Hey all,

So I've only ever had one diagnosed concussion, but I've had anxiety related to concussions and brain health for a while, so I'm on a vitamin regiment and am very protective of my brain.

That being said, I had an incident yesterday that I don't think could possible qualify as a concussion, but I experienced symptoms, and I'm concerned whether they could indicate a concussion even with the low impact forces.

Basically what happened is that I was doing sit ups on a hardwood floor. My hands were behind my head, and as I was finishing up, I misjudged the location of my head relative to the floor, and thumped my head. Now I wasn't moving fast, probably at a rate of about 1 or 2 feet per second. Also, because my hands were behind my head, the impact wasn't direct, my fingers hit the ground, and my head stopped with my fingers. So all in all, the forces involved were not large at all. I've read that concussions need 60Gs of force, and I don't think I was close to that threshold.

However, I'm worried because I began to feel nauseous a few minutes later. Now I don't know if the nausea was from anxiety or the impact, so I'm wondering is it even possible for an impact of such low force to produce symptoms? And now this morning I've felt foggy, and again, I'm not sure if anxiety or the impact is to blame...

I'm just curious if this sounds like a case of my anxiety getting the better of me or if it sounds like physical effects of the impact?

This is your anxiety rearing its ugly head and taking over.

What are you doing to resolve your anxiety issues ?

What are you afraid of ?

Well it's good that you think that this is anxiety related, it's some relief. I tried to calculate the G force, and I think it was probably under 5G, does that sound right?

As for treating the anxiety, I'm trying to do exercise, which ironically enough often puts me in situations that create more worry like this.

I guess at the end of the day I'm just an anxious person in general. But more specifically, I'm in a challenging program in university, and I'm worried that even a small impact on my cognition will cause me to fail out, as unreasonable as it sounds.

Only a very very small percent of concussions cause a cognitive deficit. If you are not engaged in contact sports or risky activities, you have more risk driving in a car.

Being anxious is a greater risk because it reduces your coordination and affects judgement. Doing exercise where you can smack your head on the floor is not wise.

What are you pursuing in university ? Some disciplines are anxiety inducing. Learning to moderate your anxiety levels at a more serious level may be crucial.

Proper nutrition can improve your tolerance to anxiety inducing issues. Exercise is good but it sounds like it is inadequate for your needs.

Well that's good to know, I wasn't aware of that.

I'm doing programming, which is all brand new to me, so I worry about struggling with it.

I know exercise may not be enough, but it's all that I have available to me for a now.

There are a lot of things you can do to reduce anxiety levels. You would be surprised how much your daily activities, diet, supplemental nutrition, and many more contribute to your anxiety or help reduce it. Choice of music, how you schedule your day, how and when you study, can all make a difference.

If you are constantly fighting an uphill battle with your classes, you may need help with study skills and planning. You may be trying to do too much each day.

What is you diet like ? Do you take any supplements ? How about coffee or tea or other caffeinated drinks ?

I'm sorry I have taken a few days to respond, I've been busy.

I think that my diet and everything is pretty good. I try and have 3 meals a day and all that. As for caffeine, I have a cup of coffee in the morning, but I mostly drink herbal tea, so I don't think I drink too much.

My problem is I just get obsessed with a health issue, and can't shake it. I've been looking over the forum, and I'm basically going through everything that the user Minimac was. I'd message him to see how he stopped worrying, but it says he hasn't been on in over a year.

The anxiety always starts when I bump my head accidentally, and then I'll try and reassure myself that it was nothing by reenacting the event (But not actually hitting my head, just going through the motions), and then I'll worry that I re-injured myself while reenacting and it's a terrible cycle.

I hate to spill this all out on a public forum, but I really don't know what to do at this point. Years back I was on zoloft which helped, but I ended up quieting because I hated the side effects.

Additionally, would you mind if I asked you a technical question? When I reenact, I don't actually hit my head on anything, but I'll move it quickly and use my muscles to stop it, almost like half of a headbang like rockstars do. Is it possible that I could give myself a diffuse axonal injury by doing this? How many Gs would that take?

I think this is almost 100% OCD at this point, with the obsession being brain injuries, and the compulsion being reenacting.

The re-enactment is not strong enough to be an injury.

I suggest you try a natural replacement for the Zoloft. 5-HTP can increase your serotonin levels that are often a key part of obsessive thought. I replaced Paxil with it. I take 100 mgs of 5-HTP and 200 mgs of L-Theanine. I like how I feel much better than the SSRI.

I would get stuck in obsessive thought except for me, the thoughts were random, not worries. My mind would repeat an odd sounding word or name, spell a word, recite a license plate number, repeat a stanza from a song. This could go on for days. It was miserable but the high dose Paxil helped. But, I wanted to get away from the side-effects. At first, I took lots of L-Tryptophan (400 mgs a day). But, when I added the 5-HTP, I did much better.

Some see a therapist and learn CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) techniques. There are hypnosis therapies, too.

The stress of school can be making it worse.

Hopefully the reenactments aren't causing any issues. But I'm determined to try and stop them because in the long run they make me worry more.

You're definitely right about school being the cause of much of my stress. I love it, don't get me wrong, but I was out for a year, and it's been a struggle to readjust to it.

I think I'll try those supplements, and look into CBT, because I can't just sit around and let this get worse.

John,

Just my 2 cents here...there is no way you came anywhere close to a 1 G incident much less any where above that.

1 g is double your body weight.

I am a bit cautious about my head also but I am able to convince myself of the facts most of the time based on my history of head bumps post accident...none of my worries come true.

Good luck at school!

Bud