[ProAgonist]

Today at school, my friend slapped the back of my neck. I panicked for a second, then I quickly calmed down and asked him to not repeat it (asked him not to slap the back of my neck again).

A few minutes later, I got hit in the head with an empty Coca-Cola plastic bottle (someone threw this empty plastic bottle and it hit me in the left side of my head). I again panicked, but the guy who threw the bottle immediately came to apologize and I calmed down shortly after he apologized.

When I got into the class for a lesson after the break, I started feeling foggy and felt detached from the lesson. A lesson before that I felt fine, but in the lesson after these two impacts I had brain fog, a headache, and I just felt really bad. The brain fog was especially bad and I felt like the material was harder to grasp than it was before these impacts (because of the brain fog).

About 2 hours have passed since these hits to my head have happened, and I still feel quite bad.

Is it possible that these hits to my head were strong enough in order to cause sub-concussive impacts? If these hits were not strong enough to cause sub-concussive impacts, why do I feel so bad? I calmed myself down right after it happened, so it's probably not anxiety.

So, could it be that I got sub-concussive impacts from these hits to my head?

Thanks,
-ProAgonist

[TheNorwegian]

I know how you feel - I also experience symptoms from minor hits. I am no expert, and I dont know the force/speed of the hits but to me it definetily dont sound like concussions or sub-concussive impacts, but Mark is better at explaning this.

One thing I am sure of is that you suffer from Anxiety - because you write you have OCD, but also from the way you write etc.

I myself is having OCD and I am pretty sure that my OCD is the biggest of my problems and that the OCD is making my PCS 10 times worse. If I was you I would find a good specialist in Anxiety/OCD that you trust and who does CBT, if you dont already have one. It takes time, but I guarantee you, that if you are committed your OCD will improve.

I cant tell you why you react to small impacts but I think it could be because your brainstem/reptile brain is in fight/flight mode and therefore tightens your muscles when something like this happens.

You write that you calmed down quickly after the hits, but you have a belief that theese small impacts can perhaps hurt you and therefore your reptile brain reacts, maybe because you temporarely made a conditioned reflex. I think that is what happens to me when I am exposed to small hits.

It could also be, that you have a subtle upper neck injury that reacts because you where startled.

Anyway, I am no expert (and sorry for my bad english), but perhaps you can use some of the above. You are young and you will improve but I think the best you can do is by start working on you anxiety. Also improve your sleep patterns, exercise, eat healthy etc.

The Norwegian:-)

[JBuckl]

Lots of us have the same problem.

I've read a numbers of your posts. It's something that you just have to accept or it's worse than it should--this head sensitivity.

Since you say it's not anxiety that's a good thing and a good start to the acceptance. Once you accept it then you can worry less over your head.

It's no fun as you know but it could always be worse.

Good luck.

[Mark in Idaho]

ProAgonist,

This is an anxiety reaction. The empty plastic CocaCola bottle was just a startle reaction. The slap was too. You say you calmed yourself down but that is not good enough. Your anxiety had already started the cascade of chemicals that causes symptoms. You resolved the most visible part but that is all.

As I have said before, even if these were subconcussive impacts, it takes hundreds of sub-concussive impacts to cause a cumulative injury. One or two is just life.

The simple fact is. You need to teach yourself that these simple 'contacts' are meaningless. You need to believe this to the point that you do not react to them at all. You need to find a way to reduce your startle response. That is an anxiety issue.

You suffer more impact to your head walking down a flight of stairs. Your head can easily tolerate this level of force.

I wonder if your 'friends' are truly friends. Are they targeting you because they know they will get a reaction from you ? If so, that is not a true friend. Maybe you need to establish a "Don't touch me" rule.

[Bud]

Pro,

I believe we learn responses to certain things.

In the beginning when I head was disturbed we did suffer genuine repurcussions...now I believe I have learned responses to certain incidents and or feelings.

Bud

[Laupala]

The million-dollar question then becomes how do we unlearn these responses?

[Mark in Idaho]

First, I think we have to learn and convince ourselves that these contacts/bumps are not causing damage. As I said, walking down stair has more impact energy transmitted to the head than most of these contacts.

Second, we have to accept that life has these contacts/bumps no matter how much we try to avoid them.

Third, If one of these bumps is strong enough to cause some even minor level of trauma, we cannot reverse time and undo that event. The only control we have is over what we do moving forward.

To modify the phrase HITS HAPPEN

We can't go live in a cave. Even if we could, we'd probably bump our heads on the cave walls.

Many of us have become focused on our injuries because they took so long to recover from. For some, that recovery may have been made longer by anxiety and focusing on the minor issues.

We have to be truthful with ourselves and develop thought responses.

Such as:
That was not a trauma event. It just startled me.

Or, "Joe, You're such a jerk. Stop trying to upset me. " (Joe did the back slap or threw the empty bottle)

CBT replaces bad thought patterns with beneficial thought patterns.

To take this deeper, Many of us have set such high standards of performance for our lives that any disruption becomes a major anxiety/trauma event. Find someone over 50 years old and ask them if these disruptions are worth so much angst. They will tell you that in the big scheme of things, these disruptions do not matter.

So, try to learn to lighten up. Each day is too short to spend it in anxiety. Life has thousands of days. If we have to lose one here or there to a disruption, so what. Life will still go on.

The serenity prayer makes a lot of sense.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

The rest is worth reading.
Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/Prayers/Pro...qzJW0DPxULT.99

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;

I cannot change the fact that I made a contact with my head.
I cannot change the fact that I will have more contacts with my head no matter how hard I try to avoid them.
I cannot change the fact that I have PCS.

courage to change the things I can;

I can change how I respond to these events.
I can reduce many stress factors in my life

and wisdom to know the difference.

I can't reduce all stress factors in my life.

But, you need to personalize these idea. That is where the personal honesty comes in. Courage to personalize and make these ideas your own.

After 50 years of PCS, I can guarantee you that life will happen and we can only choose one of two things. We can choose to move forward or we can choose to be paralyzed by the past.

Make a good choice.

[Bud]

Mark,

Well put!

Bud

[pugmug]

Hi ProAgonist,

Like many others, I also have OCD and anxiety. And I think it predisposes us to anxiety-related PCS symptoms that don't have anything to do with small hits to the head but rather our obsessive/panicked reaction to them. Just a few days ago I was panicking because I was *sure* I had another concussion from a fairly mild hit to the head. But once I calmed down and practiced some meditation a lot of the symptoms went away.

I know it's scary because the symptoms seem so real, and in a sense they are real because we feel them. But they're not indicative of any long-term brain damage, and I've had that confirmed by both my neurologist and experience, so I hope you can be a bit comforted by that.

In my experience the best solution is prioritizing mental health and working on reducing anxiety through rest, meditation, medication, and a healthy diet. Reducing the anxiety will reduce a lot of the symptoms, you just need to trust that you'll be okay. And if you ever need to talk, there are always people here for you that are going through the exact same thing.

-Krissy

[ProAgonist]

Thank you all very much for the help!

TheNorwegian,

Thank you for your response! I agree with you. Anxiety makes PCS much worse than it is. I do work on calming techniques and I exercise 4 times a week. Also, how did you notice anxiety from the way I write? Is it because I repeat things?

JBuckl,

Thank you for the reply! I'm working on it. I'm starting to accept symptoms better and am working towards reducing my anxiety.

Mark,

Thanks a lot for your response. I'm actually surprised to hear that walking down the stairs delivers more force to your brain than a 50-60 grams bottle thrown to your head! It's good to know that these impacts are not concussive or sub-concussive. If it would have happened before I got PCS, I wouldn't care, but now, I've become sensitized to head trauma, so every hit scares me more than it would have before PCS. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?

Today I took a driving lesson, and as I entered the car, I accidentally bumped my head against the mirror above the driver's seat. I immediately calmed myself down, started driving and felt no symptoms at all! Sadly I did feel nausea and headaches after being on a rough road for a while, but I understand this is not sub-concussive or concussive by itself.

These were not really my friends - they're just people from my same age group at school that take mutual classes with me. They behave like that to everyone, so I'll just try to avoid talking to them at all.

And I do agree that focusing on our injury doesn't help. I don't know if it slows recovery or not, but it's meaningless anyway - why dwell on the past when you can live life? I've now found happiness in life after months of questioning whether or not I'm going to recovery. I exercise, I'm having fun with friends, I have more self-confidence and my social anxiety is less pronounced. I still have PCS symptoms, but they're becoming weaker and I'm becoming happier.

Thank you very much for the serenity prayer. Even though I'm an atheist, I still think it has a beautiful meaning and we can learn a few things from it.

You told me to make a good choice - so I made. I'm doing things I've never done before in life, even before PCS, and I feel like I'm becoming a better person every day. Thanks a lot for the reply - it means a lot to me.

pugmug,

Thanks for the help! I agree with you about this. Anxiety worsens PCS symptoms and, if anything, delays recovery. Today I had a minor bump from the mirror above the driver's seat in a driving lesson as I entered the car, and, instead of panicking, I didn't even think about it. I just started driving and felt absolutely fine. I was delighted to see how beneficial it is to just calm down.

I am now working on a few different things in general, and I believe many of them help me recover - like exercising 4 times a week, like meeting with friends (I'm not sure it helps me to recover, but it definitely makes me less depressed) and just am becoming a better person. The CBT I had a few months ago helped me greatly and I'm improving every day now, not only in PCS, but in life in general.

Thank you very much for the warm words! It's great to know that this forum exists and I have people to talk to about this. You people are amazing and I really appreciate every single reply written to me here!