Klaus,

Your sensitivity to light jolting is a result of your autonomic nervous system going haywire. Your brain is constructed in a way that you have your limbic brain (aka reptilian brain or primitive brain) that is there to regulate all of the things our bodies do that we don't think about like digesting food, your heart beating, etc. It's also there to protect us from danger i.e. it controls your "fight or flight" response. The other part of your brain is your outer cortex which is involved in higher functioning like sight, reasoning, thinking, talking, listening, etc. A region in this part of your brain is called the frontal cortex and this is responsible for very high levels of function. In other words, this is the part of our brain that makes us human. This part of your brain is responsible for inhibiting your limbic brain; it acts as sort of a control mechanism and filters out the signal from your limbic brain. When you have a brain injury, in some people, your frontal cortex can no longer handle it's job of filtering the limbic brain and as a result, your limbic brain is allowed to go haywire.

So, when you get a slight jolt or something, your limbic brain automatically sends off signals that you are in very grave danger and this starts a cascade in your brain that will cause you symptoms. It is impossible for you to do any damage to your brain physically by these slight jolts but that doesn't mean that you don't do damage to your brain psychologically. When these signals are sent out, they are sent out via neurotransmitters and what could be happening (of course no one has proved this) is that your brain changes and becomes more sensitive to the neurotransmitters that cause the flight or fight response and hence, you become more sensitive to any bumps or jolts.

Now, I suffered from this as well for about 4 years and I fortunately was able to overcome it. I fixed it in a couple of ways. First, I discovered that I was suffering from hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue, both that are common in people with head injuries. Your adrenal system actually plays a huge role in the scenario I mentioned above. So, I got both of those systems treated and this helped immensely. Second, I did some neurofeeback directly onto my frontal cortex and strengthened that part of my brain to be able to handle any stress my body may incur. Third, I did some HBOT as well and this also helped with the sensitivity. Fourth, I also did some balance training to try and get my vestibular system back in order. Finally, I went to an upper cervical chiropractic specialist who put my neck back in order so that my neck could go back to being the shock absorber it's supposed to be.

I am now about 80-90% recovered and although big bumps and jostles still bother me a little bit, I am able to handle the small to medium bumps and jostles that I wasn't able to handle before.

Hope this helps.

M

Colorrado Mike,

I agree than some may have the fight or flight response to jolts but for many of us, it is a physiological trauma. The fight or flight response cause a different sequelea to manifest. The adrenaline response if completely different than the non-anxiety confusion many of us experience.

I know how to recover from the flight or fight response. It is a cakewalk compared to recovering from the decompensation caused by the jolts. As Klaus said, it can take weeks to months to recover from a jolt, depending on the intensity or repetitiveness of the jolt. The other concussion symptoms that manifest from the jolt are not associated with the flight or fight response.

Many of us have very sensitive brains that react to very mild movements. I can give myself a concussion, or sub-concussive impact that causes immediate symptoms, simply by shaking my head No. A ride down a bumpy road can do me in.

Those of you who do not have these overly sensitive to movement brains are very fortunate. You likely do not have the cumulative number of concussions and sub-concussive impacts that some of us have.

Mark in Idaho,

Very true and I neglected to mention that in my post. Mine was also a physiological response that I have been able to mostly heal from - like I said, I still have problems with big jolts or bumps. Before I healed my brain, I would get bumped and have to shut things down for a day and sometimes even a couple of days. It felt like I had just had another concussion. One time, it took me a entire week to recover.

I believe the key to healing this is a matter of trying to get any inflammation in our brains reduced significantly or completely eliminated. From my research, I think that our brains lose the ability to handle inflammation. And surprisingly, a physical trauma can actually set of an inflammatory response in our brains. So I think the inability to control inflammation is why we become more susceptible to further concussions.

If we can get this under control via hormone therapy and neurorehabilitation, I believe we can reduce our sensitivity to bumps and jostles.

M

So you are saying that this symptom is likely to manifest in people who have had lots of concussions, rather than one bigger brain injury? I certainly fit that category. Is that the experience of other people who have this symptom?

Klaus,

It's hard to definitely make any statements regarding brain injuries. I know a guy who had one concussion and his brain is super sensitive to jostling and bumping. On the other hand, John Elway has had 21 concussions and his brain seems just fine. For those of you who don't follow football, he was a hall of fame QB for the Denver Broncos, a very successful business man and now he is the Executive VP for the Broncos.

Mark is right though in that your chances of developing a sensitive brain greatly increase with the number of concussions you get.

I wanted to chime in. I'm around 8 months post-concussion. I have sensitivity, but I've noticed some improvement in the past month or two. I used to be very sensitive to any kind of jostling--for the first few months merely shaking my head would reproduce this sensitivity. Going over speed bumps in a car would do it for a while, or merely taking "hard" steps, such as down the stairs. These activities do not now produce as much sensitivity. I am hoping that eventually this will go away, but this whole process is so pain-stakingly slow that I am not optimistic.

Hmm. Good info in this topic. Thanks.

I have been feeling something similar. Yesterday I was in the car and my fiance stopped quickly and I instantly got a headache. It was like I hit my head without actually hitting anything. The pain didn't last long, but it was definitely an annoyance for about 15 mins.

My daughter is also very fragile. She can walk now, but car rides, plane rides, subway or other vibrations (even loud sound vibrations,) cause major symptoms.

She missed a couple of stairs and landed on the floor, but it seemed no big deal. Then with in a week, all of the concussion symptoms came back. Another time, I braked too hard in the car, and it was a slight whiplash motion, but that set her back for a few weeks too. It seems that any slight head motion, even gentle dancing, sets her symptoms back. She is worried that this will limit her life forever, and I really don't know what to say.

There is a reason to consider the whiplash as also a cause of some returning symptoms. The sudden braking in a car can cause both a traumatic movement to the brain and a strain to the neck.

It appears that Colorrado is trying to hold to the idea that concussion symptoms are only due to the bio-chemical cascade that manifests.

The physical trauma to the axons and dendrites has been imaged. I posted a link to an article of such imaging last week.

I believe these physical traumas leave the axons and dendrites sensitive to the rapid changes in motion. It does not take much strain to cause the confusion that often follows these jolts.