Help with "imagined pain" after close-call with head bump
 

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this/could offer help or insight. I, like most here I imagine, am very afraid of hitting my head again. Numerous times throughout the past year and a half I've had an experience where, in immediate hindsight, I'll realize that I could've hit my head. The most recent one happened today, where I was leaning down to unlock my bike from a railing in a building, and upon standing up I realized that there was a low outcropping against which I could've easily hit my head. I didn't notice this when I locked my bike to the railing in the first place, but did upon unlocking it.

I didn't feel my head hit the ceiling, or a jolt or brush of any kind, and that knowledge is pretty clear in my mind when I first realize how low the ceiling is. It's not as though I have a panic attack at this point or anything like that, but I sort of test and re-test the movements I made, trying to see how likely it was that I hit my head. In the particular instance, from testing it out I determined that it certainly was possible that I could've hit my head, i.e. the ceiling is low enough, but I likely didn't, given my movements, and the fact that I DIDN'T FEEL a bump.

At this point, I'm 99% convinced (I'm not really 100% convinced of anything) that I didn't hit my head, based on the evidence. Yet the back/top part of my head starts to hurt at this point, presumably about where I would have hit my head had I actually hit it (which again, I'm pretty sure I didn't). This happened earlier this evening, and the pain persists, despite being relatively calm after a well-timed mindfullness-based stress reduction class.

Similar instances have happened numerous times throughout the past year and a half. I guess I'm just sort of astounded at the power of my imagination, and the specificity of where I feel the pain, and how it corresponds to where I think I could've hit it. Sometimes I get accompanying symptoms of feeling generally a bit worse, less able to focus, etc. etc., all of which I believe can easily be chalked up to anxiety. I'm just perplexed about this "imagined pain". As much as I tell myself, and believe deep down that I didn't hit my head, the constancy of the pain there creates this nagging opportunity for doubt.

Does anyone else experience this and have suggestions? Anyone have references to studies on this kind of "imagined pain"? I think having a thorough understanding of the biology of how I can imagine pain that persists for so long in a specific place would help me let go of it more completely.

Google psychosomatic pain, also known as psychogenic pain. There is plenty of information. You already have the foundation for it with your anxiety struggles about impacting your head.

It is amazing what the mind can do that goes against all logic. I've been through enough of these time when the mind tries to say something that is not real.

I have memories of events where I came very close to very traumatic events. I can feel the full effect of that event even years later when I am reminded of it. I can feel pain just seeing a head impact on TV as is common on reality TV.

I hope you can find understanding to help you overcome this.

I struggle with this as well, exactly as you described. I've had many of these instances in the past few months and those symptoms that make you freak out initially always subside as I am able to get in a calmer state of mind. The journey there is no fun though.

I feel like even without a freak-out I still get the pain. My mind certainly freaks out in a certain subdued way (i.e. I'm not having a visceral reaction, but my mind is still giong over the event, thinking about it, etc.), but even when that subsides (as I think is happening quicker and quicker the more "experience" I get with dealing with this) the pain remains. Eventually it disappears (sometimes takes longer than a week!) from these imagined places, or, if a possible bump happened in one of my constant headache areas, it goes back to normal.

I guess there's nothing else to do but try to ignore the negativity and cultivate more positive thoughts until it subsides. My experience with these near misses have led me to wonder if my constant head pain might be a much exaggerated form of imagined pain. I still have other symptoms (visual info processing difficulties, some fatigue, mild occasional diziness, etc) so it's not as though headaches are my only difficulty, but they're certainly my most salient symptom. I guess there's no way to know.

Perhaps- somatoform disorder -
http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/men...mptom-disorder

more-
https://www.google.com/search?q=soma...oform+disorder

I'm very glad you posted this. Knowing someone else is experiencing the same thing as me is heartening.

I feel this, what you've described, almost every day. In situations where I'm at all close to hitting my head, I'll develop uncertainty as to whether or not it actually did occur - when in reality, it very much did not.

I can't offer advice at this point, as I'm still struggling thoroughly with this issue. Really, I've just been to occupied with other things to make a thread about it.

I just want you to know - you've described it well, and I'm right there with you. I struggle with imagined head hits almost every day.