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 ?