[BDNF]

He will be ordering the MRI, I am lucky to be seeing him so soon, he had a cancellation. He is meant to be one of the best in the country for TBI, he is also a professsor. My referral letter is very detailed, pretty much lists all my medical history so this should be good. I will update this thread with what he says, I'm also bringing my full list of symptoms along to the appointment.

[BDNF]

So the appointment was for longer than I expected, he did all these tests really quickly and smoothly. He then went through my symptoms and asked me about my history after reading about it. He told me that although he's not denying I have a TBI all my symptoms are psychological, I was pretty surprised to hear that, I asked him about nystagmua and he said it's psychological, that I'm focusing too hard when it happens.
He said there's no point to an MRI although he could order it hee advises against it as a waste of money.

He also said my prognosis is uncertain because I've had these issues for so long and they haven't resolved in time.

He recommended I get fit and see a psychologist for cognitive behavioral therapy and recommended me a few which are experienced with TBI induced psychological symptoms.

[SuperElectric]

So how do you feel about his diagnosis?

[Galaxy1012]

Originally Posted by BDNF

So the appointment was for longer than I expected, he did all these tests really quickly and smoothly. He then went through my symptoms and asked me about my history after reading about it. He told me that although he's not denying I have a TBI all my symptoms are psychological, I was pretty surprised to hear that, I asked him about nystagmua and he said it's psychological, that I'm focusing too hard when it happens.
He said there's no point to an MRI although he could order it hee advises against it as a waste of money.

He also said my prognosis is uncertain because I've had these issues for so long and they haven't resolved in time.

He recommended I get fit and see a psychologist for cognitive behavioral therapy and recommended me a few which are experienced with TBI induced psychological symptoms.

Ditto happened with me, and probably with millions around the world with mtbi. One of the reputed neurologists in my country told me that I am anxious so I am feeling the symptoms . he was a jerk and knew nothing about mtbi. He gave me xanax and dismissed me straight away.

In my opinion a psychiatrist understands mtbi better than most neuros, they are utter useless.once they label your symptoms as anxiety, it increases your load as people around you get brainwashed and manipulated and start thinking that its all in your mind and that's a terrible place to be as we all know!

Such is life with mtbi sadly

[BDNF]

Did the Xanax help?

I posted here about opiates helping symptoms, they help mine so it makes me agree that they are psychologIcal. I made a thread asking if opiates help because if they do a long with Xanax then wouldn't that suggest it is actually psychological?

[SuperElectric]

Xanax isn't an opiate, it's a benzodiazopine. They are highly addictive and act on the brain to artificially increase gaba. It's not a psychological process it's a psychoactive one, it is a physical effect.

[RidingRollerCoaster]

I don't really understand what is meant by "your symptoms are just caused by anxiety" or "your symptoms are just psychological". It's all brain chemistry isn't it? Anxiety is brain chemistry right? TBI changes our brain chemistry and causes the anxiety. So how can "we" be causing the anxiety which in turn is causing our symptoms. It's our TBI that caused the anxiety and the symptoms.

I guess what I am saying is that there are times where "we" don't control our thoughts, the chemistry controls our thoughts, and I think TBI is one of those times.

Maybe I am not making sense, but I can't really agree with the statement that it can just be all made up. I was never severely anxious before my TBI.

[Mark in Idaho]

This subject is complex. One can not just make narrow judgements about anxiety and TBI. Unfortunately, many health professionals try to.

Yes, anxiety can make TBI symptoms worse. But, TBI can seriously reduce the brains tolerance for stress resulting in anxiety. In some, this anxiety reaction can be completely random without a recognizable trigger. This causes doctors to comment that the problem is anxiety due to psychological causes.

Plus, anxiety can be self-perpetuating. A small amount of anxiety due to a frustrating symptom can be recognized and become an almost obsession. This causes the anxiety to increase magnifying the perception of that symptom.

Some times, a symptom is minor to the extend that in a normal situation, it would just be ignored as a minor inconvenience or not even noticed. But, once that symptom is connected to TBI, one can get focused on it and obsess about it. The TBI brain often struggles with obsessive thought and rigidity of thought. This means, it can be difficult to ignore a thought or even change ones mind about that issue. Some will find help from CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy). In CBT, the therapist helps the patient redirect the thought process when a negative or obsessive thought pops up.

For me, it is often a situation of: Something triggers a symptom. I recognize the symptom and often the trigger. Rather than get caught up in frustrating thought about the symptom, I accept that the symptom was triggered. Then, I convert that thought to : OK, I triggered this symptom. It will probably take x minutes for my brain to settle down if I do 'such and such.'

The important point is recognizing the symptom is real and will go away or reduce. Then, I take steps to help that symptom go away. Sometimes, I can not reduce the symptoms but I can move forward with an activity and ignore the symptom. We all need to learn our own tolerances and ways to redirect our thoughts.

When you read about people who succeed despite serious restricting factors, often they have found ways to keep moving forward. It might mean a student needs twice as much time to complete a degree. Or, someone needs to invent processes to get a task done that can not be done by normal processes.

I have a friend who has been a paraplegic since she was 11. Her parents tried to use leg braces and crutches so she could walk. Finally, she said enough. She quickly mastered living in a wheelchair and got on with her life. She graduated high school. Got married. Had a son who is now in college.

She lives a full life. Sure, she has her struggles but she adapts and moves forward.

I'm sure most of us know someone who has met similar challenges and moved on with their life.

For us, our challenges are with how our brain process and reacts to information and stimulation, etc. We can find ways to keep moving forward. Not every symptom can be cured nor needs to be cured to move forward with life.

We have support than many do not have. This should help us move forward.

[lyndianne]

These doctors are willfully ignorant. TBI , often MTBI, has become the signature wound of the recent wars and the military is beginning to lead the research on close

head injuries such as blast concussions. Here is a link to a research article on TBI. I think the first two pages are very relevant to this thread.
http://www.practicalpainmanagement.c...ation?page=0,1

It's a little thick and I can no longer delve into subjects the way I used to but this quote speaks to what really has taken place in our brains.
"The results provided evidence of altered cellular metabolic status after TBI and reflect edema, excitotoxicity, neuronal and glial integrity, mitochondrial status and bioenergetics, oxidative stress, inflammation, and cell membrane disruption."

The medications you name work because they are addressing altered brain chemicals following a brain injury. I am sure doctors do see many people that have another reason than

TBI for their symptoms, but for most of us who have a very real injury and to get blown off by doctors with a glib diagnosis is appalling. They should be ashamed at their failure to stay on top of current research.

[DudeWhoHitHisHead]

The neurologist is ignorant, as they often are. You need another doctor.

What he said about MRI is actually true. 1.5T MRI (the standard field strength of the scan) is very poor at picking up signs of damage from mild traumatic brain injury.

3T MRI and 7T MRI have a higher field strength and are therefore more likely to detect injury. Diffusion Tensor Imaging uses MRI to show axonal tracts and is actually really good at showing damage from mTBI. But it's pretty hard to get!

Nuclear SPECT imaging shows brain blood perfusion. Generally, patients with mTBI will show hypoperfusion or perfusion deficits corresponding with the injury, and its often rather global. Most doctors can't read them though unfortunately.

QEEG is also really good at picking up damage, and Mark raves about it for TBI - at least as a diagnostic tool.

RidingRollerCoaster, I very strongly support what you have said. You make perfect sense, it's all physiological in the end. The initial injury causes damage, and then secondary processes cause further injury as alluded to by lyndianne. The injured brain is then unable to function as it should causing a very wide range of problems.

As Mark has said, anxiety can appear spontaneously after mTBI as the brain is damaged and not functioning properly - I discuss more below. What psychologists would call "psychological" has a very real physiologic basis.

If you really want to look at it from a psychology perspective it's completely normal to get anxious and depressed about this level of damage to ones consciousness. This is probably the most horrific injury that you can get, short of something terminal, and often people take their own lives because life itself has become a living hell. I got close, thankfully I came back from the abyss. Getting depressed and anxious is normal, BUT, as I discovered you have to treat it.

Galaxy112, there are drugs that are good for TBI and those that aren't. Benzodiazepines (Xanax being one) are contraindicated for TBI as they interfere with recovery - you don't want anything that binds to the GABAa receptors. That Dr was foolish to prescribe this for you. Are you still on the Xanax?

Interestingly Gabapentin and Pregabalin are fine despite being designed to mimic the chemical structure of the neurotransmitter GABA - not binding to GABAa receptors. Apparently they affect voltage-dependent calcium channels in the central nervous system, which is why they are very helpful for some pain conditions. They are also very relaxing

BDNF, some of the physiological problems that can be caused by traumatic brain injury:
[LIST][*]Damage to brain tissue (white and grey matter)[*]Reduced production of important neurotransmitters such as serotonin[*]Hormone Deficiency[*]Failure in regulating brain blood flow[*]Imbalance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system[LIST]

These (and others I'm sure I've missed), lead to all the symptoms we get. The brain can heal itself to some extent, and you can treat a lot of these problems. And it's only getter better, but it seems most Doctors are not up to date.

There are two different types of treatment for TBI, one addresses the damage to tissue, the others improve the functioningof the brain. Do not dismiss functional treatment, though it is obviously very important to repair the structural damage if you can. Please see my post in the thread titled "Need Answers Please" where I discuss hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and briefly stem cells for this purpose.

The brain also has the ability to heal itself somewhat over time too, and it was discovered recently that hyperbaric oxygen is merely acting on a whole bunch of regenerative genes, essentially as a form of gene therapy. Watch this video if you're interested, the sound quality is terrible I'm sorry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm61cbhivs4

So after addressing the structural damage as best you can you then need to optimise the functioning of your various processes in the central nervous system.

Hormone production is often affected by TBI, and I would recommend you look up Dr Mark Gordon. Checkout this Joe Rogan podcast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbxPxFiOIKc

It's a fantastic podcast, really really good and I clicked with what the vet said about just not being yourself. I am unfortunately not in America at the moment, so don't have access to Dr Gordon, but hopefully this will change as I would love to get all my hormone levels tested.

Neurotransmitters can be altered through drug therapy, though this is quite polarising, some are very against anti-depressents. I was for most of my life, now I think that it's just like altering hormone levels, and should be done cautiously.

If you are anxious and depressed, which I'd be surprised if you weren't, there are many things that can be done. I have had a fantastic experience with Sertraline, it has made me happy again and eliminated a lot of my anxiety. It has even improved my cognitive function, which will definitely be lowered by depression and anxiety. Meditation is also helpful, however honestly I found the drugs better CBT can be helpful apparently, though I have no personal experience in this area.

If you are having problems regulating brain blood flow, and problems with imbalance of sympathetic and parasympathetic, there is a very easy test and training program to fix this. It's summarised as "The Buffalo Protocol". Here's a webinar provided by Dr Leddy on the subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRS8ZqiL060

See the Vitamins Sticky, this will help your brain in it's self-healing somewhat. Though if you are looking to take SSRIs, be careful to not take any supplement that is a MAOI, such as curcumin or rhodiola. Many herbs have a MAOI effect so it's pretty dicey sometimes.

There are even drugs that have a strong neuroprotective effect if taken immediately after TBI. First and foremost is NAC, or N-acetyl cysteine. During my research over the past 9 months I have found many other promising ones too but I use NAC as my go to neuroprotective. Here is the initial case study showing amazing results:

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/art...l.pone.0054163

Admittedly the study only came out last year, but I'm still angry the medical profession was not aware of this sooner - and other neuroprotectives. I strongly believe that if I had followed the regimen prescribed in the NAC study, I wouldn't have wasted 8 months of my life living in hell.