that, at work I find that single tasking is really helpful when doing my own work, though clearly teaching is a different role.

That all said, hit my head today, which is partly why I am here! Not completely though- hopefully the above is of some help.

'Fear sometimes makes the wolf seem bigger than it is.'