A Traumatic Brain Injury support group can be fabulous.

Most state affiliates of BIAUSA have lists of the groups in your state.

Mine meets tonight. My wife never misses it. She gets good benefits from the other family members. Ours is organized through the local TBI rehab facilities.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, we are the same age and kind of in the same boat. For me the thing that has gotten me through it and helped me to force myself to go to work and go to classes when I feel awful is that I do not want to worry my parents. They are both so stressed and worried as it is... So, I go to classes and just make sure that I talk about the class with someone afterwards to make sure that I heard everything. When I have gotten jobs, I make sure that they are sedentary jobs where I can write everything down so I don't forget...like secretarial work. As far as helping around the house, I find that if I work and rest in shifts that helps a lot. I work really hard for an hour or half and hour and then I rest for two hours. Also, I offer to help my mom with the part of her work that needs to be done on the computer, because working on the computer is relaxing to me and it is a way to feel useful. Another thing that I have done is gotten books on tape or books on my computer, because it is easier for me to read on the computer. I don't know if other people can do this, but if I keep myself high-strung or stressed enough for a few hours, it keeps me from giving into the pain and other stuff so that I can get things done, and then I just collapse and give in after those necessary things are done.
Over the summers I have worked all day and then I just come home and sleep and barely move. My parents understand, and they are just happy that I am getting the money I need, even if it means that I don't do much at home. If you can live at home and work, then you can help your mom to pay for food and stuff, but then you do not need to worry about paying the full rent, food, etc...then on weekends help out by cooking or something else like that.
This is my experience. I got my first concussion when 19 and my last of 10 this past summer. It is a long hard road with few understanding why I am so boring, but I am going to graduate with my bachelors in May and although my GPA has suffered, I have done it!
Good luck!
I hope that you have at least my luck if not more.
In Christ,
Margarite

Hey bballana,
I know a bit about what you're going through. I've had post-concussive syndrome for a year now, and I remember when I was at where you are now.
I hit my head against a wall and felt fine for a few days, until Monday came and I couldn't remember what I had done that weekend. It was a total blank. I went in because I couldn't remember the date, or my address, and they told me I'd be fine within a week. But I wasn't much different after a week. They told me to keep taking tylenol and it would go away, but eventually referred me to a neurologist.
Just some advice I learned too late in that period. Just because your tests came back normal does not mean you don't have post concussion syndrome. My CT and MRI were clean too, but I was diagnosed with it all the same. Another thing is I don't know how often you're taking aleve, but if you're taking it more than 2-3 times a week you might want to cut down on it or stop, because it can give you rebound headaches. Basically they're just killer headaches, but it's hard to tell because you already have headaches, and you might think your headaches are just getting worse. I had that happen with me on tylenol, but it can happen with most of those type of painkillers. It was horrible. Going off was bad, but ultimately my head felt better because of it. If you're looking for something to help short term (a few months), acupuncture helped me get through a lot of the pain. But if it's lasting longer than the usual 3ish months I would really recommend you see a neurologist or pain management specialist, because from what I understand for the post concussion syndrome acupuncture and chiropractors are more for pain relief, they don't confront the actual problems causing chronic pain.

Many chiropractors can resolve vertebral alignment problems that cause muscle spasms that cause the head aches.

What's your symptoms like?

I agree, sitting around doing nothing isn't going to help you recover. You should try to get out and at least get some sun and fresh air. The simplest thing, but you can't overlook how important that is. Honestly, from my experience it's the best thing for a concussion that lingers.

Get your diet in check, proteins, veg, no processed junk with additives.

I went off caffeine for ages after my concussion (I'm a tea drinker). Honestly felt it did nothing good for me. 'm definitely a person that doesn't like being told I can't do something, so just going back to my usual tea felt good.

I've just stayed off alcohol, but I'm not a big drinker anyway so don't really care.

Try Acetyl-L-Carnitine (500mg at Vitamin Shoppe). Plenty of studies backing this up, got the tip from guys at the gym, a few of them had used it in concussion recovery with good success. It certainly helped me, felt like my mental clarity came back a lot and my mood improved.

I was in bad shape in the summer, well on the way back now. Any other advice you need, feel free to buzz me.