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Jomar, Thanks for the edit for spacing.

Merope,

You summed it up when you said "In terms of the symptoms, the most annoying ones are the light streaking when blinking, the floaters, and the anxiety. The more I think about my symptoms, the worse they seem to get. I don't think I spent quite so much time obsessing over streetlights and headlights and lamps and candles and the reflection of the sun on shiny surfaces before my accident."

The double whammy of increased anxiety and decreased filter function are hitting you hard. The research predicts this. 80% of those who have prolonged symptoms have a pre-existing struggle with anxiety at any level and/or depression. The goal is to learn to identify those patients and treat their anxiety so they recover sooner.

Back in the day when this concussion forum had 40 or more posts a day, plenty would be telling you to not waste effort trying to be seen by a neurologist. Few neuros are much help with concussions. If they cannot image it or diagnose dysfunction with a standard neurological exam, they will dismiss the patient.

More importantly, there is nothing they can do. You can work on reducing stress and anxious thoughts and seek a physiotherapist who can help you with your upper neck to make sure you are not having upper cervical inflammation adding to your struggles. One expert clinic discovered that 80% of concussion symptoms are related to an upper neck trauma. That trauma is not visible on imaging. No breaks or tears. Just instability in the ligaments that keep the skull, C-1 and C-2 in alignment.

Focusing on good head and neck posture during sleep is vitally important.

Do not sleep in on the weekends. Sleep experts know this is counter-productive. That extra sleep is rarely quality sleep and usually includes poor posture making any neck issue a problem. Your brain's sleep clock stops cycling through the stages of sleep after your normal wake up time. Sleeping past that time is what is making your days worse.

Thank you so much for all of this! I think that in order to save myself from total mental breakdown, I will try to work on my anxiety and ignore the visual stuff as much as possible. Maybe that way, I can give my brain a break and a chance to recover without the anxiety hijacking all efforts.

I will definitely look into the neck things! Until yesterday, I had no idea that they were related, but it all makes a lot of sense.

It’s quite reassuring to know that a neurologist probably can’t do anything for these symptoms. In a way, it takes some of the pressure of needing to be seen by a brain doctor off. It also puts the responsibility of getting better more into my hands, which is something that I need.

Thanks again for the informative response!