Ben,

The Reddit guy does not know what he is talking about. The two of you together are a mutual anxiety club of over-reactors to minor issues.

As I said before, for inflammation to cause brain damage, the symptoms would be far worse than foggy brain or such. A damaging headache from inflammation would be so intense, you could not do anything. You would be losing motor control such that you would struggle to walk or stay balanced upright. You would appear to be severely drunk or more.

Inflammation is you body telling you to take care of an injury. Are you taking any anti-inflammatory meds or doing anything to reduce inflammation?

It would be interesting to see your daily schedule. You sound like you live a high stress life. You could list all activities at home and school, transportation, meals, vitamin supplements, hobby activities, etc. How much time do you spend on a smart phone? What web sites do you visit regularly?

How well do you handle classes that require complex intelligent thinking? Does it take serious effort or do new concepts come easy to you? Has it always been this way?

Thanks for the response, I appreciate you putting inflammation into perspective.

I take curcumin supplements and omega 3 fish oil since I've read it reduces inflammation. However, I do not take any anti inflammatory medication. Is this something I should consider and ask my doctor about?

My lifestyle definitely feels high stress to me but the cause for 95% of my anxiety and stress revolves around my health and worrying about my brain and concussion issues. When I wake up I an anxious since I know I will have to walk and take the metro, when I am out with friends or studying I worry about the contact I will have to make(hugs, kisses, hard handshakes, slaps on the back) and keep my head on a swivel to make sure I do not receive any serious impacts.

When I am at home resting or when I'm supposed to be studying I am instead on websites like these or analyzing and listing all the events from my day/the last several months and trying to calm myself down by ruminating over the incidents that happened and convincing myself that they are in 'non damaging' list we made in a previous thread and that I will one day be ok. Before I go to bed however I meditate, watch shows, or read other things in order to go to sleep with something other than thinking about my symptoms and worries.

My daily routine would not be high stress if I did not have symptoms and did not worry about my health. To put things in perspective, this day last year I was a two sport star athlete, getting good grades in my last year of high school, was a founding member and salesman for a product company, had an active social life and just met my now longterm gf, worked out and ran almost every day, was on the student council and all this while most likely suffering from unresolved concussions(I was wholy uneducated about the dangers of pushing through them).

Now my routine on an average day is this:
-Walk to the metro
-take metro 4 stops (the first three are fine and not that bad but the last stop I have to switch lines to the green line and that last stop can get really bouncy/shaky and cause problems, that 90 second ride is the worst part of my day)

-arrive at school and go to class
-after class I do one of the following three things depending on the day
1.walk 20 minutes to my grandmas house and eat/rest for 3 hours before walking back to school and waiting for my next class

2.go directly to my next class(gym class where I do some light cardio, light weight training and stretching)

3.take the metro and walk back home because it was my only class of the day. When I get home I usually have lunch and rest for a bit before starting to research/worry about concussions and analyzing the harmful potential of that days/past months events until I reach a state of semi-satisfaction and I can focus on something else until I go to bed.

Sometimes after school, instead of going home I will take the metro and go to my gf house to rest, hang out, have 'intimate' time and have dinner and then take the metro home later at night.

On Thursday I have cbt, on Saturday I have oestheo and some other time in the week I'll generally have physio or some medical appointment. All these require me to travel by bumpy car or bouncy metro. Also sometimes during the weekend I will spend time with friends(going to ones house for a social gathering, go to cinema, restaurant, etc). All these require me to either walk, take the metro or drive. Generally though I try and take it pretty easy on the weekends.

Also sometimes but rarely I will have an event I can't miss that will require me to travel further like when I had to go on a 45 minute drive on terrible roads to attend an important event with my gf's friends and family.

Then of course there is the bumps and jostles that inevitably happen in day to day life but I have posted about these at length in the past months. I also often play basketball by myself or with a friend in the backyard(although obviously not now since its winter).

So yah that's pretty much my life at the moment, of course there's more stuff that I'm missing like a couple months ago I went on a family trip to Boston and had to drive on some bad roads to get to and from the airports and around Boston as well as walking in Boston and obviously taking the plane.

As far as the brain capacity question it's hard for me to say. I could argue both ways.

On one side, I DEFINITELY feel impacted, I have awful fog and blankness and get very self conscious and struggle in conversations with new people, feel like I sound slow and 'punch drunk' when I speak, feel like I have trouble following in movies, feel like my brain gets tired easily, sometimes feel nauseaus when working or researching concussions or writing these long posts.

All in all the best way I can describe it is feeling as if my brain is working at 30% and my brain which was once filled with creativity, inspiration, passion, desire and constant thought and activity is now a desolate wasteland plagued by the toxic fumes of worry, panic, dread and inflammation. Sometimes my mind just feels blank and this is unbelievably terrifying. It feels as if my brain is deteriorating and my brain cells are being slowly killed off by the daily things I stress over (walking, metro, etc)

On the other hand however, a few months ago I was evaluated by a top neurologist who said I had no noticeable deficits. A few days ago I spoke with a top psychiatrist who said I sounded very intelligent and articulate and should consider becoming a psychologist for my career. My parents and gf say they have not noticed any drop off in my intellect and my friends have not mentioned anything about me acting differently besides that I am now more quiet. (even though for me I feel severely brain damaged when I have conversations with them)

Ive also gotten above class average in the exams in school that I have taken so far even though I was foggy and symptomatic while taking them and I hardly studied. I definitely feel pretty brain damaged in school sometimes though, it can be hard for me to read and understand things, remember, etc and like I said I can get nauseous doing these things sometimes.

So yah I hope I answered all your questions. Please tell me if my worries that I am slowly deteriorating my brain with these activities or if it's ok for me to continue. Also if you think certain things like the metro or the walking could be problematic or really any comments you have would be greatly appreciated.

I should also mention I've been recently diagnosed with mild ocd so that is why I constantly reiterate the same concepts and questions on here. I'm also hopeful that much of my fogginess and blankness is due more with the effects anxiety, worry, panic attacks, lack of proper sleep than it is the effects of concussions and continued brain deterioration from the events I've mentioned.

I guess time will tell with the gains from cbt and possibly eventual medications use if it comes to that

Why can't you eat an anti-inflammatory diet? I agree that it requires some organization, but given the potential benefits don't you think you could try to stick to it religiously for a few months?

Try different types of shoes. I was bothered by some running shoes (the ones with air, especially when walking on very hard surfaces) but not by others. I finally found a great relief with good hiking shoes. Not overthinking it will definitely help, but you also want to put yourself in the best possible conditions to minimize symptoms.

Your right I'll do my best to stick to the diet. Sometimes though it's hard since I'm a broke college student so I kinda tend to eat what's given to me but you make a good point.

Also though I'm very skinny so I fear I will lose too much weight on it

Why do I have to minimize symptoms, is this because it will make my recovery faster?

Ben, I hope that is OK for me to offer you some CBT.

You wrote "continued brain deterioration". and "I feel severely brain damaged"

You also wrote "I was evaluated by a top neurologist who said I had no noticeable deficits. A few days ago I spoke with a top psychiatrist who said I sounded very intelligent and articulate and should consider becoming a psychologist for my career. My parents and gf say they have not noticed any drop off in my intellect and my friends have not mentioned anything about me acting differently besides that I am now more quiet."

In CBT jargon the first quotes are forms of a Negative Automatic Thought (NAT) called Catastrophising.

The key to CBT is to challenge a NAT, asking if there is any evidence for it.

The second quote shows that there is not a scrap of evidence that your NAT has any basis in reality.

Thanks, that is something I've seen in cbt. I actually have a whole form on that exact concept. I really wish I could just stop thinking about all this though and I guess I was just worried since the neuro appointment was about 5 months ago and I know that alot can happen in 5 months.

Thanks for reminding me my training though, it helps

Ben, We all agree that inflammation is a big contributor to concussion symptoms. It is not the only cause. The web article you pointed to just says that but does not offer treatment suggestions.

As you said, you spend a lot of time focused on your concussion symptoms and concussion issues like worry about a passionate kiss or hug or bumps on the metro. If the bumpy part of the metro is only 90 seconds, stand up with your knees flexed and let your body absorb those bumps.

I don't think you should be doing weight training. It may seem safe but it causes neck muscle tension that can be a problem.

An issue you have failed to understand is quite simple. Your recovery is not based on the amount of time you spend resting. It is more impacted by the most stressful things you do. Just as you say that only 90 seconds of the metro ride are a problem, spending a small part of your day wrapped up in anxiety will prevent the rest from having any value. It is like you keep picking a scab off just as a wound starts to heal.

You have not developed brain damage since the neuro appointment 5 months ago. Also, top neuro or top psychiatrist is completely meaningless unless they have expertise with your condition (most top neuros don't) or you are willing to believe them.

Perhaps, but primarily because minimizing symptoms is an objective per se. Isn't it what we are all trying to do?

Also, one tip for the subway. I have a bumpy bus ride everyday to go to work. It used to set me back frequently but now that I stand on my tiptoes (instead of sitting) it is much less of a problem. Of course you have to hold yourself to something to avoid falling.