Symptom flare-up with no head impact
 

I'm trying to work out what's going on here

The trigger event is identical to someone's recent post.

I've been feeling under threat due to the ongoing behaviour and noise coming from a downstairs neighbour.

Without warming-up beforehand. I did a few repetitions of fast, aggressive shadow-boxing in my living room. Part of me wanted to see if I still "had it" (the ability to protect myself) - I've no intention of getting into a fight, but would defend myself to prevent serious injury.

I sensed a head-jarring sensation at the end of each punch combination, then felt a bit weird/off. This has continued in some form for most of the week.

I've recently moved home and the new place isn't great - very poor soundproofing exacerbated by the anti-social neighbours. It's very stressful and I also have to deal with working from home in a job that requires a lot of concentration and screentime.

Part of me is obsessively ruminating on the possibility that the force of my own punches being thrown and snapping in thin air at the end of their extension caused my brain to shake about in my own head very quickly. There's no way I would have worried about this in the past.

Part of me knows that my head did not move during this 'practice' and I don't believe the human anatomy is designed to be that fragile - even for TBI survivors. I'd have to be super unlucky.

Afterwards I noticed my neck muscles felt very tense for most of the day, so perhaps has caused a trapped nerve (or something similar), which is affecting oxygen supply?

I''m wondering whether there is inflammation going on too (due to the level of stress)?

Hi Ady,

I'm fairly new here in terms of posting, but I have been all over this forum trying to put a name to my symptoms and find solace. That combined with an excess of anxiety-induced, frantic google searches and scanning of research papers, I hope I may offer some consolation.

To begin, if your anxiety is stemming from the fear that you are again concussed, dispel that now. As you will find on many a post and via the word of the more experienced here, it is highly unlikely that you have suffered a concussion without actually striking your head, and blast physics tells us too that you would more than likely need to injure another part of your body in conjunction with your brain. For those who are concussed in car accidents without a blow to the head, they typically crack several rips if not breaking some other bone in the body.

Trust me though, I have been exactly where you are now and continue to be there despite finding a host of better coping mechanisms and logic. I still become anxious and wonder what sort of physiological impact walking heal first might have or turning to quick or even a speed bump. In all those cases, I have had no incidence of concussion as I could continue to live my life. Last week I drove 14 hours in an RV to move into college, and I am perfectly fine, and RV's, should you sent elsewhere than the driver's or passenger's seat, is extremely unstable and wobbly. The other day, I planted my foot hard and made a post, detailing effectively that I experienced a sharp pain and subsequent symptoms. I am now feeling slightly better after 48 hours of normative behavior and performing some therapeutic exercises. If I was concussed thereafter, I would be going down a rabbit hole.

As far as the sensation of jarring, hopefully you have done some research throughout the forum and come to some more sound conclusions concerning what is going on. Anxiety and introspection can seriously amplify how you perceive the movements of your body. In all likelihood too, your vestibular system acts differently now following the concussive event your experienced, which remains untold, wherein your sensations feel amplified. I and another who I have communicated with on this forum experience something similar where even the smallest movement generates a subtle pressure in the brain as if we are moving much farther than we are. I use to ask my girlfriend all the time, "Did my head move?" or "How fast did it move?". The answer was usually no, barely, or just a normal speed. As a side note, you be surprised how much my life and relationship with her has improved since I stopped asking these questions so frequently and took control of my anxiety.

Regarding your assertion that there could be a neck issue at play, I am not the expert on the physiology on this so hopefully someone with more expertise (Mark/Jomar) can offer something more concrete, but it is certainly possibility it is at play. The sharp pain I described in the post concerning a quick step with the heel seems to be derived from a neck issue, and perhaps that was a trigger for my migraine, though that is speculation. Honestly as long as I am not concussed, life goes on. What I have experienced in the last few days has been some swelling around the cervical spinal cord, and, as you say, a stiff neck. It may be likely too that your shoulders are tense as well, especially considering you were shadow-boxing. Perhaps trying gently massaging those areas to see if any relief is offered. I would like up whiplash therapy and neck strengthening exercises as well, as I often find relief therein.

To conclude, the stress is definitely getting to you as well. Though I not entirely if the inflammation would be predominantly stress-triggered, a myriad of symptoms can arise as you will invariably find in most anxious posts on this forum. Try to relax and perhaps meditate just to clear your mind. I do not know what your original injury was, but as you say, in the past you would not have thought twice about it. This makes me think that you have definitely done some reading on this forum, and though that is not the best piece of advice for us, in terms of accruing a concussion, it is usually correct. Furthermore, in all honesty, I have no idea about the possibility of a pinched nerve and the consequent lack of oxygen supply, but I think for now it can probably be attributed to vestibular, neck, or even migraine issues. If you are feeling off, it is because you are trying to see if you are. Trust me, I have been there and I think all of us probably have at some point or another.

Anyways, I hope you feel better soon. I would probably avoid shadow-boxing, and the general concept of boxing, given it seems you have PCS. If you want to blow off some steam, stationary bike (if you have access) or brisk walking with good posture have been good alternatives for me. As someone who played soccer for 10 years and wanted to play in college, I know it's tough to say goodbye to exercising if not even moving like a normal person, but so it goes. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them. You may wish to detail your original injury(ies) so that others who may chime in can offer more complete advice.

Tyler

Tyler, I would be helpful if you could put a double space every 5 lines, 6 at the most. Don't worry about paragraphs.

Many of us have visual tracking struggles due to neurological trauma and cannot find the start of the next line when our laptop screen shows a 125 character line length and 7 or 8 lines before a double space.

Ady_P, Stop shadow boxing. It is rough on your neck. When neck symptoms manifest, they overlap with concussion symptoms and many will get anxious about head issues. Yeah, the head issue is doing something foolish like shadow boxing. Boxing is not a self-defense skill unless you are really good and have other skills, too.

Noisy jerk neighbors does not mean they are a threat. That is illogical thinking, likely anxiety getting out of hand with wild ideas.

You're right about the boxing.

I'm just worried that the jarring caused by me stopping my "air punches" sharp and with full arm extension was enough to jar my brain back and forth. I put an ice pack on my neck and lay on the couch on Sunday, the armrests don't have thick padding and I slept badly that night. I've become paranoid that resting my neck on the sofa might have also impinged my brain stem. I'm a mess right now.

If you rest with your head and neck is a relaxed but straight position, you are fine.

I do not respond to 'I'm worried I did damage or shook my brain' comments. These are irrational anxieties. The anxiety symptoms are worse than the physiological symptoms.

Simple put, Don't do stupid stuff.

I know that some activities will require I take a day or two to recover. I don't worry about that recover time or even my need to recover. I may be fatigued or irritable so I do not attempt intense activities.

It is called managing our lives. Nobody can do it for us. If we do stupid stuff, we have to manage the result.

I actually managed to bump my head in low-sloping ceiling of a converted barn I've been staying in the last few nights.

I had my active noise cancelling headphones on at the time, they seem to take away some proprioceptive ability due to imposing a level of 'temporary deafness' - literally and spatially, to the outside world.

Luckily, the headphone band sits slightly above my head and this compressed first, alerting me to the fact I had made contact, so I was able to whip my head back down before making full contact. In fact, this movement was far more rapid than the initial contact.

It still left me adrenalised, although I can now see that bumps like this can't really cause concussion... because there's just not enough force involved to activate any coup/contre coup injury mechanism. It's just hard bone bumping into another hard object.

This is obviously different than someone rising into a roof with force from a squat position, or walking/tripping headfirst into a low-slung concrete door frame, which would definitely cause a level of injury.

I'm starting to see now it's more about managing the anxiety response to these low impact events, which can still give symptoms even when you know logically it's not possible.

The anxiety response is driven by different part of the brain - the reptilian and emotional brain regions (basal ganglia and limbic systems), directly linked to the nervous system via the amygdala and HPA axis.

Unfortunately, some parts of the basal ganglia and limbic systems can be impacted as part of any original TBI(s)/concussions, hence the overactive anxiety-stress-depression response.


Basically, the brain replays a pre-recorded, "3D experience" of previous actual symptoms - a virtual reality concussion movie, where you're unwittingly, the main lead. This is classic PTSD symptomatology - on a sliding scale of severity, and many TBI survivors are often diagnosed with some level of PTSD.


This is part of the reason why I had EMDR therapy, unfortunately, I did actually suffer a lot of multi-modal traumas when growing up. In fact, I got told I likely had C-PTSD; due to the sheer amount of crap I survived.


What a conundrum.

Logical self talk and deep (diaphragmatic) breathing can help reduce most kinds of stress.
logical self talk for anxiety and stress management - Google Search
diaphragmatic breathing for anxiety and stress management - Google Search