It's been a while since I've posted here, mostly because I realized that frequenting neurotalk was only exacerbating my anxiety. I returned to school in February (grad student) and have been TAing a class and getting back into research this semester. Things have been sort of steadily getting slightly better. I certainly didn't get a lot worse from the semester work, but still am not feeling a whole lot better. My main issues are still constant headaches and visual info processing deficits that make reading somewhat difficult.

I've been getting neurofeedback for a couple months now, and the practitioner tried something slightly different last week that I actually think helped (something that doesn't often happen after the bajillion things I've tried), as I'd been feeling better that I have in quite a while last week. I handled a day long symposium on Friday well, which I took as a good sign.

Then today I hit my head on a heavy water balloon that was hanging from a string (helping set up for a party). My head was moving pretty fast as I was stepping up onto a porch. I feel silly thinking this could've done something as it was a water balloon, but it was pretty heavy and my head hit it fairly hard. I've had a worse headache there since, and have generally felt more fatigued than usual (and more anxious, but I'm not panicking or anything).

I just get extremely discouraged after these head bumps, as in the past 15 months all my setbacks seem to be caused by these dumb bumps or falls, and it generally takes me a while to get back. It seems like every time I get a good groove going and see a light at the end of the tunnel some dumb thing happens and I feel worse. I'm worried because this one feels a bit worse than the dumb bumps I've had the past few months. It was right on the middle-top of my head, where I had a head about a year ago on a ceiling that definitely did something as I haven't felt as good as I felt before that hit since then.

I guess I don't really know why I'm posting, just looking for some support/encouragement (or talking sense into me that a freaking water balloon can't cause a setback).

Did the water balloon break ?

No, it didn't break. Just bounced off my head. Headache is getting worse unfortunately.

I'm trying not to get anxious about it, but this feels fairly bad. As always, I don't know if my anxiety is causing it or if it's real, but I'm not viscerally feeling anxious. I've got a full week of grading final exams ahead of me too, and supposed to travel to a conference in a week...

In my opinion, it is anxiety with a strong dose of startle response.

Thanks for the opinion. I really hope it's just anxiety, but the balloon was quite full and my head was moving pretty fast. I mean it seems absurd to me that a water balloon could hurt my head, but presumably some force was transferred to my head. This just seems to have effected me more than other recent bumps/jolts.

Can the experience of anxiety cause setbacks? I haven't had a panic attack or really felt viscerally anxious in nearly a year, but I still have obsessive/spiralling thoughts from time to time, especially after a head bump or if I generally just feel bad). I'm getting better at dealing with them, but I've by no means mastered my anxiety.

I can understand a full-blown panic attack or viscerally feeling anxious all the time causing chemical stress in the brain, but just obsessive thinking/negativity without a visceral response causing a setback seems less intuitive to me.

Ive become quite clumsy and have hit my head numerous times since my accident. Hit it on doorways, freezers all kinds of stupid stuff. Always my headache got worse from anxiety :P

With some quick napkin calculating of G forces, if the water balloon moved and deflected a few inches, there is no way you would have experienced more than 3 or 4 G's. You can experience that much walking down stairs.

As I said, the startle response can be quite a contributor to a return of symptoms. But, they are anxiety related.

It makes sense to me that it's just anxiety related, but it seems so easy just to chalk it up to anxiety and dismiss that something actually might have been shaken up. If it were just anxiety, wouldn't it just exacerbate my "normal" headaches, not create new ones where I bumped my head?

I'm also feeling a lot less anxious now, but not a whole lot better (thankfully a little better though, but I was feeling so good last week, and am not close to that now). If it's just anxiety shouldn't the symptom exacerbation recede as I become less anxious?

The anxiety will cause a cascade of chemistry imbalances that will need to normalize once the anxiety is resolved. I would bet it will take up to two weeks for this to resolve. That is why it is important to have processes in place to reduce anxiety responses before they get out of hand.

The inflammatory responses to anxiety can be as bad as inflammation caused by physiological trauma. This is why good B-12 levels plus the other brain health nutrition is so valuable.