Hi Everyone,

I have diagnosed OCD and have been learning and working through it for years. Health issues and concussions have been a persistent theme. Concussions are the perfect OCD theme as there is very rarely a definitive diagnosis. That uncertainty is ripe for obsession. To Mark's point on so many of these posts, the only way to healthily deal with concussion OCD is to not seek reassurance, not look for symptoms, and be comfortable with the ambiguity.

You'll see in my post history I've had a few weak moments seeking reassurance for obvious non-concussions. These have been accompanied by hours of obsessive googling and symptom monitoring. Eventually, the anxiety cloud clears, everything goes away, and I wonder why I ever worried in the first place. I imagine many of you can identify with this statement.

I wanted to post about my latest issue as it is major progress for me but a continued struggle. I crashed on my mountain bike last week and safely caught the fall on all fours. I did not hit my head or even feel my neck strain. Still, I was quite worried about a concussion. I spent several days NOT googling, adjusting my lifestyle, etc. It was a huge success!

Cut to a few days later, and I'm playing a game of kickball. Grass is wet, I slip trying to catch a ball, and fall, first landing on my butt and then continuing to fall on my head. I felt my neck muscles tighten as I hit the ground. To combat my OCD, I did continue playing. I didn't feel like my bell was rung and could feel the anxiety spilling over. I got the anxiety under control, and felt fine with a lot of neck stiffness. Balance was good, eyes were good, etc.

It's now been five days since this injury and acting like I don't have a concussion. I drove three hours, continued to work, drank beer at a party, watched TV, etc. I was doing fine, if not great, until last night. With my wife away for an event, I strung together a good 4 hours of video games. Before bed last night and into this morning, I've had pain in the middle of my forehead and the spiral is beginning. I'm monitoring for symptoms, feeling foggy, and wanting to cancel plans. I'm trying so hard not to google "can concussion symptoms start five days later." I know the answer, I've googled it before! Maybe? Sometimes?

I'm not posting this for reassurance but to share with this community for anyone going through the same thing. Dealing with OCD and TBIs has been the biggest challenge of my life and our medical system is simply unprepared to address it. I would love to continue the discussion here about OCD and TBIs as I believe the back and forth on this forum is the only group talking about this highly specific issue.

Appreciate you all.

Very good post but you appear to have missed one issue.

Your current struggles can be caused by the video game marathon over-stimulating your brain. And OCD brain, by definition, is already struggling to manage stimulation. 4 hours was easily over-stimulation.

I would also suggest you find a physical therapist or chiropractor who can gently help you with your neck and back after these falls. The neck tension of 4 hours of video games combined with a stressed neck could easily cause your headaches. If you have soreness or stiffness in the area behind your ears, the headaches would usually be due to spams in these muscles.

For many of us, we know that maintaining our neck and back with proper spine manipulation/therapy can reduce these other problems.

You would benefit from finding the chiropractor or physical therapist who understands how these issues all connect. Very few do.

When my back or neck gets tweaked, the $45 fee to my chiro for 30-45 minutes of back and neck work is well worth it.