This is what the new neurologist said to me as I was walking out of the room.

Just before that, I was asking him what I should be doing to improve my recovery. He said rest and minimize stress.

So which one is it? Rest or stimulate?

The only time I feel somewhat "alright" is when I'm doing nothing at all. It seems like everything I do brings on the cognitive problems. Sometimes I could lay in bed all day and still have problems.

So I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I think he's right. It's both things, not just one or the other. It's a balance between the two.

The accident that caused the head injury I acquired was about 18 months ago. I am doing much better now! I still have a while to go... And I recognize that stimulating my brain has helped some of those neural pathways to reconnect. But I also know that overdoing it (becoming overstimulated or overwhelmed cognitively) makes my functioning degrade.

I remember that my Primary Care Physician told me that when I feel like resting that I need to rest (unfortunately, I never really "feel like resting" but I know I need to) and to do stuff when I feel up to it.

Try to be grateful that you can recognize when you need to rest and know that it will get better over time. (I know it's very boring, just hang in there!)

I have found this to be true too. It's a fine balance, but gentle stimulation (through walking, reading, writing, conversation, second language, etc) when feeling somewhat better, in very moderate doses (especially at first), interspersed with large doses of rest, seems to help. My brain seems to need both. The challenge is figuring out how not to overdo it so that you stay "sub-threshold" of symptoms as much as possible. As others have said, it's a marathon, not a sprint - take it real slow.

Thanks for your responses.

I figured alternating between the two is what he meant. I do know you need to stimulate your brain occasionally so that the brain and create new pathways and what-not.

I'm still trying to figure out what "over-doing it" means for me. I noticed that some stimulation is great and I noticed after whatever I did I felt a little better.

Like I said just need to find out what my limits are. That can sometimes be hard since the brain can delay your symptoms...so if they show up the next day its hard to figure out what you did the day before that caused it.

I personally think it's difficult to figure out a balance between the two since my own limits are always changing and improving for the most part. I find I am happiest (function the best) when I err on the side of caution.

It sounds like he is mixing up the research in 'brain training' and recovery from PCS. None of the brain training research has yet demonstrated that brain training aids in recovery from PCS. But, vegging out will not cause recovery. You need to maintain a minimal level of stimulation. By this, I mean stimulating one sense at a time with a single stimulation. Multi-sensory stimulation may be too much for a recovering brain.

It is not difficult to determine what level of stimulation does not cause an increase in symptoms. We all have our own limits.