Sorry for bringing this thread up again, but I think it would be better posting on this thread instead of proceeding on to make a whole new one. I have an extra question on this matter that I don't believe I got answered, it's really just concerning the occurrence of pressure in the head when a fast head turning happens. Is this some form of injury to the brain? Or is it an irritation of the blood circulation getting messed up from turning/shaking too quickly and too sudden, maybe the inner ear crystals getting shaken? I noticed when it inevitably happens from time to time, if it's severe enough, a tingling pressure happens in the head and my head also starts to heat up. Pretty sure the heating process is simply the product of my anxiety emerging from the act, but I'd still like to hear some of your thoughts on this matter. Can it really be injury, or does it just feel as such? I mean I think we've all had that head jerk caused by our own neck movement due to the speed of the turn exceeding our expectation for various reasons (ex. getting scared resulting in a quick jerk backwards or head turn, exercise etc.) Anyways, I just wanted to know if that tingling pressure is a normal thing to experience, and if there should be any reason to worry?

There is no reason to worry. Many of these feeling were happening before the concussion but were just ignored. Now that the concussion has caused a focus on these feelings, they become noticeable and sometimes even exaggerated due to anxiety.

report this to your doctor. Did you get an MRI of the head and neck initially? If not, one may be helpful. If you have an unidentified Chiari malformation at the base of your skull, sudden movement may compress it and the upper spinal column.

No I don't have any serious issues like that. It's just that I've read some of you can get a concussion by as much as a simple shaking of the head due to the cumulative injuries building up apparently, even road bumps, I mean wow! Now, that I know of, I have only sustained 1 mild concussion during my life and my research has lead me to believe that since it's over 7 years ago, the odds are no longer increased of me sustaining another one as opposed to an uninjured person. When searching on shaking of the head and concussion, nothing solid can really be found on the matter. The closest I could come to anything was headbanging and that's a bit too violent an act to describe my scenario. Even then they state it's most likely to happen by forward and backward motion/jerking, up and down, contrary to rotational jerking, side to side turning. Now why is that? Is there more space for the brain in the front and back of the inner skull? Is the brain tight fitting in the sides of the skull? Some people say that as you grow older your brain grows into proportion to fit the size of your skull. So why can it still bang around in there by shaking? Not that it's important to know why, what I really wanna know is if jerking/shaking can reach the equivalent of 50 G's while slamming into the skull so it actually produces a concussion as seen with direct impacts. I know linear and rotational forces use different measuring techniques, but just in overall comparison.

Now with shaking, up and down is apparently the most damaging. But one thing I can't wrap my head around, is if for example a boxer hits someone on the jaw and he rotates his head, it has a much higher risk of severe damage. Now why is that then? Is it because the head both goes up while simultaneously rotating, or is it really more damaging to rotate your head rather than shaking it up and down? Or is it simply because it's a whole different case when direct impact is involved?

Why is it that the newest research indicate that headbanging is more likely to give you a stroke before giving you an mTBI such as concussion? Since the shakes I've had is nowhere near that of continuing head bangish behavior, I'm calm. But of course I'm anxious to know if it can be counted on. There is nearly nothing to be found about the relation of concussion and violent head shaking behavior, only baby shaken syndrome of course but that's it. I've had a hard time getting any solid info on this phenomenon.

Have people here said that?

I've always understood those messages (e.g. road bumps) to mean that bumps like that can sometimes in some people exacerbate their symptoms rather than "get a concussion"

Hey guys I'm going to piggyback on this thread for my question. My last event was in October and, by and large, I've felt quite recovered from it. I've mentioned before (long time ago when I first started posting) that I work retail and of course our busiest time just ended. We wound up short staffed so I ended up having to work a lot of long hours (16 hours by myself on the 23rd for example) but aside from being exceedingly tired I feel I came through it pretty well.

Fast forward to this morning and I woke up with fuzzy vision and overall sleepiness. I have no memory of hitting my head other than light taps that didn't hurt or anything. All I can think of is when I get ready for the day I have my hair wrapped in a towel, I bend over and kind of wring it out and then take the towel off and kind of whip my head back up. I can't believe that's enough to do something but in reading this thread maybe it is. Does anybody have any thoughts? I'm pretty concerned because I was off work for 4 months last year and I just don't know how tolerant they'll be if this continues, not mention the financial angle.

Thanks in advance.

Whipping your head can be stressful to your neck. Plus, there can be plaques in the vertebral arteries that can become dislodged and cause trouble from the neck movement.

Then, a poor nights sleep can cause these symptoms, too.

The upside down to right side up in a quick movement can be too much for the vestibular system for some.

I suggest you reduce the forces when you whip your head back, just as a precaution.

Socks,

I haven't tried that but t I know my head would not tolerate it currently.

Bud

Well, guess it's already my turn to bring this thread back from the dead, yet again! My concern this time revolves around whipping your head back an forth instead of turning it side to side. So in a way, I'm worrying about the opposite, at least in form of directions. So if for example you stand still, look up in the air quickly followed by a quick look back to the ground, would this up an down movement with the body standing still, cause cumulative injury resulting in sub concussive blows? Or does it take a bit of force to cause that too? I mean in headbanging you use the body to create extra force of some sort, what if you're simply standing still and only using your head to look up and down really quickly. If it were to cause cumulative injury sometimes by doing this, wouldn't it take hundreds to thousands of times in a relative short time span for problems to arise? I mean it's pretty much impossible to give a full blown concussion from simply looking up in the sky fast or down at the ground fast, right? Think about if were scared for example, if a ball is over our head about to hit us, I guess our body unconsciously does a fast movement to look up with out heads. I have OCD, so I easily get scared by any fast movement of my head, so I have to do it consciously several times after with even faster movement, to ensure that no symptoms other than anxiety appears. So I'm just worried if I've made it all worse and causing countless of sub concussive blows.

To summarize, I remember I got told on here that fast backward or forward motion with the head could cause cumulative injury tearing axons, but isn't that only with headbanging type of behavior where their whole upper body is in motion to produce the required force? What if you only use your head fast up and down, similar to turning your head side to side, the only difference is the linear and rotational factors here. Whipping up/down is linear, turning side to side is rotational, is there any difference in terms of potential dangers of the two? Am I gonna be okay from these couple of super fast up/down head movements with the neck?

Hi minimac,

I'm reposting a part of what I wrote to you on your "Leaning head up against wall" thread from just over a week ago.

In that thread you were recreating the action of your head banging against a wall - a compulsive sounding behaviour. In this post you're recreating other types of head movements.

My edited post to you below.

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You sound as if you're stuck in a loop.

You mentioned OCD in your first post I'm wondering if you've been diagnosed with OCD prior to head injury.

If your head injury was 7 years ago, I wonder if you've been in this loop for 7 years and have just found an outlet here to vent it or have these worries and concerns just started?

>

Your posts read as if you're stuck. You are recreating scenarios in your head and in reality to test situations and so your obsessive thinking is no longer just obsessive thinking, it's now playing out into compulsions.

Obsessions are thoughts.
Compulsions are actions

Obsessive thoughts grow and grow until there is some temporary relief by acting out the compulsion.

(having said that some people just have obsessive thinking but don't have the compulsive part but your posts suggest you're acting out scenarios)

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I know you have said you have a family member who is a Psychologist, but I'm wondering if you see a professional counsellor for support and if you are having any type of treatment for your OCD - medication or CBT or something else? If you're not, then it might be really worthwhile doing that to save yourself so much anguish.

I'm also curious if you have Motor Tics as well as your OCD?