So ever since I got the stupid concussion in October, I've been programmed to think that somebody elses head bumping your head is the be all end all. Through this website and even by word of mouth I feel like I've only heard of people walking away from head to head hits with a concussion. SO anyway, yesterday i was leaving to go back to college. My one rule when you hug me is PLEASE watch my head. My dad forgot I guess and went to hug me and dropped the side of his head straight onto the side of mine. I tried to move my head out of the way but since my reaction time was off his head still bumped mine and then my jaw caught some impact too. I'm not joking when I say my body went instantly into a cold sweat and probably like 5 minutes later I just broke down crying. Besides the obvious symptoms coming from anxiety, I'm not a complete mess. I mean it hasn't even been 24 hours so I guess I could still gain symptoms but other than an increased headache and increased tinnitus, I believe my other symptoms are pretty much where they were at before it. Maybe my eyes seem a little blurrier. I mean I'm nowhere symptomatically that I was when I first hit my head in October. I also do vision therapy and after his head hit mine there was no decrease in my reaction time. I even was able to type an essay last night. Although this just doesn't make sense to me because I'm not sure how I'm walking away from another persons head hitting mine while i'm already concussed without a significantly jarred injury??? Is this even possible? I'm literally sitting around looking for symptoms and turning it over and over in my head but nothing is really significant yet. Is this even possible?? I was pretty positive another head hitting your own was pretty much a death sentence.

I'm in college too and I get a lot of the same worries during the school year, and I have a few comments. One, please understand that your new symptoms are caused by anxiety rather than actual physical damage. I know that's tough, and it certainly doesn't mean that they're any less real, but they will go away when you're able to relax and stop thinking about them. Secondly, one thing that's helped me is wearing a hat when I'm going to be in an environment where I know people will want to hug me. I know it sounds odd, but mentally it makes me feel safer, like I'm wearing a helmet. Plus, if you wear a hat with a brim people who are hugging you will move away from your head because they won't want the brim to hit them.

Hope this helps. Stay strong

Thank you for the advice!! I agree 110% with the hat thing, and it also helps with the terrible overhead florescent lighting in nearly every classroom.

adip19,

This is a memorized and practiced reaction to a 'perceived' impact. There may have been contact but no impact. You admit to this thought being a pervasive thought. You are setting yourself up for all of the symptoms you are experiencing.

Think of this. In your 20 or so years of life, last October was your only concussion. You have been hugging people and making head contact for a lifetime without causing a concussion. This hug with head contact is no different.

Only you can convince yourself that this was not a concussion. We can give you the facts but you have to decide to believe them.

"Through this website and even by word of mouth I feel like I've only heard of people walking away from head to head hits with a concussion."

Where did you get this idea? We speak against this idea all the time. The only head to head hits that result in concussions are those competitive headers on the soccer field. I can't remember when anybody on NT has reported such a concussion.

The baby's head to the chin was not a concussion. The rolling over in bed and making head contact is not a concussion. The hugs with head contact are not concussions.

College can be full of anxiety without adding false issues to your life.

The simple fact is: You can have a memory of concussion symptoms that you can causes to be recalled and replayed just by thinking about those symptoms while in an anxious state. You can imagine a head contact and manifest the full range of symptoms. What you feel is real. The cause is false.

It is no different than thinking about a scene in a movie that caused nausea or another strong symptom. Once you programmed the feeling of nausea, the next time you think about that scene or one like it, you brain will recall the nausea and you will feel nauseous.

These are fashbacks common to PTSD.

Stop feeding this monster with wrong thoughts. Find somebody to help you reprogram your thought response to head contacts. Unless you change how you think about head to head contacts, your life will be miserable as you tie yourself up in anxiety.

Stop doing any research about concussions. Most of what you find online is full of errors in how the information is presented or is presented without proper context.