Hi!

I am just wondering if you guys experience this too. When I have to interact socially, so like very often, I get an increase in my symptoms like really bad...I get head pressure, I am getting dizzy, get tingeling. For example when I am laughing everything is getting dizzy. It sucks, because I really wanna hang out with my host family and in general I don't want to avoid social situations.
I started wearing ear plugs in school and in school my symptoms really improved. I am less exhausted, have less symptoms...
I am with my friends a lot but I try to avoid to get in a huge debate because the day would suck after that. I start talking less and less with my class mates. They are confused and are seeing this as something awkward even if I explain it to them! I am getting really angry that nobody seems to understand. I would love to talk to you guys, I just can't!
At home, I am living with my host parents. When I skype with my friends or talk with them really excited, I just have to lean back and close my eyes because I am getting so exhausted. I hate it.
What do you guys do against this if you have it?

Hi Lui,
I have this too. What I have had to do is just visit with the family for as long as I can and then go lay down and rest awhile and then come back and visit. This is how I handle Christmas, Thanksgiving etc. At first the family was all concerned -where did you go? What's going on? I just kept telling them that this is what I have to do now. I get overstimulated and I start to suffer. Now they just think of it as normal. They know I get fatigue easy and need to check out and if I can I will check back in but i may not and that is ok too.
Don't worry they will come around. I explained it once to them and then not again. They likely don't understand what I go through but they understand if you just continue with the behavior. They will come to accept it. If not, they were not worth your time in the first place.

I have the same problem you describe. When I laugh and talk with people, I get really lightheaded/dizzy. Especially if the conversation gets intense. Sometimes I'll feel like I'm going to black out.

I haven't found anyway to work around it except not to laugh or talk so much. Wow, sounds like a lot of fun...huh? It's just something we have to live with.



Nick

Yes, my host family understands but it's just annyoing. used to be really social!

Thanks for your post. I really used to be very social but since my injury, not anymore. My neighbors are always checking in on me and I really wish they would stop. I know they care and have the best intentions but I really can't stand it.

I can't stand things on my head, face, etc... I get headaches with light, sound and people too close to me.

I basically culminate based on what I encounter in the day, sometimes I make I through a whole day, sometimes a couple hours. It takes me days to attempt administrative things because I dread organizing things like tax papers.

Oh, last week I drove to the mountains with my mom riding shotgun because I can't drive more than a half hour alone. I was watching the MPGs as I thought we were going down hill and I should have had hi MPGs but they were really low. I told my mom that since we were going down hill we should be using little gas. She informed me that we were going uphill....hmmmm. It is amazing how more is revealed with this TBI.