Renabrown,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Sorry to hear of your injury and struggles.

It's sad that the police were more interested in the accident details than your physical condition. Par for the course.

Yes, people often have relapses. Nobody ever heals completely. As you said, you never healed to the old you. The previously concussed brain is left with a variety of long term weaknesses. Some people are very sensitive to slight impacts. Others are very sensitive to stress of any kind, emotional, physical, environmental, etc.

Learning how to recognize these relapse triggers helps us go on with minimal relapses.

There is often an injury that goes undiagnosed. The upper neck can be injured but never manifest pain. Then, when it is strained, symptoms return. A quick turn of the head, a bounce in the road, or falling asleep in a poor position can all cause this injury to be aggravated, get inflamed and cause a return of symptoms.

It is very difficult to get the upper neck (C-1 to the base of the skull) diagnosed properly. It is usually soft tissue (tendons and ligaments) that are damaged. A way you may notice this injury is if you have tenderness behind your ears when you touch that area.

What have you tried to help your brain do better ?