Sensitive to jolting - information?
 

So my cognitive issues are now much improved :)

However I'm still very sensitive to any sort of jolting. I have not run for a year because each step would be too much of a jolt, and I am still very uncomfortable going over speed bumps in a car (leaning forward helps FYI).

So the only real issue in terms of work is that what I call this 'fragility' or sensitivity precludes me taking part in from significant aspects of my job, which my employer is now getting touchy about.

It has helped in the past when I have found evidence and information from official sources to show my employer that my weird cognitive symptoms are recognised sequelae of a head injury. There are plenty of references to concentration and attention difficulties, fatigue, overstimulation, headaches and other common symptoms.

However this 'fragility' I have (and which I know many others on here have). Doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere. I don't know how common it is, if there's anything I can do to help get rid of it, and I don't have anything to show my employer to help convince them that I'm not malingering in some way. I was offered CBT to overcome my anxiety the other day - but I'm not overly anxious, I just know that any impact to my head would be disastrous and am trying to avoid it.

Does anyone know of any reliable evidence or information on this symptom?

Klaus,

I have had a fragile head for years. I have never found anything that helps.

Any employer who refuses to accept that head jarring can be problematic has no grounds for their position.

You may do some research about sub-concussive impacts to see if you can find anything that will help with your employer.

You may find some worthwhile info at www.tbilaw.com or www.subtlebraininjury.com

Hi Klaus,

I've had this issue to - I have referenced this forum to evidence the fact that I'm not the only one who feels sensitive about my head getting jostled.

I'm not sure that it's not psychological. Although there might be some merit to subconcussive impacts being more detrimental to people still in recovery from a concussion.

I have done a significant amount of research about concussions and mild brain injuries but have not come across anything in regards to this issue - which is why I have to use other people's experienced here to prove I'm not the only one who has issues with it.

Hopefully, someday, we'll be well enough not to care if our head gets a little jostled.

Good luck with your employer!

I have also been looking for some of the same information and this is what i have found so far:

case study of a girl who sustained 11 concusions:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/200...ncussions.html

Quote: "Her head inadvertently hit the elbow of the vice principal walking by. Soon after, she passed out. Concussion No. 11."


Another article:

"Is it true I am more likely to get a concussion after already having one?"

http://scienceline.org/2008/04/ask-heger-concussion/


And another:

"Routine Head Hits in School Sports May Cause Brain Injury"

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1114133738.htm


And the last:

"Soccer's concussion problem"

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/new...rotect-players

Quote:" In 2004, he again had multiple concussions, from increasingly weaker blows to the head. By the 2005 preseason the slightest contact to his head would trigger his concussive symptoms."


Hope some of this can help.

-GlassHead

I suffer from a chronic lack of balance (always have, it's how I got the injury in the first place!) so I frequently jar, jolt, hit and hurt my head. Which of course isn't pleasant, but is more frustrating that I am dazed, confused, and as my friend who was with me when I got the injury would say.. I go back to square one for a day or two and am exactly how I was when I got the concussion. I don't know what to do most of the time.

So, I am afraid I cannot offer some profound advice which has a solution at the end. But it helps me to know that I'm not alone and this is.. 'normal' :)

Thanks for posting this, I hope everything goes well for you!

Hi Klaus, I to suffer from the exact same thing, I feel every movement, ever step. You call it jolting I call it vibrations. Just being in a car drive me nuts, then the bumps etc..

Thanks for the responses everyone, sorry haven't been back my internet connection has been very tempremental this week. Will go through all those links, they look really interesting.

Some of them seem to be about permanent susceptibility to further concussion, ie that for example footballers who have a concussion, recover and then go back to playing will get the next one more easily. Whilst I have no doubt that this is true and is of great interest to me, I think on this thread I'm talking about something slightly different:

I'm talking about ridiculous oversensitivity as a PCS symptom, the kind that meant that I had to wear specially cushioned trainers (sneakers) for around 6 months because otherwise even walking was too much of jolt. A kind of sensitivity which would mean that you would not even consider returning to any sort of contact sport, but which is not permanent and seems to improve slowly (I can now walk around in normal shoes :) and the jolts I do get seem to affect me somewhat less than they did )

This seems from what I have heard on here and heard from clinicians and others to be a fairly common complaint, yet little if anything is written about it anywhere. It seems odd that such a relatively easy to describe complaint seems almost unheard of whereas something more abstract such as 'executive function deficits' seems to get a lot of explanation....

That's interesting, I hadn't considered it being psychological, it feels far too real. I think it's not psychological because

(a) I didn't expect it to happen after my concussion, so why would I imagine it

(b) it seems to be improving with my other symptoms, though admittedly at a slower pace

(c) when I did get a big jolt last June, it caused a massive relapse, even though the person who jolted me didn't touch my head and the jolt was not bad enough to cause concern amongst the people who saw it. SO in effect I have 'tested' it and found that jolts do in fact cause me more damage than they should.

(d) it seems to be a fairly common experience and I doubt we would all share the same delusion

Yes, I totally understand! I experience it too! And mine was worse than it is now too.

Remember, I'm not an expert or a Dr. at all.

But I don't think it wise to completely rule out it being psychological. Who wouldn't feel a little more sensitive about their heads being jostled after sustaining major trauma? I think of it like you don't want someone to touch your bruise...

And some experts believe that some issues with PCS are psychological... so even though your symptoms got worse after a serious jolt, that could have been psychological too.

I too think it could be detrimental. It could certainly be that a jolt can cause a subconcussive impact and physically make a person worse biologically.

I just threw it out there because that's what I think of it - I can't really tell what's what.

I think that patients with PCS are not well researched yet in some ways, so maybe researchers haven't included it in the list of symptoms. Or perhaps, most patients are usually more concerned with other symptoms and they don't even mention this one as a symptom at all because they only have 15 minutes to talk with their Dr.s and they have to make that time count.

And really, I think that people recovering from a brain injury and PCS really have a heightened sensitivity to all stimulation - so it could just be that too!

Who knows?!?! I'm also hopeful to find some documentation about it.

At the very least, for myself, I'm just glad to know that some of you guys also experience this, because I have and still do too.

I think it's pretty much a definite fact that some PCS symptoms are psychological, mine included. But that serious jolt brought all my symptoms back with a vengeance, I was off work for two months and I didn't recover to where I had been for about 6 months afterwards.

For me to hallucinate such numerous and extreme symptoms for such a long period would pretty much make me psychotic I think, which I'm certain I'm not (but then I would say that, wouldn't I .... :winky: )

That said, you've got me thinking about the psychological aspect a bit more - I'm sure my fear of jolting must make it seem worse to me than it actually is, even though I still believe there's an organic problem underlying it. Maybe I could try walking on eggshells a little less :)

Regardless of whether it is an organic or psychological symptom, it seems common and debilitating enough to warrant at least some information about it somewhere!

Klaus,

Your sensitivity to light jolting is a result of your autonomic nervous system going haywire. Your brain is constructed in a way that you have your limbic brain (aka reptilian brain or primitive brain) that is there to regulate all of the things our bodies do that we don't think about like digesting food, your heart beating, etc. It's also there to protect us from danger i.e. it controls your "fight or flight" response. The other part of your brain is your outer cortex which is involved in higher functioning like sight, reasoning, thinking, talking, listening, etc. A region in this part of your brain is called the frontal cortex and this is responsible for very high levels of function. In other words, this is the part of our brain that makes us human. This part of your brain is responsible for inhibiting your limbic brain; it acts as sort of a control mechanism and filters out the signal from your limbic brain. When you have a brain injury, in some people, your frontal cortex can no longer handle it's job of filtering the limbic brain and as a result, your limbic brain is allowed to go haywire.

So, when you get a slight jolt or something, your limbic brain automatically sends off signals that you are in very grave danger and this starts a cascade in your brain that will cause you symptoms. It is impossible for you to do any damage to your brain physically by these slight jolts but that doesn't mean that you don't do damage to your brain psychologically. When these signals are sent out, they are sent out via neurotransmitters and what could be happening (of course no one has proved this) is that your brain changes and becomes more sensitive to the neurotransmitters that cause the flight or fight response and hence, you become more sensitive to any bumps or jolts.

Now, I suffered from this as well for about 4 years and I fortunately was able to overcome it. I fixed it in a couple of ways. First, I discovered that I was suffering from hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue, both that are common in people with head injuries. Your adrenal system actually plays a huge role in the scenario I mentioned above. So, I got both of those systems treated and this helped immensely. Second, I did some neurofeeback directly onto my frontal cortex and strengthened that part of my brain to be able to handle any stress my body may incur. Third, I did some HBOT as well and this also helped with the sensitivity. Fourth, I also did some balance training to try and get my vestibular system back in order. Finally, I went to an upper cervical chiropractic specialist who put my neck back in order so that my neck could go back to being the shock absorber it's supposed to be.

I am now about 80-90% recovered and although big bumps and jostles still bother me a little bit, I am able to handle the small to medium bumps and jostles that I wasn't able to handle before.

Hope this helps.

M

Colorrado Mike,

I agree than some may have the fight or flight response to jolts but for many of us, it is a physiological trauma. The fight or flight response cause a different sequelea to manifest. The adrenaline response if completely different than the non-anxiety confusion many of us experience.

I know how to recover from the flight or fight response. It is a cakewalk compared to recovering from the decompensation caused by the jolts. As Klaus said, it can take weeks to months to recover from a jolt, depending on the intensity or repetitiveness of the jolt. The other concussion symptoms that manifest from the jolt are not associated with the flight or fight response.

Many of us have very sensitive brains that react to very mild movements. I can give myself a concussion, or sub-concussive impact that causes immediate symptoms, simply by shaking my head No. A ride down a bumpy road can do me in.

Those of you who do not have these overly sensitive to movement brains are very fortunate. You likely do not have the cumulative number of concussions and sub-concussive impacts that some of us have.

Mark in Idaho,

Very true and I neglected to mention that in my post. Mine was also a physiological response that I have been able to mostly heal from - like I said, I still have problems with big jolts or bumps. Before I healed my brain, I would get bumped and have to shut things down for a day and sometimes even a couple of days. It felt like I had just had another concussion. One time, it took me a entire week to recover.

I believe the key to healing this is a matter of trying to get any inflammation in our brains reduced significantly or completely eliminated. From my research, I think that our brains lose the ability to handle inflammation. And surprisingly, a physical trauma can actually set of an inflammatory response in our brains. So I think the inability to control inflammation is why we become more susceptible to further concussions.

If we can get this under control via hormone therapy and neurorehabilitation, I believe we can reduce our sensitivity to bumps and jostles.

M

So you are saying that this symptom is likely to manifest in people who have had lots of concussions, rather than one bigger brain injury? I certainly fit that category. Is that the experience of other people who have this symptom?

Klaus,

It's hard to definitely make any statements regarding brain injuries. I know a guy who had one concussion and his brain is super sensitive to jostling and bumping. On the other hand, John Elway has had 21 concussions and his brain seems just fine. For those of you who don't follow football, he was a hall of fame QB for the Denver Broncos, a very successful business man and now he is the Executive VP for the Broncos.

Mark is right though in that your chances of developing a sensitive brain greatly increase with the number of concussions you get.

I wanted to chime in. I'm around 8 months post-concussion. I have sensitivity, but I've noticed some improvement in the past month or two. I used to be very sensitive to any kind of jostling--for the first few months merely shaking my head would reproduce this sensitivity. Going over speed bumps in a car would do it for a while, or merely taking "hard" steps, such as down the stairs. These activities do not now produce as much sensitivity. I am hoping that eventually this will go away, but this whole process is so pain-stakingly slow that I am not optimistic.

Hmm. Good info in this topic. Thanks.

I have been feeling something similar. Yesterday I was in the car and my fiance stopped quickly and I instantly got a headache. It was like I hit my head without actually hitting anything. The pain didn't last long, but it was definitely an annoyance for about 15 mins.

My daughter is also very fragile. She can walk now, but car rides, plane rides, subway or other vibrations (even loud sound vibrations,) cause major symptoms.

She missed a couple of stairs and landed on the floor, but it seemed no big deal. Then with in a week, all of the concussion symptoms came back. Another time, I braked too hard in the car, and it was a slight whiplash motion, but that set her back for a few weeks too. It seems that any slight head motion, even gentle dancing, sets her symptoms back. She is worried that this will limit her life forever, and I really don't know what to say.

There is a reason to consider the whiplash as also a cause of some returning symptoms. The sudden braking in a car can cause both a traumatic movement to the brain and a strain to the neck.

It appears that Colorrado is trying to hold to the idea that concussion symptoms are only due to the bio-chemical cascade that manifests.

The physical trauma to the axons and dendrites has been imaged. I posted a link to an article of such imaging last week.

I believe these physical traumas leave the axons and dendrites sensitive to the rapid changes in motion. It does not take much strain to cause the confusion that often follows these jolts.

What could you say? We seem to have established that for some reason this symptom doesn't seem to have any info about it anywhere!

The best I can do for you is an anecdotal case study of one (that being me :D ). For many months I was so sensitive to any head movement, vibration or jolting that I had to wear specially cushioned sneakers to walk anywhere or even each step from walking was too much of a jolt.

I have improved a lot since then and continue to do so. I even ran a few steps the other day, and it seems to have been ok. And speed bumps in a car are now ok as long as I lean forward. So if she's like me, it will improve and won't limit her life as much as it now might appear.

I expect it to limit my life in terms of the lifestyle choices I make. I have learned to avoid activities that might jolt me, and intend to continue doing so even if I feel better in the future. I would advise your daughter to plan to do the same, this isn't something she'll want to go through again. There are plenty of fun and worthwhile activities which don't involve head jolts :)

My best to you both.

The head movement sensitivity is still decreasing in my experience too. I've actually noticed a significant decrease in just the last couple of days. Before, if I moved my head too fast, or even just nodded in agreement during a conversation, the movement didn't agree with me... but I feel like I'm able to handle more of it, especially earlier in the day, when I'm less fatigued than later in the day.

MRI sound made PCS much worse
 

I don't know if I should start a new topic here, but has anyone noticed that an MRI has made the PCS come back in full force? My daughter is 15 months post whiplash concussion, and 10 months since the kick to the head, and she had to have another MRI 2 1/2 weeks ago after the first try to a chiropractor seemed to cause tremors.

Since the MRI, her headache is much worse, she is feeling the "sick" and super fatigued stuff, and can't sleep, nightmares are back, and is experiencing the extreme agitation and sadness again. I think the loud noise and vibration of the 1 hour MRI set her back, again.

I am heartbroken. 16 months and no end in sight. Everything sets her back and she is living in a bubble. Just when she gets a little better and has hope, something will set her back and every time the symptoms seems worse. Sorry to be so down today.....Seriously, why can't any doctors help her? She is so frustrated and sick of nothing helping.

Yes, we have had several people on the board with relapse of symptoms after MRI. The noise, especially in close proximity, can be really detrimental.

I am terribly sorry to hear about your daughter. I am in a similar situation, so I understand some of what she is going through. The constant fluctuation in symptoms and progress is soul-crushing at times. Hopefully she can continue to improve little by little.

Hi PCSmother, just to let you know I"m 9 months in and had MRI 3 weeks ago. It literally felt like I lost everything I had worked so hard for in healing. But 3 days later I noticed it wasn't as bad because I wasn't thinking about it anymore. Symptoms took about a week to get over and I was back to "pre" MRI status. I have hyperacusis and very sensitive to jolting/vibrations and very dizzy. Also too much physical exertion brings on the tension headaches worse.

The only thing I can suggest is to try and get her mind off the symptoms, I know it's hard but that's the only thing that works for me. If she can read or watch a comedy or have a friend come over and chat with her for a little while. Sometimes I chat with the guys from work and it takes my mind off the symptoms.

Collorado Mike--I really enjoyed reading your posts, and I too have done quite a bit of thinking about post-concussion jostling. In my experience, as my pulse increases (brought on by anxiety about getting hit in the head, or just general excitement) my symptoms tend to worsen. I know there is evidence that concussions inhibit the brain's ability to regulate intracranial blood pressure, causing it to increase (and paradoxically, for the brain to get LESS blood). One of my hypotheses was that anxiety could be causing symptoms after small jostles because it increases your pulse and blood pressure, causing the intracranial pressure to increase as well.

I do, however, think it is very important to maintain a degree of humbleness when talking about the mechanisms going on in the brain. Here is the real truth--the brain is so exceptionally complicated that we will not for a LONG TIME actually understand everything that is going on. From our own experience and basic molecular neurobiological research we can make hypotheses, but nothing is an undeniable truth.

Mark In Idaho--It seems like you've thought a lot about concussions and possible biological reasons for PCS, but I would advise you to remain guarded in your assessments. The brain is a massive, massive interconnected web of neuronal cells all communicating with one another in a mysterious, complicated way. Just because axon shearing has been imaged, does not necessarily mean that is the cause of our symptoms. Correlation does not imply causation, in other words. Keep thinking and researching, it helps us all, but just remember that we are not close to having the human brain figured out.

Myleine Sheath
 

I may need to be corrected here, I seem to remember reading an article about damage to the mylien sheath surrounding the nerve. While the intial impact and subsequent die off of nuerons did happen.

Some of those that remained were damaged in this way and did not neccesarily heal. Age played a large role in healing. Older less healing. I can not help but wonder if subsequent impacts further this damage causing the following onset of symptoms?

This is a good news story, with regards to sensitivity to jolting I would like to let you know how I brought this symptom down from a 8/10 high to very low 2/10. For me I think it was my weak and injured neck muscles causing this particular symptom. I noticed my neck was very very sensitive to touch.

After starting with a new physio, they recommended putting heat pad on my neck and relaxing it. Then when neck is totally relaxed, start doing neck stretches. Then I started to do isometric exercises to strengthen the neck. After about 2 weeks of doing 1 hour morning and 1 hour night, this symptom has gone way down. Bumps on the road rarely bug me now.

Anyone else improved in this area ?

So sorry to hear about your daughter. What a horrible thing for a young person to have to endure. I've had the exact same experience with an MRI. It was about three months after my injury, and I was just starting to feel a bit better. I felt an immediate return to cognitive symptoms (disjointed, incomplete, and repetitive thoughts) right after a sequence that involved rapid vibrations of the table (and thus my head). A couple of days later, I had horrible vertigo and I'm continuing to have mild balance issues (vertigo, dizziness and balance were never symptoms of my original injury).

I'm now approaching 6 months post injury and am still having significant cognitive issues. Although there is no way to know for sure, I believe those horrible MRI vibrations have significantly interfered with my recovery. I think anyone getting an MRI for a concussion, should press the "distress button" as soon as they feel their head vibrate. Out of about 8 or 9 sequences in my MRI, only one involved vibrations.

I hope that your daughter recovers soon and that she enjoys a full healthy life ahead of her.

jolting
 

I had this nightmare symptom for two months.. it became so bad i couldnt even sleep in my bed cause the jolting was too much...

You can fix this problem in three steps

chiropractic to put your neck and upper back in position

Massage and ice to relief the swelling

and thirdly exercise your neck

This problem is due to pinched nerves and weak/misaligned neck and upper back

i can walk now and its slowly improving .. but jolting in buss is still annoying


if you follow the steps above you can heal in 2-5 months depending on your age and body

Has anyone else found a cure for this? From the latest responses, I realise that this might be a neck issue. I will start rehabilitating my neck asap. A latest post said that the original post ID Klaus had gotten over it through targeted exposure therapy. @Klaus would you please tell us what this targeted exposure therapy was? Thank you, I will owe you one if someone helps me get through this!

As for people mentioned hyperacusis, I suffer from the same—debilitating noise sensitivity. One sports psychologist told me that it will improve with vestibular therapy, so I am going to try that and will let you all know if it works!

Meanwhile, please post your experiences / suggestions with these jolts causing setbacks, people!!

The last post Klaus made on the subject said the following:

"The best I can do for you is an anecdotal case study of one (that being me ). For many months I was so sensitive to any head movement, vibration or jolting that I had to wear specially cushioned sneakers to walk anywhere or even each step from walking was too much of a jolt.

I have improved a lot since then and continue to do so. I even ran a few steps the other day, and it seems to have been ok. And speed bumps in a car are now ok as long as I lean forward. So if she's like me, it will improve and won't limit her life as much as it now might appear.

I expect it to limit my life in terms of the lifestyle choices I make. I have learned to avoid activities that might jolt me, and intend to continue doing so even if I feel better in the future. I would advise your daughter to plan to do the same, this isn't something she'll want to go through again. There are plenty of fun and worthwhile activities which don't involve head jolts."

I had a similar experience my first bought with this. If you can avoid any setbacks (and you don't hide in your house all day, either), it seems possible for this symptom to kind of improve "on its own."

I would imagine it depends slightly on the cause. I know there are folks on here with neck issues that have needed to be addressed, so it's important to see a good doctor to figure out what is actually going on. For me, it was more of a vestibular thing that was actually diagnosed as migraine-related (see some of my other posts for more detail on that).

What I have found helps this (outside of migraine medication--which I have yet to be successful with, but I'm told by my docs it's possible to control it that way) is what one of my neurologists calls "targeted exposure", which is basically just making yourself a LITTLE bit uncomfortable every day, but not so uncomfortable that it triggers a 6-month setback in symptoms or anything like that.

I have never had a PT who has been able to help me properly with this because, although it's a vestibular issues, they are generally trained to treat the VOR response and issues with turning your head. This is an issue with moving your head lineally, which is a separate organ. There are two in each ear, actually (the utricles and saccules). I found it helpful to read my old college anatomy textbook to understand how they work. It made me understand the sensations I was feeling better.

Anyway, I ended up making up my own "PT" exercises that I've found help me improve much faster than waiting for it to get better "on its own". It's kind of been a progression. I was REALLY sensitive about two years ago, so I started with just squatting up and down slowly (and also lunging forward and back). This felt like an amusement park ride, at the time.

For me, I would do this as fast as I could tolerate (maybe 10-20 times each) until the sensations became painful. I didn't want the pain to linger too long after I was done because I found I wouldn't improve as much day-to-day if it did. Really, what I was trying to do was teach my brain that it needed to get more comfortable with larger amounts of movement.

It was hard at first because I wasn't really comfortable with what my limits were, and I was always so nervous that I pushed too far. You get more confident over time--after you have a few moments of panic where you're sure you triggered a setback and then the symptoms never come. Then you're like, "Oh, I can push at least that hard and know it will be fine."

I wouldn't always notice improvement each day, but it was always noticable week-to-week. Eventually, the squats and lunges got more aggressive and turned into jumps. When jumping on the ground got easier, I bought a small trampoline. I also bought a treadmill to work up to different walking speeds and inclines steadily.

Another thing I noticed, just in general, was that just avoiding all movement made it worse. Like, if I just sat on the couch all day and never went anywhere, I would never get better (and would even regress). This is all consistent with what the doctors have told me will happen with sensory sensitivities related to migraine.

Not sure if this will help! Everyone is different. That was just my experience with it.

Best of luck!

This is the most informative answer I have ever received about the possible therapeutic approaches to treating this. Thank you so much!

PSA: This is not only meant as a reply to Valleybob, it's for anyone here who could find this useful.

I also think the neck plays a role with this sensitivity. I have had a lot of problems with my neck. I used to be extremely sensitive to the slightest jolts, and even just stepping too hard or moving my head too rapidly could increase the symptoms a lot. When I look back, my neck was very weak and inflamed back then. It had become weak from all the bed rest (bad idea), and even before all my PCS/new neck problems I probably had weak neck muscles since I had forward head posture (still have it though) I am sure the are some issues/instability in the upper cervical area too, as is common among people who have experienced a concussion, and as I've come to learn it might be common following years of bad posture. I recommend reading this: Atlas joint instability: Causes, consequences and solutions - MSK Neurology

My symptoms are so much worse when my neck muscles are tight and when there is more inflammation in there, so I have theorized that when I experience jolts and bumps, the inflammation in the neck increases and thereby the symptoms increases as well. Icing the neck helps my symptoms, also eating anti-inflammatory foods and (especially) spices (rosemary, cayenne, pepper, basil etc.) immediately helps a bit too. These things always help me though, so I'm not sure to what degree the symptom improvement is tied to the worsening after a jolt or bump, especially since I started doing it after the most extreme sensitivity faded. I am not entirely sure that neck inflammation is the cause of the sensitivity, and I hope some of you reading this can further test this theory.

Now I don't get the same symptom-increase from jolts, but I still feel very wary of these things. Now I think it's more about my neck being too stiff and the cervical vertebra not being mobile enough. I have had a dynamic x-ray done and they found that most of the joints in my neck were barely moving upon flexion. The upper cervicals and one joint lower in the neck was the ones doing all the bending while the others were very stiff. I think that this, along with neck inflammation and having weak muscles all over my body and neck decreases my body and neck's ability to absorb shocks and impacts. So it feels very uncomfortable to walk without a specific pair of shoes I own with a layer of two soft insoles and an extra layer for the heel.

If you have this kind of extreme sensitivity I highly recommend making your shoes more shock-absorbing by adding insoles. This will prevent you from stiffening up your muscles while walking to try to avoid these symptom-triggering jolts. Tensing up your muscles while walking will make your mucles and spine become more inflexible and stiff and you will feel more shocks when walking.

So anyways, the jolts and shocks doesn't affect my symptoms much anymore. I have even hit my head two times into some branches without getting worsening of symptoms like before - only temporary from the anxiety that followed.

I don't know if it was a coincidence or not, but the period when the sensitivity started to imrpove was when I started eating more anti-inflammatory. There have been people on this forum that has said that it helped their sensitivity, so maybe it can be something to try - it's a very healthy way to eat anyways and it's probably good for your brain.