Hi all,

Today I was standing up to get off the bus when the driver braked suddenly. As my hands were full, I was forced to quickly walk down the aisle to slow myself down, and while unbending my knees, I hit the top of my head on one of those hanging rubber straps for standing passengers (see pic1). Luckily, the strap is relatively light and made of rubber (as opposed to plastic/metal), but the bad news is that my head hit the strap from below. My later testing shows that the the strap hardly compresses when pushed upward (see pic2), meaning the strap essentially acts like a solid object when hit from below.

So here's the sequence of events:
1) standing up, with knees still bent
2) walking forward quickly while straightening up, during which the top of my head incurs a glancing blow

I don't remember the impact being painful, but I started becoming sleepy half an hour later. In the past, I invariably became sleepy soon after an impact, but today I also woke up particularly tired in the morning, so that might've played a role. An hour after the incident, though, I got a low grade headache in the temple area that continues to persist after 8 hours. I can't find any significant lump on the head.

What especially worries me is that this is a second successive impact. A week ago, I hit the top of my head on the car door frame when getting in. I'm guessing the damage wasn't trivial considering it caused confusion and a painful lump. Even though my head didn't move, can the energy/shock wave transferred to the head during an impact cause a concussion?

In the past 3 months I've hit my head countless times, and this incident is really pushing my anxiety over the limit. Just to name a few: forehead hit by outward opening door, side of head hit by chairlift moving at full speed, hitting top of head on metal pole when standing up with full force. My question is, should I be worried about today's impact against the stupid hanging strap on the bus?

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

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This sounds like an anxiety impact. It just triggered your anxiety and OCD. You are quite obvious as you try to define each event to maximize a minor impact into a more serious impact. That is OCD anxiety.

Get help with your anxiety. You do not need help with the impacts.