Hi everyone,

I’ve posted on and off here and have received helpful responses each time. I wanted to try again.

Two days ago, I went down to lift in my office gym. This was the first time I’ve lifted in probably 6-7 months and I went at it with greater intensity than I ever did before. After my lift, I went back up to the 9th floor of my building to grab groceries from the fridge. I hit my head on the bottom of the freezer door when trying to pull some of my groceries out.

On a scale of 1-10, I would give this hit 2-2.5. The pain was noticeable, but it felt like just another typical head bump that happens to all of us every now and then. Not a “Wow, I just hit my head” type of impact. I gathered my groceries, walked out and started to develop the panic attack like response that tends to accompany any bump to the head. My stomach got a little nauseous, my fingers got a little numb, and I noticed a headache starting to creep up, and the sense of worry start to loom. I went to join a few friends outside at a local grocery store and had one beer after my friend offered to buy me one (it’s stupid, but I didn’t want to upset or refuse his kindness).

Later Wednesday evening, I went home and had a mild headache. Most of the other symptoms (nausea, numbness, etc.) stopped – I noticed those definitely tend to be byproducts of anxiety rather than anything else.
However, as the anxiety dissipated the headache has remained. It’s been on and off, remaining somewhere between a 1 and a 3.5-4. Sometimes it’s there, sometimes it’s not – today, I woke up with a headache but as I write this, I don’t have one. I do feel a little “spaced out.”

In the past, I think most questions I’ve posted on this forum have come from a place of anxiety. Right now, though, I feel pretty level-headed and like I’m able to give a more “objective” outlook on my symptoms right now.

Last year, I posted about feeling symptoms from a heel-drop which Mark helped dispel as pure anxiety. Two weeks ago someone aggressively opened a bathroom door while I was walking out and that whacked me in the front of my head, right around the temple. I got anxious, felt a little woozy, but decided it was likely no big deal and went asymptomatic after a few hours.
As of right now, my symptoms include: on-and-off headache, spaced out, sleepiness (but I didn’t sleep well two nights ago and this isn’t unusual). I have not had any memory problems, sensitivity to light or noise (I live in a city, so I think I’d feel this), confusion, poor balance, ringing in the ears, difficulty thinking clearly, etc.

As silly as this sounds, I’m open to this being a concussion. If it is, I’d like to know my head is just that sensitive and go from there. It likely means that I’ve received far more concussions than I would hope for. I know I’ve received two, but I’ve had bouts like this maybe 8-10 times. I already live a healthy life, take supplements, and generally avoid anything that puts me at risk for a serious concussion.

I want to know what people think and I feel like most people here have a more nuanced and researched understanding of what constitutes a concussion and what doesn’t than many medical professionals.

Thank you kindly for your time and thoughts.

Sincerely,
Squash

I think you are struggling with 2 things. First, you took on an aggressive workout in the office gym. The body chemistry of that can be a struggle, especially if you have not worked up to the effort level over time.

2nd, You are paying too much attention to little things. Rating things as 2.5 ? The 1 to 10 rating system is a very general non-specific system. Your use of 2.5 or 4.5 suggests you are hyper-vigilant. It is an attitude thing.

I read an article a few days ago that spoke of how we train or wire our brains to respond in specific ways. You may benefit from learning to be less specific in your analysis of these issues.

Regarding the beer. A simple response to the offer could be. "The way my brain is feeling right now, I don't think a beer would be good. " or "I have a headache and beer has never helped when I have a headache. Thanks for the offer."

Just my 2 cents.

Mark, thank you as always for the response. To make sure I understand what you're saying, you feel like any symptoms I experience probably result from my hyper-vigilance?

Hitting my head is a huge fear for me, as I'm sure it is for many people here. I'm trying to restructure the way I think about hitting my head and get more realistic about the types of bumps that might cause damage. I think, finally, I'm trying to do the emotional work required to confront this deep-rooted fear.

As mentioned above, thank you for the response, Mark. I know this is a very real issue for many people here and I respect and take very seriously the implications concussions and other head trauma can have. Doing my best to live a cautious, but not an anxious, life.

If you are too anxious about any minor bump, you are reducing your ability to be coordinated to avoid them. Anxiety can totally mess up coordination. You end up diverting your attention away from some risks (tripping, etc.) while you over-focus on others.

Try to relax and let your normal perceptions and defense protect like they always have.

And, slowly reintroduce physical activities like exercise and lifting back into your life.

I agree, Mark. Too much worry makes it impossible to focus on your surroundings. You end up paying attention to what's inside your head rather than everything around you.

Before I completely dismiss this bump, I do have another question.

I have continued to wake up with tension like headaches which persist, on and off, throughout the day. They normally disappear the moment I stand up, fade when I'm in conversation with someone, and are most present when I'm left to myself. I occasionally feel "spaced out," like my brain goes radio silent. Not sure if that's normal for people and I'm just more attuned to it because I've been hyper-vigilant.

I have not felt any cognitive symptoms (my memory seems fine, my thinking seems fine, I'm following conversations as usual) and have not experienced light or noise sensitivity. I do get nauseous or feel my fingers get tingly/numb, but that mostly happens when my anxiety levels increase.

I think, one of the issues with this anxiety, comes from having no frame of reference for what constitutes a "minor bump." I know any hit can cause a concussion, but the pure statistical probability of a concussion probably increases as the amount of force increases.When we say "minor bumps," are you referring to things like a light elbow tap to the forehead, or a light-medium bump on the bottom edge of a freezer door? Minor bumps, being then, the things where you engage in the normal activities of life and these things just sort of happen? To me, every bump feels problematic (which is clearly a part of my fears and makes it hard to have a reasonable reaction to any hits).

Any insight and opinion, from anyone, would be much appreciated. I'm not trying to troll and I do apologize if any of my past posts have felt disrespectful and not acknowledged the seriousness of what many people here live with. I'm trying to figure out whether or not the symptoms I do experience after these head bumps come from my anxiety or from short-lived but evident concussions. I haven't exercised since Wednesday (aside from some neck stretches) and am planning to reintroduce running/lifting as I feel better/calm down.

Again, thank you deeply for your help, Mark, and anyone else who wants to post on this thread.

squash,

"I know any hit can cause a concussion, but the pure statistical probability of a concussion probably increases as the amount of force increases."

This is not true. It takes a minimum force to cause a concussion. Research suggest 50 to 60 G's as a concussion minimum. Many can tolerate 100 or more G's without suffering a concussion. The lesser impacts would be considered sub-concussive impacts. Alone, they are not a problem. If you engaged in an activity where you were subjecting your head to 10 of these a day over an extended period, there may be a concern.

But, the impacts you suggest would not even rate as sub-concussive impacts.

An impact can cause pain at the site due to trauma to the nerves in the skin without ever causing any trauma to the brain.

I think you have two issues to address.

1. Your neck. Stretches do not resolve cervical vertebra injuries. It takes careful and subtle manipulation and mobilization of the vertebra to help settle them into proper position. Then, it takes discipline with sleep posture to maintain that. Straight head and neck positions during sleep are important. If you feel stiff in your neck when you wake, you need to resolve that.

2. Your anxiety levels. It sounds like you look for symptoms. But, as you engage in your days activities, you stop looking for symptoms and they go away. You may be training your brain to focus on symptoms that are meaningless. You are training your brain to become anxious when there is any contact with your head. Stop that and get on with your life.

Hits happen. Move on. Just choose the level of risk you take. Contact sports, and physical activities that pose a direct risk to a head impact can be avoided. Living life cannot.

I can only say what my experiences are and my head is very sensitive and experiences I've heard about. I'm not good enough at telling if your symptoms are strictly anxiety or strictly the brain being sensitive to bumps. I will say that I can have symptoms without having anxiety.

Anxiety obviously makes things worse, but I probably wouldn't chalk up all symptoms to being anxiety. I jarred my head pretty good while coming down off a curb biking. It set me back for about a month. I also drifted into a curb in the winter (curbs...I know, lol) and I nailed it pretty good. I definitely had some anxiety at first, but calmed myself down and had no lasting problems.

I think each hit to the head/jarring of the head is different. It should be approached with something that calms you down if anxiety is the problem. I think socializing and meditation are the best things for me. If anxiety is not the problem, all that you can do is manage yourself the best that you can.

I don't hit my head often, but I know when I do, the majority of the time, symptoms are short-lived.

I have found curcumin to help quite a bit with this actually. I've heard one person say curcumin and quality fish oil help reduce the symptoms after these bumps to the head.