I've lingered on these forums for a while now and thought I would register and introduce myself.

I am currently 31, an accountant, married to a beautiful wife who is also 31.
I've been dealing with persistent tension headaches, anxiety, and depression since my second head injury in March 2013.

While psychologist visits, naturopathic treatments and lifestyle changes have helped to manage the anxiety and depression, the headaches persist and they seem to be getting worse and the relief time from symptoms seems to be decreasing.

Physical and mental activity will increase the pressure but it is rarely painful, although the instances where I would classify it as painful are increasing.

I tried chiropractic treatment and that didn't work.

I am currently seeing an osteopath but that doesn't seem to be working either.

I honestly feel like I've totally screwed up my future by hurting my head.

My main concerns are:

I likely won't get a promotion at work which I am close to getting if I take time off.

I may not be able to continue working in an intellectual field if I don't recover

I'm no longer that fun to be around because I can't do as much as I used to

It's causing tension in my marriage because my wife doesn't completely understand what I'm going through (she's been great and I can't complain because there's no way I would get it either if it was her going though this)

I don't enjoy life like I used to because all the things I enjoy (fitness, sports, video games, concerts, festivals, etc. just aggravate my headaches)

I'll never get to be a father as I have no desire to start a family while I feel this way. How some people are suffering though PCS with while raising children - I have no idea how you do it.

Here is the long version of how I got here. I'll completely understand if it's too long to read

Hopefully I can find some advice and encouragement here and I'll try and provide the same for others.


July 2012

Passed out at a concert and fell forward, hitting the front of my head on the ground. I passed out for a minute or two. I woke up very scared and likely had a massive panic attack. I though I was dying basically. Got checked out at the medical tent and they said I was fine, just dehydrated. I chugged a few gatorades and went home. This happened on a Saturday afternoon.

I was very anxious for the rest of the weekend and barely made it though the first half of work day on Monday due to anxiety. I also had a numbness / tingling in my head that would get worse if I got anxious. On my lunch break I got checked out by a doctor and was told I was fine. By the end of the day Tuesday the anxiety had gone away and by Wednesday things were back to normal .. or so I thought. I went back to my busy work / social life and resumed daily running and workouts and did not feel any physical symptoms with the exception that if I drank a lot my hangovers were much worse and would give rise to anxiety which would last a day or two and then subside.

Feb 2013

I was walking back to my desk at work and suddenly felt like I was going to pass out. I'm assuming it was a panic attack but I'm still not sure. I was anxious for two more days and went back to the doctor to get checked out. He said everything was fine and just like in July 2012 things went back to normal after a day or so.

March 2013

About a week after the panic attack I hit my head pretty bad snowboarding. I caught an edge and whipped backwards and hit the back of my head (I was wearing a helmet). I didn't pass out and I popped up and snowboarded for about 2 more hours. This was a Thursday night.

I went snowboarding again on Saturday and worked all day Sunday. I woke up Monday morning with numbness around my left temple. This obviously scared the crap out of me but I figured it might be just anxiety and to push though it. I worked for 2 more weeks and the numbness stayed. It was worse while at work.

Apr - July 2013

I continued working full time despite being anxious pretty much every day and experiencing the same numbness around my left temple. I slowed down my exercise routine out of fear of PCS even though I was able to pass all the basic tests that my doctor performed. I started seeing a psychologist and naturopath to deal with my Anxiety and subsequent depression as a result of my symptoms. My general doctor was pretty much useless and just tried to give me antidepressants. I also noticed that my left jaw would crackle and click although it was not painful.

Aug 2013

The numbness in my left temple started to get worse and would actually get painful. It also started to occur around the left temple until it was pretty much a full-time tension headache (felt like I was wearing a very tight headband)

Because of the headaches I stopped working out as I figured that might help them go away.

Sept 2013 - Apr 2014

I've basically soldiered on continuing to work full time and I've resumed light workouts and walking to help keep me sane. I have good days and bad days and every couple of weeks I get frustrated and cry - rinse and repeat.

Cheers.

Mojoe,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. If you have been loitering, what have you already learned from other posts ? Have you started the vitamin and supplements regimen ? Have you had any gentle therapy for your upper neck ? Do you have tender spots behind your ears ?

Have you wife view the You Look Great video series listed at the bottom of the first post in the Vitamins sticky at the top.

Chiro and osteo therapies are not cures. They just help you reduce inflammation so you can slowly start to heal. They both require 'homework' to limit re-inflamming the areas of inflammation. Icing and good neck posture, especially during sleep and rest and when doing anything strenuous is very important.

Nobody has a healing therapy. They can just help you so you can heal.

The most important thing for you is to lower the stressors in your life. You write with too much anxiety. This is a common symptom. Letting go of the things you can't do right now is important. You can be concerned about them once you have been able to be less stressed and work on healing. Stress is the worst thing to delay recovery.

L-Tryptophan and L-Theanine may help you tolerate stress better along with the B vitamin regimen.

Please let us know what you have tried yourself. Doctors will not offer you much of value.

Regarding the feeling of passing out and such, You may have a vasovagal sensitivity. I doubt it was an anxiety attack.

My best to you.

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the reply.

I will check out the sticky topics when my symptoms aren't as bad. Today was a pretty bad day as evidenced by the anxiety in my first post.

I think my anxiety is a result of the disconnect between who I am right now and who I used to be and me wanting to get being that person so badly.

I'm just worried that all my hard work and financial investments (several years of school to land a good job / career) will never pay off because I could have possibly permanently damaged my brain which is the main thing that I rely on to be successful.

I will run the vitamins by my naturopath next time I see her. The main goal when first seeing her was to get the anxiety and depression under control and then deal with the physical symptoms.

I took relora-plex which is a plant extract that is supposed to help with anxiety (no longer taking) as well as Relax-Maxx which contains Intisol and GABA which are supposed to help with stress management.

With regards to stress, I have drastically altered my approach to work and life, and have attempted to become better at planning at not leaving things to the last minute to alleviate stress. I was always someone who left things to the last minute and thrived by doing so. The biggest blessing that has come out of my injury is that I've realized that just because I could handle stress in the past, why should I subject myself to it when it's avoidable for the most part.

I also take a tea spoon of fish oil with a few drops of vitamin D every day.

I also used Cognisure but stopped taking it as it was expensive and I really do not feel all that slowed down mentally. I can still perform complex problem solving, it takes me a bit longer and obviously I don't have the mental stamina that I used to.

I find that as the mental symptoms subside that the physical symptoms are getting worse or perhaps I am just able to feel them more.

I have considered starting SSRI's to maybe help calm myself down and reduce stress further as maybe it will give me a better chance at recovery. I am just worried about becoming permanently dependant on a pill for the rest of my life as I have witnessed my mother battle a pretty bad pill addiction in the past.

By reading some posts I have learned that I do not have it as bad as others and it's alarming that some have had symptoms for 3-5 years, perhaps longer.

Also, I forgot to mention that I've quit coffee cold turkey this week and replaced it with green tea at the advice of the osteopath so I've been dealing with withdrawl headaches as well as the tension headaches.

I'm hoping that cutting out caffeine will help in the long run.

I am not trying to knock your naturopath but brain nutrition is quite an elementary concept. You should have been directed to the basics long ago. The fancy concoctions are usually overpriced for the nutrients they provide. It is not uncommon for naturopaths to sell these over-priced concoctions.

I suggest starting with the Vitamins and Supplements basics. The L-Tryptophan and L-Theanine work "with" your system to help with stress. Straight GABA does not get into your system properly. I would highly recommend them before trying an SSRI. SSRI's can be a miserable existence.

Regarding permanently damaging your brain. Yes you did. Any brain damage is permanent. BUT, that does not mean one can not overcome the limits the damage has caused. Plus, most of the permanent damage only manifests when under stress, not during normal low stress activities. So, the key thing for you is to get control of your anxiety levels. It does not sound like you have suffered any cognitive or memory problems. Slowed processing is not as problematic as the others.

A very common injury is to the part of the brain that filters out stimuli. It is important because too much stimuli getting into the cognitive processing center can cause a difficulty focusing and staying on task. Reducing over-stimulation can be a big help with this.

So, get started with the basics. You likely have weeks before you will start to see a difference. Good brain nutrition starts by helping your brain detoxify. Only then can it start to heal.

You have lots of time ahead to get your career going. Take it slow and you will be fine.

My best to you.

Thanks Mark,

I've booked a naturopath follow up for next week and I'll bring the list of vitamines and see what she has to say.

Again, my main issue was anxiety when I first met her and that was my main symptom. My headaches weren't as bad last August when I first met her.

Hopefully now we can focus on healing my brain and getting me back to somewhat normal.

I've also started an excel spreadsheet to help track my activity levels, diet, mood, symptoms, treatments, etc.

A big issue is getting a doctor to prescribe rest from work and collect disability. I've got a mortgage and bills to pay so stopping work without disability income isn't much of an option right now.

My general doctor prescribed me celexa and told me to exercise more on my last visit so I've kind of given up on her.

I visited a sports medicine doctor and she said that I should just keep working because I have been for the last year. She offered me a prescription that I would take daily to help me sleep which would help alleviate some of my symptoms (which I didn't fill but may consider next time I see her - I used to be able to sleep like a rock. Not so much anymore)

I'm hoping that if I gather a month's worth of data that demonstrates that my symptoms aren't improving that I can get prescribed some time off work.

In the meantime, starting yesterday I've decided to take the following actions and see if they help.

1.

At work no more listening to music and pod casts while I problem solve (I'm very used to multitasking and I'm sure that isn't good for the healing process).

Instead of music I'm trying just ocean sounds as I like having my headphones in to drown out any talking that is going on around me

2.

Weeknights - limit TV to one hour or less

3.

No Video games until I am symptom free

4.

Weekends - as much rest as possible. I've spoken to my wife about this and she is on board. This means the patio I was planning to put in this weekend will have to wait.

I will still attempt to do social things as I need the exposure therapy for my anxiety and these also reduce stress. I will just pick things that don't last as long and are more relaxing. For example, we have my nephews birthday and then we were going to go to a food festival which would have been all day. Instead we are just doing the birthday party which will be about 3 hours instead of all day.

5.

Driving - I would always drive everywhere. For longer drives my fiance will drive all or at least some of the distance so that I can relax. I find driving relaxing so this is actually a tough one to let go of.

You have a wife and a fiance' ? LOL.

Try to limits the sounds/voice exposure at the social events. Being in a room with lots of people carrying on different conversations is very taxing on the brain.

About multitasking. It has been shown to be detrimental to healthy brains. Just because some brains tolerate multitasking does not make multitasking a valid way to work. If you need to drown out ambient sounds and voices, pick music that is something you know. The brain can easily relax to known stimuli.

I would be more concerned about driving in congested traffic. A longer drive without traffic congestion should not be too stimulating/taxing.

I am surprised your naturopath did not start you on a brain nutrition regimen when you needed help with anxiety. Anxiety is taxing on the brain and a brain with poor nutrition is more prone to anxiety. So.... brain nutrition should be a first step.

I make that mistake often. Just got married in November.

It took me forever to get used to saying fiance and then it switched to wife. I should have that one down by next year

One thing that Mark had me try to help with anxiety was a mindless task... some sort of game like solitaire or candy crush... it does calm me down for sure... it may be because I forget things quickly and when I am doing a mindless task I forget why I was upset or anxious in the first place...

I find this works for me. I get stuck into rutted thoughts, be they anxious or angry ones. Distracting myself with a mindless task helps me sort of, reboot, my brain.

I keep decks of cards, circle a word puzzles, etc..., spread out around the house.