Danny, I had a rough year with massive stress in 2015, this has slowed my healing for sure. Bud, that's good to read, summer is on its way, that means less boredom for me, less need to use screens at all and more chance to heal.

I only hope that these periods of stress only delay healing and don't prevent it. You'll read a lot about certain timeframes for healing after a concussion. It would be really sad to miss out on potential healing due to stress that is out of our hands. Maybe this is my depression and anxiety talking but I think I have a point.

Danny,

I've wondered this too.

I can speak for myself only. After my head injuries I pushed through symptoms and felt worse than immediately after the injuries. I went up and down and up and down so many times. Out of the 900 or so days of having PCS, I've spent probably 200-250 days functioning at 5-15%. In the past 8 months, I've gone from 5% to about 70-75% at home. I can only hope that I continue to see progress.

I recently started graphing the amount of time that I am active versus taking a break and finding a percentage of active time over total time awake. That's how I get the number 70-75%. I also calculate the ratio of active time to rest time to see about how many minutes I need to rest per number of minutes I'm active. I just started last month, but it's encouraging to see the progress. I use Office Excel.

JBuckl,

Keeping such information is going to be against your betterment. It just feeds anxiety. There is a saying with animals, If you feed them, they will keep coming back. Same goes for PCS, If you track ever symptom, you will notice them showing up to be recognized.

Rest is not a formula. It is recognizing a need. Until you learn to recognize when you need to take 5 minutes away from your tasks, you will continue to chase your tail on the roller coaster.

Stress slows down the healing process. It doesn't stop it. The brain has no time span for healing, as Mark said to me once, healing time spans such as a year or two years is an old wives tale. The body continuously attempts to heal itself, the brain is no different. All be it at a slower pace.

I was thinking about what was said about if you have no trouble with screens sometimes and not others, your injury is not permanent. Does that count for everything else?

What I mean by that statement is anything you can do sometimes, you can eventually do any time. One just needs to determine the parameters where you can do that function. Certain environments or prior activities may limit access to that function.

For example, if I watch TV, I may struggle to track the plot and dialogue if the sound is throughout the room. If I put on my headphones to listen to the audio, I can watch hours and hours of TV without a problem. Without the headphones, my brain has to work harder to filter the dialogue from the ambient noise in the room and I will struggle to follow the program.

I have my computer set so I can do the same.

I know that my memory is worthless but if I use some memory aids, my poor memory does not hold me back.

Hear are some examples of my memory work-arounds:

If I want to post a welcome to a new poster, I click on the Post Reply button and get a empty Post screen. I need to scroll down to look at the screen name of the new poster. My memory will not retain the name through the clicking Post Reply action.

I cannot remember the options given with automated phone call directors, so. If I am on the phone calling a place with a automated call director with lots of options, I place my finger over the keypad number that may apply. After all the options are explained, I push the number where my finger is resting.

We need to accept that some of these limiting factors may be with us for life. By accepting them and adjusting to them, we can return to a full and active life with minimal restriction.

My major symptom IS anxiety. If stress is a setback then my ailment creates its own . . however, we'll see, I think it's early (maybe only just over 3 Weeks--see my thread), but DannyT and Doozer, your testimony is compelling. I cannot yet tell for sure if my high anxiety bouts specifically set me back. We'll compare notes . .

I also notice I seem to be better when it's dark -- I start my day that way. I seem to feel the load building up slowly on bright days even though I adore such days . . I also seem to wear down as my cycle approaches the end (bedtime.) But I'm not sure what exactly the triggers are, things haven't been consistent. Could be walking, could be intense study--which I do a lot--maybe everything except the gentle stimulation Mark refers to, and very few ordinary people would figure this out early on. Like many of you, I have stable and unstable periods, and other than eating regularly, I have not been able to find any one specific thing to watch out for.

Have any of you found a reliable gently stimulating activity?

Audiobooks are quite nice for entertainment and gentle stimulation, for me anyway.

So Mark, if a person had a concussion and their symptoms are consistently bad with a certain activity, with zero improvement over a very long period of time would that indicate that the nerves handling that activity are dead and gone? As aposed to symptoms which only come and go in general, which would suggest that nerves are injured and, given enough time, able to regenerate to almost their previous abilities?

I'm trying to get a better overview of how the brain deals with these injuries.

Just for statistics - how many of you guys tried the diet that http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post1038006-13.html was talking about?