18 years old, 5 months PCS, is my life ruined?
 

I've had multiple concussions throughout my life and in January a trunk of an SUV slammed my head and I got a concussion that seemed minor. I stupidly went out and drank and partied a week or so after and I still have horrible PCS symptoms. My memory is still horrible, I forget everything and I feel like I don't even have the ability to backtrack things in my brain. I've recently since this month been getting bad headaches and ALWAYS feel dizzy and slow. I can't even really socialize or do anything because I just feel out of it all the time. I don't even really know how I managed to get through this semester (just finished my freshman year of college). Will my memory ever atleast get a little bit better? Will I be able to cognitively function? Will I ever be able to run and workout? Does this dizziness go away? I'm 18 years old and I feel as if my life is already over.

Now that you have some time off, you should seriously give your brain a chance to recover. No drinking, get good sleep, minimize stress, minimize visual and auditory stimulation, and anything else that has triggered an increase in symptoms. Recovering from a concussion/PCS is not a 'rest up after a busy week' kind of process. It takes sustained periods of proper avoidance of stress. A week of good days with a single night of partying will undo the whole week of improvement.

So, you have some mature decisions to make. At 18, they are tough. You can struggle for another years or two or just settle down and give your brain the rest and support it needs. You have 50 years ahead. A break from the stressful activities of an 18 year old will make you future much brighter.

Are you following a brain nutrition regimen like the one in the Vitamins sticky at the top ? It is well worth the effort. It takes months of discipline to see sustained results.

I don't understand why high school and college age concussion sufferers will put the effort in to finish school for a hope at a job in the distant future but struggle to put the effort in to help their concussed brains recover for the near future. Just wondering.

I would definitely heed Mark's advice. I had a similar injury that was exacerbated by alcohol. About 14 months later, I still have headaches but many other symptoms have gotten much much better. At 18, please know that your life is most definitely not over. I am 25 and the last 14 months have been excruciating but life is long and you're just going to have to grow up a little bit sooner than your peers. But, you got this!!

Mark, with all due respect, I really do think you need to take a look at the tone you use in the backhanded questions, making people who are reaching out in a very troubling time feel dumb or stupid about their injuries. I know you've lived longer with PCS than most of us on this forum, but what I'm suggesting has little to do with PCS and much more to do with just showing a bit more empathy. No one wants to be on this forum, regardless of how young or stupid you might think they are.

I can attest to that- For me half of it was just not knowing and being aware of how important rest is. The other half was the pressure that seems to be put on people my age. It is made out to be that one has to do everything to stay on the four year path. I can say that before my injury I put a lot of pressure on every aspect of my life, not just school or career wise, but socially too.

Even before my hit to the head partying one night would knock me out the next couple days, so I cannot even imagine what it would do to my body now. I gave up drinking after the last concussion, and I have been better off for it and wish I would have quit a lot sooner in college.

hermantor,

Without point a finger at anybody, I was trying to show the comparison. People stress out about grades and make serious efforts to accomplish the grades needed for a job that is not known. This shows there is enough drive and discipline to get the job done. That same drive and discipline will achieve great results if applied to PCS.

I have to agree with Mark.

I don't understand the drive for a good grade at the expense of health, the grade is of little value without the health to accompany it in the job market.

Bud

When you are only 18 years old, you are expected by society to be doing certain things with your life. Graduating high school, going to college or starting your career. In general you are expected to be progressing in life and accomplishing things. To take time to slow down at that age makes everyone think less of you. people will think you are lazy and going nowhere in life. Its not like he does not want to take the time to heal, rather its the fear of getting left behind in life if he does. (At least it was for me)

If that issue of slowing down is based on the perception of others, it is false. There is an old saying. 'If you only knew how little time others spend thinking of you, you would not worry so much about what they think of you.'

A simple explanation is sufficient. 'I suffered a traumatic brain injury and needed to slow down and take some time off. I recovered and am doing great now.' Those that choose to not accept that explanation have their own issues.

That is a much easier explanation than the roller coaster of PCS interrupting ones life for years.

In my view, it appears most young people are not as concerned about what others think but rather do not want to miss out on partying and stressful entertainment. There are plenty of social circles that do not involve such brain stressful activities.

What I am referring to is not simply having to stop going to parties or certain entertainment events, rather having to take more drastic measures like stopping going to college or doing something of that sort where I think it is perfectly reasonable to be apprehensive to doing so. And with certain people, like me, you may need to do something like that because of the severity of your symptoms.

But if someone is complaining about not being able to party or do the other mentally damaging things the average college student does, then yes I completely agree that they need to reassess their priorities and choose between not doing these things and getting better or continuing to do these things and inevitable get worse and worse.

A lot of it is how you are perceived. To all my friends and family I physically look fine, so it is hard for them to think there is something wrong. People also tend to react inappropriately towards because I think they were so used to the way I was before, and they have some personal denial of my condition. Either way, one feels alienated pretty easily.

Feeling left behind encompasses most of it I think. It has been very hard seeing all my friends off at school or working while I have been stuck with my condition. Now, it's spring and I would usually be working 60 hours a week and I had to tell my employer hopefully next summer, but that isn't a guarantee. You realize how fast you life moves when you stop and see others before you keep going through life.