Can a sound cause a setback of symptoms?
How is it possible?

I also started having neck pain (and an electric sensation going up to my spine) along with the trouble thinking when I used the clipper for the beard the previous time, is it possible for a sound to cause that too?

Thanks for the advices, I will try to improve my sleep pattern by following what your suggestion.

Danielson, I was also in a car accident and sustained neck whip lash without head trauma. I can tell you from my personal experience the shortness of breath and a pressure on your chest can be caused by anxiety. I've had almost every test done you can think of and the results always came back negative for any problems. It's been 2 years since my accident and thankfully my condition hasn't gotten any worse but I have seen an improvement over that time frame even if progress has been minimal.

Thanks a lot for the information, and I'm sorry for what happened to you, you have my solidarity and empathy.
If it's not a problem for you, may I know the speed and the mechanics of your accident (it was a front o rear collision, were you wearing a seatbelt etc...)
Also, what kind of symptoms have you experienced after the accident and what are your current symptoms?

It is of no value to try to rate trauma forces and tie them to injury level. The experts have found no direct connection. Every head and neck injury is different. Some tolerate very strong forces and other do not tolerate weak forces.

Over stimulation can cause symptoms to return or just trigger an anxiety reaction that can last. The sensory system can easily overload a compromised brain and leave it exhausted for hours or even days.

Sound is the most common sense to over stimulate the brain. From what you have said, your brain is very sensitive to sensory stimulation.

Thanks, I get it, altough I don't think that my brain is so sensitive.
I have managed to endure my neighbouring drilling very loud for more than ten minutes (and me simultaneously being extremely anxious and stressed out of fear of the symptoms coming back due to the noise) withouth having any relapse.

Not every sound causes the same level of stimulation. Sound frequency/pitch and loudness have different impacts. The farther away the sound source is, the more that sound has echoing reverb. This reduces the impact on the ear. Think of it as a fuzzy loud sound. Outdoor sounds are often the easiest to tolerate because of this.

Think of fingers on a chalk board. The wrong frequency can be a struggle.

I know that certain frequencies of buzzing are a problem for me while other frequencies that may be louder are not.

It was a T-Bone accident. The other car hit me driver's side while I was stationary at around 45-55 MPH. I was wearing my seat-belt and during impact I did not sustain head trauma. I must have gone into shock for a few 5-10 seconds after impact but I never lost consciousness and I remember every detail of the accident. The symptoms I experienced came in 15 months after my car accident which included:

• Dizziness (while driving and walking around)
• Fluorescent light sensitivity
• Sensitivity to certain sound frequencies
• Sensitivity to large crowds (malls, grocery stores, etc.)
• Cloudy/foggy brain
• Mild headaches
• Interrupted sleep pattern (likely caused by high anxiety)
• Racing heart (likely caused by high anxiety and phobia of symptoms getting worse)

My current symptoms as of today:

• Dizziness (while driving and walking around) - It has gotten better but I'm hoping for a full recovery
• Mild headaches (they come and go but manageable without meds and don't last long)
• Sensitivity to certain sound frequencies (I can now listen to music at lower/med levels. Switching on my sub-woofer and amplifying lower frequencies tend to make my symptoms worse)

It's also important to note that right after my accident I continued living my life normally as I didn't experience any symptoms right away. I was going to bars, clubs & drinking hard. I was also practicing kick-boxing 3x a week and working on the computer for 8+ hours a day. I never really gave my brain a chance to heal.

15 months is a long time, are you sure that the cause was the car accident and not something else, like a bad hit in kickboxing sparring? (by the way, I also trained MMA and have done a couple of sparring, coupled with partyng and driking, the month after the accident when I still believed that my symptoms were a stress-related psychomatic disorder, so I can emphatize a lot with you, altough my symptoms came right away a day and half after the accident).

Also, did you have not cognitive deficit such as trouble thinking, trouble reading, trouble putting your feelings in actual toughts and sentences and/or memory problems?

As I've never had health issues or surgeries before, the car accident is the only physical event that occurred during that time frame I can use to correlate with my symptoms which are typical for PCS. The only cognitive deficiency I had in the beginning was staying focused. My brain couldn't handle the work load of viewing a computer monitor for more than 1-2 hours without long breaks in between. The psychological issues still linger -fear of my condition getting worse and trying to find the root cause of my dizziness. It is possible that I might've developed something else before my car accident or it could be that my my neck injury was slowly taking a toll on blood flow to my brain in combination with liquor and over-stimulation. All the exams I've been taken (MRI with contrast, CT scan, SPECT scan, VNG, VEMP, BPPV, Heart stress test, EKG, blood work) the results for each have always come back negative for any problems. The last exam I'm going to request is called a "Carotid & Vertebral Dopper Exam" which will determine if there's any issues with blood flow to the brain.

SPNS,

Are you saying that since you never had problems from your kickboxing before the T Bone accident that you don't think kickboxing would be the cause of your symptoms that manifest 15 months after the car wreck? Did you have any other symptoms after the car wreck other than the short lived mental confusion/freeze (that was not physiological shock)?

The mental confusion can just be a moment of startle where you brain has had so much stimulation that it has to stop or freeze to sort it out. It is one part of the fight, flight, or freeze response to trauma and startle. Yes, it can be a concussion, too.

Concussion is a process that happens over a few days to a few weeks. PCS from a concussion does not develop 15 months later unless there has been additional trauma at the 15 month mark.

PCS is when concussion symptoms that first manifested at or closely after the head trauma continue beyond the 6 week to 3 month time frame. Even delayed onset concussion symptoms manifest within a few weeks, usually because of high stress living.