Can head trauma retrain the brain on a sub-conscious level?
 

I know, it's a strange question.

I have a personal and family history with anxiety but nothing close to needing medication.

After trauma to my head, my problem was anxiety and all the symptoms associated with anxiety. Over the following months, I suffered from a few panic attacks and intrusive thoughts. While those have subsided, I still have all these horrendous anxiety symptoms that I can't shake. I almost feel like the trauma changed me on a sub-conscious level where the anxiety is now automatic, or can't be suppressed the way I could suppress it (or deal with it) pre-injury.

Post-injury (1-6 months), I found myself freaking out trying to rationalize what had happened and what will happen in the future. I became fearful of everything, even getting through the day. And to this day (11 months later), I find myself having awful symptoms from sunrise to sunset. However, it's after sunset that I start feeling much better. And it's because of this that I now go to sleep at roughly 3AM and wake up around noon. It's a vicious cycle I can't break.

Thoughts?

Good question. I think most of us deal with this problem of being always anxious of something bad happening with our heads after having gone through something like this. It's a natural reaction of our bodies to make us more alert. Even I am struggling with extreme anxiety so much that I am living my life at only 5% of what I was before the injury.

I can't do normal stuff like go out and hang out with friends, go to clubs, parties, concerts, drive, travel, stay awake late at nights, workouts, morning jogs, get on roller coasters, water slides, travel as much as I want etc etc. It's like there is a limitation to everything now and I will have to be extra careful after what has happened. I think this feeling fades away with time as you start to somewhat accept it as a part of you and move on and start living your life again somewhat normally.

I am sure others more experienced good souls on here will have better answers to this. But eventually it all starts to settle down in my opinion and you learn to let go,but will take quite a while maybe more than 2 years I think.

sometimes the issues that tbi sufferers deal with are easier to handle at night, when there is less stimulation.

Anxiety can be the result of a neurochemical process that gets messed up. Thought processes are supposed to flow one direction. In the injured brain, they can get stuck flowing back and forth. Think of it this way. I have a sheet of paper to give you to read. As I give it to you, you start to read it. Before you take it, I pull it back and offer it to you again. This cycle repeats in what become anxiety.

The properly working brain processes the thought and lets it go. The anxious thought is just momentary then forgotten and ignored. In the malfunctioning brain, the thought cycles over and over. It can be exacerbated by a brain that does not filter thoughts and stimulus properly.

This is often treated with SSRI's. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors work to keep these neurotransmitters flowing in the proper direction without this cycling back and repeating.

I take L-Tryptophan and L-Theanine to help with an SSRI like effect without the SSRI side-effects.

This is a tough symptom to treat. Billions of dollars are made selling drugs to treat this.

Are you currently or have you taken any medications/ supplements throughout this process for the anxiety? If your anxiety subsides around sunset, why are you going to bed at 3am, if you don't mind me asking.

I went through some bad anxiety/panic attack periods starting about 3 weeks after the concussion and lasting about 2 months. Then I was doing OKish with anxieties for about a year except a few episodes. Then this summer I started having the panic attacks all over again.
Didn't really find a good solution except for Ambien to knock me out when I was freaking out and couldn't sleep. Most of the time I just rode it out during the day, trying to focus on work and then tried watching movies or whatever on TV at home to take my mind off of my own mind.

I finally seem to be getting better with anxieties now, I pretty much removed as much stress as possible from my life. I go to work and then go home (I live alone), grocery shopping once in a while. Once a week I would either have friends come over or I go see someone.

I've been prescribed a benzo and SSRI but I haven't taken them. I'm somewhat scared.

I start to feel better at night, and that's when I start to enjoy myself again. One thing leads to another and then it's 2AM. I lose track of time.
I know when I wake up in the morning, the day is going to be bad for me...so I usually sleep in as late as I possibly can. The later I wake up, the quicker I can get to the night time and start feeling better again.

Oversleeping in the morning may be setting you up for the bad days. It is likely that the way you sleep is more a cause of you bad days that when you sleep. Restless sleep where you never achieve REM sleep can undo good REM sleep.

Believe me. I have tried all combinations of sleep. I do best when I get up when I first wake up. If I become tired, I just take a short nap.

I think anxiety can become like learnt behaviour after so long it becomes a habit. The other day I noticed I was shuffling about in the bathroom like I did in the first months of my injury when I felt really crappy. I suddenly thought what am I doing I don't feel like that any more. I've now started consciously doing things I avoided when ill, gradually reclaiming my normality back. One thing I noticed is that I've spent a lot of time thinking, just turning things over in my mind as soon as I wake up, I know this isn't natural as I used to spend more time not thinking at all or daydreaming. I think PCS does prey on intelligent highly strung folk more and anxiety can become ingrained if we're not careful. Laughter and sunlight are really powerful serotonin releasers and IME light exercise helps calm the mind.

I wouldn't worry too much about your sleeping times as long as you get unbroken restful sleep. It's only since the industrial revolution that sleeping from 11pm to 7pm has become the accepted norm. TBI can shift the wake/sleep pattern forward, I feel sleepier in the mornings than when I go to bed too. A CBTi sleep therapist told me that to change your sleep times you should do it by 15 minutes at a time and be strict about it.

I was prescribed the same. I only took the benzo for the first two weeks and found it did make things worse. But that's just me. They really work for some people for a small window of time.

I'm currently on a small dose of an SSRI and honestly I hate it. I'm only taking it because my family and MD think it's the best for my anxiety and constant "obsessive" thoughts about PCS (I think too much about my thoughts and how PCS has affected me if that makes sense.) They actually want me to bump up the dose. Tried for two days and swear I thought I was going insane. I have constant anxiety. I'm terrified now that I will always be like this because the weeks keep coming without much change.

I'm in therapy but keeping getting passed to other therapist because they don't know what to say or do. Plus, I can't pinpoint what causes my anxiety so it makes it very hard.

I would like the opportunity to try this things without meds just to see where I am. Super"s response above mine is perfect.

The anxiety is often not generated by conscious thoughts. Therapists are trained to deal with thought based anxiety. With PCS, the brain is physiologically put in an anxiety condition that causes it to collect all of the thoughts that it would normally just let fly by.

I was given Klonopin and took a half dose. I don't take it any more but do have some in my 'emergency' kit. If my anxiety gets triggered unexpectedly, I can take a small dose and get settled. I rarely need it.

There are a variety of therapists and protocols for dealing with 'flight or fight' anxiety. You might ask your therapists if they have a referral.

Is this talk-based therapy or medical therapy?

I'd like to try some form of talk-therapy but as you've stated, I don't think my anxiety is thought-based. So I don't know if a therapist could offer me anything.

Does the SSRI help the anxiety in anyway?

I'm the same with my anxiety.
What types of things do you talk about in therapy?
I keep going back and forth about trying it. I'd like to try but feel like it would be of no use.

For me I do not think the SSRI has worked. I have had days that my anxiety has been a constant companion all day long. I think time really has been a healer and learning how to deal with the anxiety so it doesn't get to a level that makes it hard to function.

I've gotten a worksheet that has ways to alter your thinking, like stopping the thought process before it spirals out of control and not giving in to irrational thoughts and fears. Basically train yourself to stop the thoughts, but it takes a toll on me. The internal struggle is a daily battle.

The last session was with someone different and he gave me info on PTSD and thought that is what I was dealing with. It was not very helpful, nor do I believe this is what I am struggling with.

I hope I'm not coming off as being negative because these two combos work for many others. I wouldn't say either one is a total bust. Just getting my thoughts out loud certainly helps. And it's okay if the receiving end thinks I'm nuts...I know thats their job ;)