Sudden braking in car
 

It seems I just can't get a break, every day some thing happens that worries me as to whether I made my condition worse.

My friend was driving me home and going about 50mph. She started braking as we were not gonna make the light. So we brake for about 3-4 seconds and then she lets the brake go and brakes again suddenly. Of course I was terrified. I didn't hit my head anywhere and I was holding onto the handle the whole time with my neck tilted forward but now I'm really worried that the sudden deacceleration might have given me another concussion. Ugh.

It might have aggravated your neck muscles, if they were injured in the original event.... .but braking firmly with no head impact = not a concussion event..

Don't worry about what "might " be a concussion or re injury....worry is a waste of your energy..
Use logical thinking, and wait to see if any symptoms become worse..and which ones if so...

The thing is when stuff like this occurs, I always feel worse than how I originally was prior to the occurrence. It's probably just anxiety making things worse. I wish I didn't know about the fact that one can get a concussion without a blow to the head, simply from sudden acceleration/deaccelaration.

Donnie,

The amount of deceleration needed to cause a concussion without hitting your head is quite high. You would have to be thrown hard against your seat belt. If this happens, you will not be very aware of the head issues because you will be struggling to take a breath. Your seat belt will have traumatized your rib cage including possibly breaking your collar bone, your ribs, or cracking the cartilage that connects your ribs. It is a very painful injury. This takes an impact like hitting a large stopped vehicle like a truck while doing 35 miles per hour or more.

Such an injury will take a few weeks or more to recover from.

Getting rear ended will mean your head impacts the head rest. No car outside a drag race course will be able to accelerate fast enough to cause a sub-concussive impact. Even then you would need to hit your head against a solid object.

As was said, you may have strained your neck at the most. Rubber tires on dry pavement have a maximum ability to avoid skidding of about 1.5 G's. Add some whipping forces against the seat belt and you might reach 5 G's if the force was very quick. I doubt you even came close to 5 G's. Maybe 3 G's at the most. Not even enough to be considered a sub-concussive impact.

To suffer a concussion from a non-impact, you would need to be shaken violently for a extended period like riding over a bunch of speed bumps in quick succession. I can't imagine where you could find something like that.

So, you can let go of your anxieties about quick braking causing a head injury. Neck strain maybe but not likely.

Thank you so much for putting my mind at ease.

What scared was not necessarily the initial braking but the fact that she let go of the brake and braked again. It's just pretty scary to experience with an already sensitive head.

Hi there

A similar thing happened to me yesterday. I am 1 year Post-Concussion Syndrome. My mom was driving around 50 mph and wasn't paying attention and noticed the light ahead was red. I was looking down at the time. She slammed on the brakes (she is a heavy braker), and I have been very worried and scared ever since. My body definitely was thrusted forward with the braking.
I've tried to convince myself that this is no different than a roller coaster, but I am not convinced as I have a headache. I did not hit my head, but I've read that a "jerk to the body" can cause a concussion.
Just worried I will have another and could use some insight.

A jerk to the body that can cause a concussion would also result in a very noticeable injury to the neck. The seat belts would contuse the chest, maybe even crack the sternum or ribs.

A simple hard breaking is less than 2 Gs. It takes 60 Gs to cause a concussion.