Hi everyone

It's now 7 months since my injury. I suffered a period of confusion and disorientation for about 20 minutes after falling backwards off my bike. A few days after I began to suffer acute anxiety and then depersonalisation. I was unable to look after myself and moved back with my parents. I was terribly depressed and at times lost all hope and wanted to die. My CT was clear although I didn't have an MRI as I just couldn't see the point...if there was something up in there, what could they do about it? Nothing, and all it would do is reinforce my fears that I was brain damaged for life.

I began visiting this site a month after my injury when my depersonalisation was really at its worst. I got very depressed by the stories of people who had struggled with PCS for years and felt like my life had been robbed by this random accident. It was shortly after that that I discovered my depersonalisation had also been experienced by my brother and father who had both recovered. This instantly gave me hope. Very very slowly I began to get better. Eventually the constant noise and anxiety in my head subsided and I began to be able to think clearly again. It took about 4 months before I could leave the house and go to town on my own without everything getting weird.

It's now 7 months and I am regularly making trips to London to see a girl and I have started a degree in art. Things are still tough. I get stressed by certain things (things which had been very stressful before the accident) and I become foggy (mild dp), exhausted and depressed. But these are issues I have carried with me a long time and needed to be worked out anyway so that's what I'm doing. Weirdly I am actually more confident in some ways now. I can speak in front of a group of people very openly and naturally now which before I really couldn't.

In conclusion, who knows what happened to me. Maybe the concussion triggered some kind of breakdown because of all the problems I had been experiencing previously (panic attacks, mild depersonalisation, relationship problems). Maybe it's all symptoms of PCS but I'm getting better and slowly and surely I'll get there.

One thing that worries me is all the stuff I've read about concussion increasing the risk of problems in later life, but I guess I should feel lucky that I'm even gonna get one after all I've been through.

hi Benjamin thats really good news so glad you are moving forward try not to worry about effect,s in later life coz it may not happen so pleased you are perusing your art

good luck

Wow, you've been through a lot! Hope you continue to improve.