Last summer I suffered a mild concussion. The recovery process and coping with PCS has been long and confusing. The lingering symptoms I have are tinnitus and sound sensitivity in my left ear, depression and anxiety, irritability, and headaches. After 18 weeks, I was beginning to feel fine and passed the IMPACT test and my neuropsychologist cleared me for all activities. By 22 weeks, nearly all of my symptoms faded and I went abroad to study and was fine for two months until I went to an electronic music concert. I was bumped on the head at the concert by a person trying to get through the crowd past me, barely noticeable though. A friend also gave me an Adderall XR that disturbed my sleep for the next 3 days. A week later, the sound sensitivity returned in my left ear, and another week later the tinnitus and headaches returned and were much more severe than they were even following my injury and have persisted the last 2 months.

My neuropsychologist and my physiatrist both believe that my returning symptoms are caused by lack of sleep, too much stimulus, and depression. I was evaluated for a possible neck injury (no scans were done though) because I was experiencing headaches on days where I was sleeping with my head too elevated, but my physiatrist does not believe there to be anything wrong. The only contradiction is that my IMPACT scores were 3 times better than what they were in December. The questions that I raise to this forum are: is it worth investigating a possible neck and soft tissue injury further and can anyone comment on the issues of depression and stimulus (loud noise and bright lights, and stress) causing the relapse of symptoms without a second concussion? Finally, does anyone have experience with anti-depressants and PCS, because these were recommended in low doses to me this week by my doctors to assist with the depression issues. Thanks everyone!