Slipped down the stairs
 

I was walking down the stairs and slipped and lost my footing which caused me to fall backwards and then slide down a few more steps down the stairs. I did not hit my head and absorbed most of it with my arms and back as my elbows went back to catch the fall but I did feel my head shake from the force of the fall and I continued to slide down the stairs after falling which made me head bounce as I kept sliding down the stairs. The stairs were made of carpet so this softened the fall a bit but it made me slide down more since I did not have good grip. My head did not hit anything at any point during the fall. I landed more in my back and arms rather than my tailbone. I felt my teeth chatter a bit from the force to my head

I am really panicking now and super stresses that this could have caused a concussion or whiplash injury. It happened 7 hours and I mostly feel fine but do have headache.
Is it possible for such a fall to not cause any injury?

Your probably fine, but panicking isnt helping. I bet your going to be very sore!

Yes, it is very possible for such a fall to cause no injury other than bruised elbows.

Thank you very much for the responses.

I am doing my best not to think about this fall but I have had PCS symptoms on and off for the past 6 years. In the past few months, I have had periods feeling mostly normal and periods with quite some symptom flares.
Experiencing any type of fall or head bump therefore makes me quite anxious because then I can directly link my symptom flares to an incident rather than being able to tell myself that they are just symptoms which will eventually go away and which are bothersome but not due to any serious new injury/trauma.

The first few days after the fall I mostly felt normal aside from some headaches. I also had soreness in my upper arms and under my armpits, which I presume is from suddenly contracting those muscles to break the fall and keep me from sliding down the stairs. I have not had any neck pain.

However, since day 4 after the fall, I have started to have much worse trouble with concentration and dizziness (not a spinning vertigo but more of a subtle unsteadiness that feels like it comes from behind my eyes). These are two symptoms which often come and go for me, however it has been quite bad these past few days.

Does it sound like these symptoms could be from the fall?

Does the fall sound like it was enough force to cause a concussion?

Those symptoms that you claim might be PCS or concussion symptoms are also the most common symptoms of ANXIETY and stress.

I've seen this same complaint hundreds of time in the last decade on NT. The person gets little improvement until they improved their anxiety issues.

In fact, the data shows that 80% of the people with prolonged concussion symptoms are people with a history of anxiety or depression.

The worst way to handle this is with a benzodiazepine (anti-anxiety) medication.

Does it sound like the fall was enough force to cause a concussion?

No, it does not.

Thank you for all the messages.

It has been about 2 months since I had this fall and I have been suffering from horrible brain fog and problems with concentration ever since. While I have had brain fog before, this is much worse than it has ever been before as I can hardy think clearly at all and the things I used to do to improve my brain fog do not seem to have any effect (taking breaks frequently, going on walks, working in a silent environment, playing classical music).

My lifestyle is very good as I eat a healthy diet, do not drink coffee, and sleep 9-10 hours a night so I do not really see an issue here. Even drinking coffee, which I tried a few times to see if it would help, does not help me to think any clearer. All it does is make it harder for me to fall asleep in the evening so I do not drink it anymore.

I do however have a long history with anxiety, mostly related to my PCS. I was taking an SSRI for the past year or so but stopped taking it about the same time that I had this fall. Since I stopped taking it, I have noticed I am feeling a lot more sad and anxious at all times.
My poor concentration and brain fog is one of the main sources of my unhappiness and stress as it severely impairs me during my daily life and is very very bothersome and concerning. I definitely see how the two are related and can feed off of each other as a result but I do not see a way out of this spiral and fear that the root problem is the brain fog and cognitive problems I have been having as a result of this fall.

Aside the brain fog and concentration problems, I really do not have any other new concussion symptoms since the fall.

Sounds like migraines honestly, I had something similar. amitripytline and triptans helped a lot.

How could this be migraines if I do not experience any headaches?

Is Ritalin something that could maybe help my brain fog and cognitive fatigue? My GP won’t prescribe it unfortunately. But i would like to try it out to see what, if any, effect it has.

I also recently got glasses to correct some nearsightedness which does seem to have changed the way my brain fog feels a bit. But the brain fog is definitely still present so I guess that rules out the theory that poor vision was a main contributor to my symptoms. Or is there a chance my brain still needs more time to adjust to the glasses?