At what point in your recovery do you start cognitive therapies?
 

I am confused as to how much I need to rest my brain. The more I rest my brain the better? or should I be using my brain and tire it? I know it is a balancing act, but how do you guys do it?

I don't know....How do you rest it?? i know it is important to get oxygen to it through walking or swimming. Nutrients are important. Thinking good thoughts has to be helpful. Rest when you feel like it.

You do not want to cause brain fatigue. It is not like a muscle that strengthens from fatigue. Slowly become active with brain activities. If they cause a setback. Reduce the level the next time.

I have said this many times. We all need to learn to recognize the early signs of fatigue. Trouble focusing. Needing to reread a line of text. Feeling glassy eyed. There are many different ways we can start to overload or fatigue. We each need to figure out what they are in our individual cases.

Often, once you notice an early sign, you can stop that activity and move on to something different. I used to go from the computer to a History channel TV show then to something else. I got lots of exercise going up and down the stairs from one room to the next. (computer upstairs, TV downstairs)

I am 8 months out and just started about 3 weeks ago...

I suffered my concussion July 17. Advice from local docs and local concussion clinic was rest. The local clinic refered me to Dr. Mickey Collins at UPMC concussion clinic....first appt there was Sept 4.

He immediately started me on exertion, vestibular, and vision therapy. While a period of rest is needed, you need to be actively engaged to retrain the damaged parts of your brain. During daily therapies, my symptoms increase and the therapist advise is wait between sets for symptoms to subside. Don't led headache or dizziness get to higher than 5 out of 10.

Making pretty rapid progress in these areas. Vision is showing the least improvement but still moving in right direction. At my three week follow up, the eye doctor started me on interval training for reading. Was becoming symptomatic after about 10 minutes of reading. Been doing 10 minutes of reading with 5 minute breaks in between.

But, having said all that, I have not been assigned any dedicated cognitive therapy yet.

There are many who disagree with Dr Mickey Collins. He is a Neuro Psych, not an MD. He is one of the authors behind the ImPACT system. His goal is Return to Play. At your time since injury, there is no way to tell if your recovery is due to Dr Collins protocol or whether it is spontaneous. 85% recover spontaneously during your time frame.

This is exactly my point. I keep hearing different theories, and I am not sure what to do. I am not even sure it is safe to continue with Lumosity at this point. I guess we will never know...

I don't know if this applies, but I wonder if cognitive therapy ever stops. I type at least a half hour each day, just copying an article or anything, to keep my skills sharp in case a transcription opportunity comes along.

the funny thing is sometimes I bang out my old speed of 100 wpm, and sometimes my left hand doesn't work so well, I know it's my left hand fingers giving me trouble and wonder why it comes and goes.

After my last injury I was only able to type 15 wpm and it came slowly back. The brain is crazy and amazing. when I feel fine I can do 100 again. I don't know if this is cognitive therapy.

WillG,

How long and how often have you been doing Lumosity ?

I sustained a concussion just over a year ago. I started training on Lumosity about a week ago and did it for about 5 days before completely stopping. I think I played at least 10 games a day.