Paying the price for a night out
 

I'm wondering if any of you have noticed that you're able to handle certain social situations without symptoms one day, but maybe suffer a setback/trigger symptoms in a similar situation on a different day?

Reason I'm asking is because about a month ago I went out to a restaurant with family and friends. We sat on the patio and hung out for about 2 hrs. There was talking and background music, but I didn't suffer any symptoms besides being tired afterwards.

This past Saturday I went to a party at a friend's house. There were around 30 people there. There was no loud music or tv's, but moderate noise from people chatting. I didn't talk to many people, tried to stay in the rooms with few people, and basically was pretty mellow. I didn't drink any alcohol. About an hour into the party I felt a mild headache coming on, but it wasn't too bad. I left after 3 hrs.

I have had a horrible headache, increased dizziness, and sensitivity to light ever since the party. I'm wondering why I was ok going out in a social setting a month ago, but not ok this time. It's not necessarily an apples to apples comparison, but both settings had moderate levels of stimulation. Feeling frustrated and sad because I thought I was slowly getting better!

I would say that this sort of 'inconsistency' in your brain's ability to handle situations is perfectly normal for PCS. It's also one of the reasons other people find it so hard to understand and accept what we are going through.

For me I think the amount of sleep I have been getting during any given period is a major cause of such inconsistency. At the moment, if I have been sleeping well I can forget I ever had a concussion, if I have not slept well it affects me much more than other people and the sort of social activities you mention become a challenge.

Klaus makes some good points. I would add that a big difference is the location. The outdoor setting does not have walls to confine the sounds. The open air setting allows the sounds to escape. The rooms create an echoed sound. This ambient sound can be tough to process. Wearing a set of foam ear plugs will decrease this echo based ambient sound.

For me, the limit would be an hour or so. Three hours is a lots of auditory stimulation.

There is also a difference in visual stimulation. The outdoor location allows much of the visual stimulation behind a person across the table to be at a distance and in less focus. This out of focus stimulation is much easier for the brain to ignore. The wall hangings, etc. in a room puts the background stimulation within a normal focus range requiring the brain to try to process this additional visual stimulation. An example would be how the brain wants to switch from a face to the wall and back continually in the indoor settings.

Add the sound and visual overload and there is a huge difference between the indoor and outdoor settings.

A small addition to the outdoor setting is the fact that the plate before you is a common point of focus where there is no background clutter.

So, the two environments have very different stimulation challenges.

I bet that there were symptoms manifesting in both situations, even though more in the indoor locations, that if understood would be indicators of the brain's struggles and fatigue levels.

My wife can tell by the look in my eyes when I have hit my limit. We were at an event at the governor's mansion for a friend who was crowned State Rodeo Queen. I made frequent us of the outdoor patio area to give my brain a break from all of the stimulation. I did leave in a fatigued state but not as fatigues and overwhelmed as I could have been had I not taken the patio breaks.

Learning to recognize the brain's response to these environments can greatly help one avoid overload.

Hope this helps.

My best to you all.

I completely agree with Mark. Last summer/fall when i was pushing myself to be social and try to live a normal life, i would have some situations where i would be at an open air bar or restaurant and do fine. The brain fog wouldnt come on as quickly and headaches would be somewhat tolerable. But if it was an indoor location or a get together at someones house, i very quickly became overloaded and would zonk out and not be able to speak. I would obviously have to be taken home and then suffered bad days affterwards. There was something about the open air that helped. i'm also not normally a claustrophobic person, but i did have some social anxiety issues during my worse months and the indoor area made me really anxious and claustrophobic.

Thanks for the replies. The past 2 months had gone pretty well, so I really was hoping I could handle an indoor social gathering. Looks like I've learned another lesson the hard way. When I look back on the evening, I do remember feeling a little restless, walking from room to room often. Maybe my brain was pushing me to find a peaceful place.

When I felt the headache come on, I knew it wasn't a good sign, but I had no idea it would put me in such a bad place afterwards. They've been pretty bad since Saturday night and headaches aren't usually a symptom for me. At my last neuro appt, my doctor prescribed Topamax. I didn't start taking it immediately because I usually don't get bad headaches, but I'm glad I have it now. It has taken the edge off the pain a little.

Hoping these bad days pass soon. I feel like I've regressed to square 1 after feeling "ok" for 2 months.

A friend recently told me that healing from a tbi is like the stock market --- lots of ups and downs. it has helped me tremendously. I have one good day with great conversations (that I can't remember), but that is followed by 1-2 bad days. I know that anytime that I have to pay attention to a conversation, I will be exhausted/wiped for a while.

When you have to "pay attention to a conversation" like that it's probably a sign from your brain that you are overdoing it. Stop the conversation as politely as possible and rest. :) After a while, conversations will get easier and you'll be able to handle them better - but you're still really early in your recovery. Remember, the more rest you have now, then it's most likely that your recovery will take less time.

I am 5 months post and I had a scary thing happen yesterday. I couldn't remember how to spell my daughter's name. I couldn't believe it....I finally hadn to look at her school work to see the spelling.

I'm sure it was just a fleeting moment and most likely won't happen again, but it did freak me out a bit. Not sure where I was going with that, but think it had something to do with good/bad days.