Hi,

I've had PCS for three years, and while I don't really keep track at this point, I've probably had around four concussions. I'm 20 years old. I wanted to ask anyone out there, but especially the older folks who've had concussion issues throughout their lives, if they have any advice on concussion prevention, on dealing with hits to the head, and just on living with PCS.

I'm thankfully at the point where my PCS symptoms themselves don't prevent me from doing what I want to do, which is go to school. My main symptoms are headache, tinnitus, and fatigue, although the last one is only occasional. My main problem, though, is that I get setbacks so easily from any kind of bump to my head. I mean, I bumped my head in the car about a year ago and I felt dizziness and problems with memory for around a month, just from a light bump. Even stuff like someone hugging me will usually give me a setback for a couple weeks, which is annoying because it prevents me from going to family events where I know people are going to hug me.

So, does anyone have advice on how to build up a tolerance to these blows that come just from day-to-day life? It's crazy, my initial concussions came from football when I would run head-first into people and not feel a thing. Now I can't even get a haircut without having dizziness and nausea for a few days afterwards.

What worries me most is that I feel like my threshold just keeps getting lower and lower. I already don't do any physical activity involving balls or ever try to make contact with others besides handshakes, but I really miss not having to constantly worry about my head getting hit. Any thoughts? Thank you.