New concussion and anxiety. No rest after injury.
 

Hey all,

You might remember me being a frequent poster about two summers back when I got a concussion scare after bumping my head on a bedframe. Whether or not that was a concussion, I had months of worry about every little bump I got, and it was really unhealthy. However, I was finally able to break the fear, and for the past 1.5 years I havn't had any worries about concussions.

Unfortunately, two Saturdays back (11 days ago) I was at the barber, and while cutting my hair he was talking to someone behind us. Turning back from his conversation with the third party, he accidentally elbowed me in the back of the head. And no exaggeration, but this was probably the first time my head has been hit in over a year. I had no immediate symptoms aside from the shock of getting hit, and the fears that it immediately brought back. There was really no pain either, and it didn't leave any mark. So I assumed that it wawas just high anxiety. I was light headed when I left, and the light headedness continued throughout the day, and I had a tension headache that night.

Over the next few days I experienced more and more symptoms including: intermittent headaches, dizziness when walking, nausea when eating, and trouble concentrating at work. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take off of work, and had a pretty busy week last week, but I feel as though I got very little done compared to normal. I also probably wasn't the best patient during this time. I drank a glass of wine on the day of the incident, and had three drinks on the following Friday as we had a large party at work and I didn't realize alcohol was bad for the brain until I read about it this past weekend, and I've since cut out all alcohol and have been limiting caffeine. I also only averaged about 7 hours of sleep a night...

I visited the doctor and explained that I was hit and experiencing symptoms, but also told her about my history with psychosomatic symptoms, and how my anxiety has mirrored physical symptoms in the past. She said that it was possibly either a concussion or anxiety, and there is really no way to tease the two apart.

I feel much better currently, but I'm worried, if I did have a concussion, will I suffer permanent damage by not taking perfect care of myself immediately after? This would also be at least my second concussion, as I suffered a large one to the back of my head about 10 years ago, will that have an impact to recovery?

I had a long weekend for the 4th of July which I've used to mentally rest (I've still used TV and video games), but unfortunately I need to return to work tomorrow. It is my first week in a new job position so i can't afford to stop working.

I'm also looking to supplement to improve my recover. I've been looking into fish oil, CBD oil, vitamin E, creatine and a few other things that have been recommended. Please let me know of anything else I could use!

Any advice or opinions are appreciated! This was a bit of rant, so definitly let me know if something needs clarification.

All the best!

John,

This was not a concussion. As I have likely said before, your anxiety is your worst enemy and will cause more problems with your brain than a few bumps ever will.

There is no 'perfect care' for you to take. Just stay away from dark alleys where somebody can mug you with a baseball bat to the head.

Your focus on symptoms and a sense of needing to be in a recovery protocol is just making everything worse.

Give yourself a break. Let go of these anxious thoughts.

You need to recover from your anxiety not a bump.

Thanks for the reply Mark!

Is there any way for me to prove to myself that this wasn't a concussion? I'm more certain that this event may have been than I was about past incidents. I was dehydrated when I got hit which I think may have lowered the thershold.

Do you think that anxiety could be solely responsible for dizziness, nausea, and light-headedness/trouble concentrating?

I think that I've also noticed some slight blurriness in one eye from time to time which is another reason I'm thinking concussion.

Anxiety can cause every symptom that you mentioned.

As you stated earlier, memorized symptoms....

PTSD is very good at triggering memorized symptoms. They manifest like the real thing. Think 'flashback,'

Stop making up reasons to claim the worst case. Dehydration does not increase sensitivity.

STOP checking for symptoms. If you look for a symptom, your mind will find one. The power of suggestion is powerful. The blurriness in one eye is ridiculous.

I just thought of this for bumps & anxiety related concerns...might be worth looking into -
https://www.neurotalk.org/traumatic-...-disorder.html

Thanks for linking this Jo! I do think that the intensity of my symptoms is largely due to this.

And Mark, I only brought up dehydration because I know that even being a little dehydrated can drastically decrease the level of CSV. Theoretically, shouldn't this decrease the concussion threshold below 60G?

What is CSV? Did you mean CSF?

Researchers have theorized that dehydration would increase the risk of concussion but they cannot find any data to support that idea.

But, the threshold would not change by much. Maybe 5% less.

Stop trying to justify your anxious claim to a concussive impact.

I did mean CSF. Thanks for catching that!

One more question I had is I saw you talking to others about concussions causing immediate symptoms. What sort of immediate symptoms would one normally see? I dont believe that I experienced anything immediate other than anxiety, so I'm thinking that if that's true, then you're probably right that no concussion occurred.

I do remember noticing the normal floaters in my vision more so than normally, but maybe I was just more aware...

The floaters are a result of heightened awareness, a result of anxiety. They always existed. You just get focused on them instead of ignoring them.

The immediate symptom would be the sense that you had your bell rung, like visual disturbance i.e difficulty focusing, convergence/cross eyed (floaters are not visual disturbance); mental confusion (where am I, who am I, what day is it, etc) and balance. For some, the feeling may be a sense similar to getting punched in the nose (a metallic taste)

Thanks for clarifying that John!

If I was sitting down when I got hit, do you think that I'd notice dizziness? I felt lightheaded when I stood up later, but I think that that was anxiety.

That doesn't sound like an immediate symptom to you, does it?

[Turning back from his conversation with the third party, he accidentally elbowed me in the back of the head]

Use Logic & reasoning to convince yourself - an accidental brushing bump from an elbow is not a concussive force.
Even if the barber said ouch , he may have hit his funny bone and that zings quite a bit..
A purposed elbow hit will hurt, but probably not concussive unless a trained attacker does it..

John, When one uses a pseudonym, one should remember who has that name. LOL. Sounds like a brain fart I would make.

The dizziness when you got up later was anxiety. If you were standing when you got hit, you would be wobbly and reaching for support. If you were sitting, there would be a Woooooh, Why is the world spinning?

No, this was just a bump.

Stop looking for symptoms. When you look for symptoms, they will manifest where there is a physiological cause or not. Looked for symptoms are VERY suspect.

Hey all,

Sorry to bring back this old thread, but I just had some more questions related to this incident. One on understanding more about G forces and concussions, and one on concussion recovery in general.

So scientifically I know that it usually takes at least 60Gs for a concussion to occur. But I'm having a bit of trouble understanding what 60Gs truly means, and I'd like for someone to check my understanding.

If I'm understanding it correctly, the head is about 10lbs at 1G. So for the brain to experience 60Gs, you need an impact of at least 10 * 60, or 600lbs at max force? And to conceptualize the force of that punch, you'd basically need to deadlift 600lbs with a punch? If that's how much force it takes, then I know that an accidental hit from an elbow couldn't have been 60G. It probably wasn't even 10G...

The other question is a bit more health focused. I know that many people dont think my hit could have been a concussion, but the symptoms I had scared me, so I've been playing it safe just incase. One specific way in which I've been trying to help my brain is by giving up alcohol, which aside from the first week, I've successfully done for a month now. But tomorrow some friends are meeting up, and I was wondering if there is any problem with having one or two drinks over the course of the night with them?

John, Your 60G idea is good enough to make the point. Glad you thought to ask the question like that.

Another way to put it is with a bowling ball. Put your hand on a hard surface then drop a bowling ball on it from 15 inches. OUCH, likely broken bones...

Experts suggest that a single serving of alcohol per event is fine. With some, they even thing there may be relaxing benefits of that single drink that out weight the negatives so a single drink at the end of the day is OK, if it does not cause symptoms. Some people are reactive to a single drink.

Hey John I have very similar concerns as you. After a concussion in a cycling accident 8 months ago my symptoms (headaches, fatigue etc) went in to remission 3 months in to my recovery (which I did terribly because I drank alcohol a few times in the first few weeks including the first day after, continued to heavily use screens and study etc) but then had a relapse of symptoms after getting shoulder barged in football/soccer. I'm pretty sure I at least had a relapse because I was mostly symptom free for a month before it.

It's been 4 months since the relapse and I've gradually gotten better again. I relapsed again the other day after violent shaking my head side to side (I overdid the gaze stabilization vestibular exercises, lol).

Now I'm pretty sure a shoulder barge or head shaking or taking an elbow to the head is nowhere near the force required to cause an acceleration of 60g but people with a history of concussions (let alone people with PCS) have a lower threshold for concussion.

It seems ridiculous but I read an article about a highschool aged girl who had reached the point where she lost consciousness after an accidental stray elbow but then again, she had had more than 10 concussions by that point. The girl's name was Popyer if you're interested in the article.

Not to scare you here or anything as I don't think your case is comparable but just to make a point here that people with multiple concussions have significantly reduced thresholds for concussion. As for permanent damage I do think you are being overly anxious there... unless you are playing American football or boxing or doing something else involving regular blows to the head you aren't going to go beyond PCS and exacerbating PCS.