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....

Thanks allot for the help and answer. I also tried Night Owl, it rocks.
But i have read all you wrote. And i will try and just take it easy. I have also read on wikihow.. I might have been to active after the concussion. It's my first one ever..
But also a hard one.
Good to hear how you worked through stuff, and i appreciate all of the advice, etc.
I'm working on mindfulness or meditation also.. It needs work. But i read on wikihow that rest and sleep is very good/important also, which i also believe it is. But also doing stuff gradually as you wrote, and not doing to much, and get headaches, etc.
I hope you feel better also. Best of luck. Take care! Peace out

I have been following this post closely as that is my constant question. Rest or push myself? I've been to doctors, neurologists, neuropsychologists, cognitive therapits, physical therapists, ordered several books, listened to several podcasts and documentries, and what I've determined is the brain is still very much new territory, the "final frontier" in medicine if you will...and anyone that pretends to have all the answers is naively misinformed. The most frustrating theory to me is the theory that says if you still have symptoms after a couple months- it's anxiety or depression. This has not been proven. This is to sell anti-anxiety and anti-depression medication...pharmaceuticals benefit from this theory. IF those drugs help you, great! But they are not a quick "fix" and many people cannot handle the side effects. From my experience and research, I think it's a balancing act. Stay as active as you can without activating symptoms. The "suck it up" "It's all in your head" theory can prolong recovery.

LettingMyLightShine,

Welcome to NeuroTalk.

Yes, there is still a lot to learn about the brain but there is some sound science that is valuable.

I don't think there is a drug pushing concept in most of the concussion treatment community. There is plenty of evidence that benzos are counter to recovery. The only two drugs that are routinely prescribed are amytriptyline and nortriptyline. Both are recommended in much lower than normal doses when treating PCS headaches and insomnia. Some unknowing doctors will think that more is better.

Actually, there have been studies that show anxiety has a big impact of concussion recovery. They can actually predict most outcomes based on pre-concussion anxiety or depression levels. Those who have no history of anxiety or depression statistically recovery faster.

There are a lot of things that can be done to avoid drugs but improve the brain's tolerance for stress. Many have great results with a brain health vitamin and supplement regimen. B-12, the rest of the Bs including folic acid, D-3, Omega 3, Cal-mag, Curcumin and avoiding caffeine, alcohol, msg, sugars and the inflammatory foods can all help.

Please feel free to start your own thread so you can tell us about your experiences and your successes and struggles.