Hey dude, welcome!

I think almost everyone here has been through the symptoms you're describing with dizzyness and lightheadedness. If I would sum up what has worked for me, getting better after almost 5 months of PCS it would be active rest. If something makes you dizzy, stay away from it. If it doesn't make you dizzy, you can keep doing it (until you feel symptoms returning, then stop). One could say that you experience symptoms when your brain is trying to tell you to stop doing what you're doing because it doesn't have the resources to process that task.

Computer games really messed me up when I tried playing some League of Legends after a long day, just a month after I hit my head. I experienced a really significant setback from doing so. You don't need to activate your brain in order to get it healing, you just need to rest. You won't lose processing power from taking it easy for a while, and your brain really needs it. If you want to do anything - that is, if you're feeling energized and it doesn't induce symptoms - you can try exercising. And when I say exercising I don't mean going for a run or going to lift weights (or god forbid, skating again, look up second impact syndrome, don't die on us), I mean taking a walk until you start feeling tired/dizzy. Remember how long it took you to get symptoms and stay below that threshold next time you take a walk. When you've been taking walks and going about your days without symptoms for some time (general consensus seems to be two weeks), you can ramp up your intensity slightly.

Take your brain injury seriously. I don't know if I could have shortened my period of illness by much, but if I could, it would have been by taking the injury more seriously. I went on to complete a university course with client interactions even though I had pretty severe symptoms and now I've been unable to function at more than 50-60% of my healthy capacity for almost 5 months. You can shorten your stay in bed if you take it seriously.


Things I believe have helped me recover, apart from resting:
- Vitamin regimen. You can find it linked in the forum head. Don't skip curcumin! Studies have shown that mice improve greatly from traumatic brain injury if they are supplementing curcumin. Buy a curcumin pill that has piperine included, without it the curcumin has poor bioavaliability.

- Meditating consistently. Studies have connected increased density in white matter in the brain to meditation, and PCS is believed to be caused to a large extent by disruptions in axons in white matter.

- Doing as much exercise as I can do without inducing symptoms. For me this has been walks and recently running for short sessions of 6-7 minutes on a cross trainer. Physical exercise is much, much more efficent than cognitive exercise when it comes to improving cognitive functioning and secretion of sweet, sexy proteins that our brain uses to rewire itself. If you want to you can look up BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor), but if not, take my word for it. Exercise and specifically cardio is the bomb when it comes to brain function.

- Getting good quality sleep. Turn down the lights an hour before you go to bed and try to chill out, listen to/read some fiction to get your mind focused on something that you can't really stress out about. Get your room pitch black or buy yourself a sleeping mask. Earplugs help me too.


Things that are fun that I've been doing to not want to jump off a cliff when resting:
- Audio books. Man, I've gone through a few. Goodreads is great to get some recommendations if you haven't read a whole lot (I hadn't). Podcasts get stale after a while because they are designed to keep you occupied for an hour at a time. And with PCS, you need to kill a lot more than an hour. I see audio books as a way for me to do something constructive while I'm impaired due to my PCS and I've read and learned a lot during these months.

- Podcasts. If you have a particular favourite that is just a couple of people hanging out and talking, this can provide you with a great comfort-entertainment when you're in a slump and experiencing symptoms. Whenever I feel like crap with symptoms I come back to a particular podcast that makes me feel better. Makes the anxiety go away.

- Youtube videos of relaxed things. If you're well enough to look at screens (took me about two months before I could), you can start looking at calm things that are just engaging enough to not make you want to turn it off. If you can find some channels that feature some interest that you can watch for longer periods of time, these are a great way to kill off some time. For some reason I come back to car- and cooking shows. I don't even have a drivers licence.
Watching movies and series often seems to be a bit much for me, in comparison to youtube stuff. The question of following a narrative set by someone, I find myself reviewing aspects of the movie/show from the perspective of what the director wanted to achieve, different symbolic interpretations of the story and so on. Watching someone chop an onion or installing a turbo unit on an old piece of junk seems to be working better for me - look up Roadkill if you're into cars and Brother Green Eats if you're into food!


There's a bunch of knowledgeable people on here, so don't be afraid to ask for help. Mark in Idaho has a lot of info and always wants to help out, a real stand up guy.

Thanks allot dude. I really appreciate the answer!
I will listen to sound books more and try and limit the screen.. I have an headache most of the time now..
But when i am out and trying to take a walk, i get dizzy right away. And i need to stop walking for a bit, and just look around.. (Feeling Lightheaded.) Then continue walking.
The first week i was out and doing stuff, but i needed to sit down between walks. (And one time i just fell on my *** like a baby, the first week and that was not good.)
I just sat on the ground or on the grass when i was walking. Then walked more.. But slow. Now i don't really need to sit down, but i'm still dizzy, and feel like wanting to sit down. But i will try active rest then.
...
And if i knew this before, i probably would not have walked much or used the computer or phone as much. Been so active..
But i will rest for some time, and i hope the dizziness walking will go away. Because i feel dizzy when i get outside. But i walk anyways, in a slow pace... Lightheaded.
And i was worried that it was going to be permanent, but i think and hope it will go away eventually.
But alright. I will try and take it easy. And i will listen to your advice on what you wrote, and vitamins also. Learn to meditate also, and take it easy.

Thanks allot! Keep it up. Hope you feel better. Now i need to rest, and sleep soon.
Peace out

smutsik,

You are on your own. You appear to have all the answers. You must be fully recovered.

Mark,

I'm sorry, I'm not quite following you. I'm not yet fully recovered. Are saying something that I'm not getting?

Btw, english is not my native language.. When you wrote active rest, i thought you meant rest.. As much as possible. But i googled and got this:
**
...

But i will try and rest normally much also. And try and sleep much. Sleep must be the best. Just taking it easy... Normal rest.
And later on when i feel better, active rest. And exercise later on.
Listening to a nice soundbook on mindfulness right now, and that's nice.

Will try and stay away from the computer. As a "computer junkie". hehe. I like technology too much. But soundbooks are awesome. Learning and just sounds. And resting.. Sometimes a movie. Sometimes walks, etc.
But rest and sleep must be the best for healing, probably. And some light exercise later on, or walks. Or sitting in nature. Thanks.

Cool! Keep it up and I'm sure you'll feel better soon. Take care!

Thanks dude. They removed my link. But active rest... I googled it and it was like "workout rest"..
But maybe you meant more normal rest... ?

Like rest as much as possible, etc..
And yes, i hope so. Today i cleaned the apartment and threw out some old garbage. But i felt dizzy (almost drunk dizzy feeling as usual and hope it will be gone later on in a few weeks or months) when i walked to the container and threw the heavy bags in it...
I will just try chill at home most of the time. But i also need to walk some, etc..

Anyways. yeah. I will try and take it easy. Hope you also will be fully healed later on. Take care you also.

temporary,

You should not be sleeping other than your normal night time sleep period. Daytime sleep, except for the occasional short nap, disrupts proper night sleep. Proper night sleep with all of the different stages of sleep is the most important. Neurons heal during the REM sleep stage. Toxins get flushed from the brain during the slow wave sleep stage.

Low stress brain stimulation is best. Nothing that causes excitement or adrenaline. Action video games, no. Working on puzzles online or doing games like Minesweeper, Free Cell, Solitaire, Spider, are fine unless your eyes start to fatigue. If you need to put in extra effort to focus and understand, take a break. Minecraft might be OK if it does not over-stimulate you.

Any time you feel a bit of fatigue or a need to focus harder, take a break. Maybe move to a different activity or take a short walk.

Thanks.
Well, i rest sometimes during the day, but i sleep good at night also. And i agree that sleep is the most important for healing of neurons, etc. (And just resting sometimes during the day, taking it easy.)
Might just take a while until fully recovered.

And yeah, i agree that low stress brain stimulation might be the best. That's why i'm learning to meditate also. It might be fine to do puzzle games.. I'm not fully sure.. I have put that on hold for some reason, until i'm not feeling dizzy when walking outside. (I might heal faster with sound books, chill movies, etc.)
I will try and learn stuff with sound books instead for a while. That's fine with me.
Anyways. Thanks for the answer. It's late here and i need to sleep now. Take care. Peace out

Hey all, and Temporary

My recommendation to all concussion sufferers:

Meditation, if you never have, find a group, or an audiobook to teach you, practice Meditation every day. Start small, then go for longer periods of time.

Go in for a Vestibular Therapy right away after a concussion for an assessment, and then you would be given recommendations and possibly you will be given exercises. Some exercises might seem silly, but do them as prescribed, these exercises are REALLY important.

My Sports Medicine physician managing my concussion recently went to a conference in Boston in May 2017, on recent advancements and discoveries in concussion management.

At the Boston conference, my doctor told me two NFL team doctors spoke at this conference about how they have discovered that when their athletes with concussions go in for Vestibular Assessment and Therapy early on, meaning shortly after the concussion, even when the Vestibular Therapy made them feel really terri ble and some felt nauseous with a lot of symptoms triggered, the athletes recovered much faster.

My Sports Medicine doctor realized at that conference that he was perhaps managing my concussion too conservatively.

The recommendations my Sports Medicine doctor made after attending that conference, is for me to get more active, and get into Vestibular Therapy and don't stop if it makes me feel terrible. If I felt terrible, track for how long the symptoms stayed with me, and let the Vestibular Therapist know.

Vestibular assessment and Therapy is VERY important right away for faster concussion recovery.

I had to edit the following and delete links because I'm not yet allowed to post links because I just joined this forum. (silly rule, I think)

GOOGLE

Parachute Canada, look at the concussion management informtaion.

GOOGLE

Concensus Statement on Concussion Management in Sport


VESTIBULAR THERAPY:

For me, Vestibular therapy at first was mostly upper Cervical spine physical therapy and range of motion manipulatiin by a physiotherapist trained in Concussion management. The ligaments up in the Upper spine where the spine connects to the base of the skull, if those ligaments are injured, they can trigger symptoms of headache and other symptoms that seem like brain injury and concussion symptoms but are actually neck injury symptoms.

This physiotherapist also gave me a lot of take home daily eye and Vestibular and balance exercises.

Eye exercises included early on:

Pencil push ups (convergence work)

Hold a pencil vertically, straight ahead of your nose, focus your eyes on the pencil as you slowly move the pencil toward your nose. When you can't focus on the pencil and it becomes blurry/two pencils, stop, move the pencil slowly away until you can focus on it again, and hold for 3 to 5 seconds.

Simple eye muscle exercises from left to right, up and down, and diagonally both directions

The simple eye exercises all were really tiring at first for me because I had spent 3 months of quiet rest in a quiet dark room with no screen time (no TV, computer, phone) and I rarely left the house, because I felt so terrible with symptoms.

Eye focusing exercises such as near and far

I did this sitting outside on my deck, looking at a tree and then a house, pick something near and far, and repeat it.

Eye exercises progressed to turning my head while looking at the last line I could read on an eye chart and reading that line of letters forward and backward while turning my head.

Hold my arms straight out in front of me, clasping my hands. Look at my clasped hands, then rotate my torso from left to right, all the while I am looking at my clasped hands held straight out front. I started that exercise sitting down because I was so dizzy.

Look at an object straight ahead, focus on that object (like a picture on a wall) and then turn my head side to side while focusing my eyes on the object on the wall. I had to staer that one sitting down because it made me so dizzy.

BALANCE EXERCISES

For me, that meant standing in a corner with my hands holding the wall for balance, trying to stand without needing to touch the wall. I gradually could make it more challenging by standing on one leg, then with two feet on the ground but eyes closed, then graduate to a wobble board or just standing on a couch cushion on the floor on two feet then one foot, first eyes open, then eyes closed when safe to do so and I was confident I would not fall down.

PACING POINTS

There is a points system designed to measure activities so it is easier to determine how much activity is too much for an injured brain.

For example, a person, depending on where they were in their concussion recovery, could have a maximum of 15 points for the day if they are really having problems with their symptoms being triggered.

Watching TV would be 2 points per hour, going out to a restaurant with one person would be 5 points. Attending an appointment would be 3 - 5 points. Meal preparation would be 3 - 5 points, grocery shopping 5 points, talking on the phone 2 points per fifteen minutes.

I still find in person conversations draining and difficult because I struggle withprocessing the conversation cognitively as well as I sometimes struggle with word finding. The best way for me to communicate right now is by text, so I can think out a measured response.

For information on Pacing and the Pacing Points, google pacing points and click on the PDF that is titled:

GOOGLE

Pacing and Planning with Becky Moran

Reading and downloading that PDF I found was very helpful in understanding what is more draining to our concussed brain, and helps with having a tangible way to figure out how much stimulation and activity is too much for me.

JOURNAL

Journal everything you do, for how long, and if you feel okay or not. this is especially important if litigation is involved.

SYMPTOM MANAGEMENT:

PHOTOPHOBIA:

GLACIER RATED SUNGLASSES, HATS:

I bought a pair of Glacier rated sunglasses (let in only I think 5 % of the light) with those side blinders . I wore those sunglasses everywhere at first, when going outside the house, it helped a lot because visual stimulation was overwhelming for me, especially in a place like a grocery store.

I also wear hats all the time to block light indoors like overhead fluorescents, and outdoors like streetlights and the sun. The hat also limits visual stimulation.

PHONOPHOBIA:

HEARING PROTECTION:

At first I used arplugs AND external hearing protection (from a hardware store) in cars,, going out anywherer, really, and also when I walked around my neighbourhood.

Someone mentioned noise cancelling headphones are good for phonophobia.

COGNITIVE OVERSTIMULATION:

GROCERY STORES:

Hat, glacier rated sunglasses with side blinders, double hearing protection at first, and looking down at the floor when walking around. (but I did so safely) I also learned to go 30 minutes before closing when my grocery store was quiet with almost no customers.

CROWDS:

Crowds were very difficult to navigate because it was too much visual and auditory stimulation for me, for example at a street festival. I ended up holding onto the arm of my companion and looked straight down at the ground ahead of me and my companion navigated us through the crowd. I would look up when we were at a booth of interest for example.I also wore a hat, sunglasses, and at first double hearing protection meaning earplugs and external hearing protection.


WALKS

At first, I discovered it was best for me to walk the neighbourhood when it was not busy, and looked down at the sidewalk in front of me to avoid too much visual stimulation. (only do in a safe neighbourhood and it is good to walk with someone, I carried bear spray with me for safety).

PHONE SCREEN DIMMING APP

I use Night Owl, it's awesome for dimming out light that can be harmful and disruptive to sleep patterns.

MEDITATION APPS

There are a lot, I ended up using the fifteen minute meditation in the Deep Relax APP but just try an APP and see if it works for you.

I tried those coping strategies to get to a point where symptoms were not triggered, then gradually increased stimulation when I was feeling well, like purposely not wearing the glacier glasses and trying my regular sunglasses instead, then see if my symptoms were triggered.

Sometimes it takes a day for me to feel crappy after doing too much, for me, anyhow, and then I had no idea why I felt terrible, what I did that was too much.

I think that's it for now.....Good luck with your recovery....