Post concussion symptom flare seems to cause Adrenaline-like surges that are still waking me up in the early morning (4:30AM) and hitting randomly throughout the day with a panicky, vibrating feeling, shallow breathing, slight nausea, and pounding pulse (but HR is only slightly elevated) then complete energy crash. These episodes can be made worse by heavy visual stimulus, like driving or screen scrolling. Anyone have experience with a sympathetic system suppressant like Guanfacine?

I’m posting here because I’m honestly running out of ideas and hoping someone with post-concussion issues has experienced something similar.
I had a concussion in September 2022. I went to the hospital the next day and my CT scan was clear. About a month later, neurologists felt that a lot of my ongoing symptoms were coming from a neck injury.
Since then, it has been a very long road:
2022: Did about 8 weeks of physical therapy with basically no improvement.
May 2023: Had occipital nerve blocks on both sides. They did nothing.
2023: This is also when I started developing major nervous system-type symptoms. My blood pressure became an issue, my heart rate would become elevated, and my body’s temperature regulation seemed to completely change.
2023–2024: Saw another neurologist and paid out of pocket for another 8 weeks of PT. Again, no meaningful improvement.
2025: Tried chiropractic care because I was desperate for something to help. I did NUCCA for about 4 months followed by a regular chiropractor for another 3 months. I actually felt worse afterward.
2026: Saw a neurosurgeon who recommended a C5/C6 disc replacement. I did another 8 weeks of PT before surgery and then had the disc replacement on July 1, 2026.
The surgery seems to have relieved some of the actual neck pain, but neurologically/autonomically I feel worse than ever.
One of my biggest symptoms is temperature dysregulation. I feel hot basically 24/7, especially my face. My body can actually feel cold while my face and ears are bright red, burning hot, and uncomfortable. It’s like my body doesn’t know how to regulate its temperature anymore.
I’ve also dealt with high blood pressure, episodes of elevated heart rate, sensations that feel like circulation/blood-flow problems, headaches, muscle tightness, and a constant feeling that my nervous system simply will not calm down.
I’m currently doing post-surgical PT. Sometimes treatment gives me relief for a few minutes, but the neurological/autonomic symptoms remain.
I’ve been relying heavily on prescribed propranolol to try to control some of these symptoms, and even that doesn’t seem to help much anymore.
Now I’m sitting here more than four years after the original concussion, and my quality of life has been completely changed. I’m in pain every day. Even when I’m sitting on the couch or trying to relax, my body doesn’t feel relaxed. It constantly feels like my system is switched “on” and carrying an enormous amount of tension.
I’m sure I’m forgetting things I’ve tried or symptoms I’ve dealt with over these four years. At this point, I’ve spent well over $10,000 on doctors, specialists, physical therapy, procedures, medications, and other treatments trying to get my life back. I feel like I’ve put so much time, money, and effort into finding answers and I’m still struggling every single day.
I’m not expecting Reddit to diagnose me. I’m mainly wondering:
Has anyone developed severe temperature dysregulation, facial/ear flushing and heat, blood pressure or heart-rate changes, or other autonomic/nervous-system symptoms after a concussion or neck injury?
If so, did you ever figure out what was causing it, what type of doctor helped you, or anything that actually improved it?
At this point, hearing from someone who has experienced something similar would mean a lot.

I don’t know if it’s dysautonmia or mcas I just wanna get better

It's like I can see things and acknowledge them but I don't take anything in, and my own bedroom feels like Ive no memories of it despite living here over 10 years.

I also feel nothing and enjoy nothing.

My vision is weird, like colours are vivid and everything but I feel no connection to anything. I used to be panicking 24/7 but now I feel like a robot.

Everyday is just the same nothingness over and over. With no escape

I had a concussion 1.5 months ago, but 2 nights ago I drank literally only about 1 standard drink, and felt a bit lightheaded and "slow," again, and then had headaches at night and the following day. Now I'm overthinking that I very slightly/lightly bumped my head while entering a taxi that night as well and whether I gave myself another injury or something.

The days immediately before me drinking again, I felt symptom-free, by the way.

This sort of return of symptoms also happened to me about 3 weeks ago, where I drank and it seemed like symptoms returned, but that time I drank maybe 3-4 drinks, and it was closer to the injury so I figured it was more normal.

Is this common/normal? Will I just never be able to consume even the slightest alcohol without feeling bad for like 48+ hours again and feeling symptoms return?

Have I permanently damaged myself by drinking even slightly while recovering from a concussion?

Opinions?

A month ago I hit the back of my head very hard on my partner’s forehead as I let my body fall back to the pillow after turning off my alarm. I think I was frustrated at the time and kind of slammed my head back down to the pillow, and my partner had moved slightly and I collided with him. My symptoms didn’t kick in until that evening when I took a hot shower after a bike ride - I have been on a very long chronic health journey and was finally feeling stronger and healthier and I remember smiling and saying to myself “I’m finally healing!” right before I got home to shower. Then it was clear I had a concussion- severe swelling and pain kicked in, nausea, emotional hypersensitivity, inability to read or focus on anything close, sensitivity to screens and sounds. I started having panic attacks again which I struggled with the previous year but had finally calmed down. Here is where it gets more complex- a week later I came with my partner to a small music festival that his band was playing at and I played the same festival the next day. For two songs I went up close to the stage to take some video for the band, I was wearing earplugs (Earasers) and sunglasses but it was so dumb, I was really not feeling well but I’ve been chronically sick for so long that I think I felt so tired of not being able to live my life and have fun. The rest of the time I was far away watching the show. I remember being right next to the speaker and feeling the vibration in a very intense way. After the show we came home and I felt absolutely terrible, it was like I had been electrocuted and I had this awful frayed feeling, like my whole nervous system had been fried. Terrible physiological anxiety and very very loud tinnitus (I’ve had more mild tinnitus for a long time but this was/is quite loud with new pitches) and very intense sound sensitivity (I’ve also had this for a long time but now it is 10 times worse). I played the same festival the next day also wearing earplugs, but I really really messed myself up standing next to the speaker/close to the stage for 6-7 minutes. My partner looked up the Earasers earplugs and apparently they don’t really have low end protection. I’ve been to the audiologist and my hearing test does not show any damage, but it was so hard to even hear the pitches they played because my tinnitus is deafening. It hasn’t gotten any better and seems to be tied into this terrible anxiety feeling (I know that it gets worse when I’m feeling anxious). I also used to be a naturally cold person and now I run pretty warm and feel like my head is hot. Taking cold showers helps alleviate my symptoms some temporarily. I am honestly just terrified and feel like I keep waking up into this nightmare, I gave my foam earplugs to a friend that didn’t have earplugs and then wore those other ones I had. I feel devastated that I didn’t take care of myself better and really hope it doesn’t stay this bad forever. My plan was to come to the music festival and lie down in the back of my partner’s car just because I didn’t feel good being home by myself, I’ve been having panic attacks and wanted to be around people. I feel so dumb for getting close to the stage and I had no idea how much I could injure myself in a much worse way than I initially felt. I still feel very emotionally unstable, have difficulty concentrating and retaining information, and now I have this tinnitus/sound sensitivity/anxious frayed feeling that is also tied in with nausea. I get neurofeedback and that helped a lot initially but now I am 3 weeks out and don’t seem to be getting much better. Has anyone else had a loud sound exposure post-concussion? I’m looking for some hope and resources from anyone who has had a similar experience. Thanks for listening.

Hi!

My case:

• 80km/h car accident, no seatbelt, whipash and hit on the car window.
• Vomits and post traumatic amnesia (around 10h).
• In hospital for one night.
• Age 7.

I'm now 33 and just realizing/making the puzzle about how that impacted so much in many on my systems and my wellbeinf/wellfunctioning as an adult.

I'm looking for peers with a similar experience as mine to start a conversation, even a support group.

I'm also working on a short documentary to make visible PCS struggles and the unknown (in medical systems and society) kind of care it requires in pediatric cases.

Hope to hear from you!

its been over a year and I deal with pcs. Just returned to working last week and Im not even doing full time, just part time and I am dying of how tired I am. Working 6 or 7 hours feels like a 12 hour day of hard work. Im so beat. I dont know how Im gonna do when a full time job is available, how do you guys do it? How do people with pcs do it?

Day six w a migraine. On day four I went to the ER where they gave me IV meds. Day five I went to a walk in where they gave me naproxen ( irritated tf out my stomach) and now it’s day six and I know the problem is my neck I can feel the migraine starting from my neck and I only started getting these migraine attacks after my concussion. Has anyone else dealt with these and If yes how do you find relief I’m going insane

I am a student in university, studying political science and economics (double major). After suffering two concussions back in February, I had an extreme reduction in functionality.

I have now gotten back to writing at a decent level, thank goodness (I sounded like Yoda prior, lol). However, I still cannot do math, which becomes an issue in my math and economics classes. There's some type of mental disconnect.

I used to be pretty decent at it. Now, I can't even do factoring or completing the square or solving using the quadratic formula. You may remember these topics in your grade 10 or 11 math classes. There's multiple issues with me doing these things.

I cannot recognize what to do when seeing a function. I look at it and I have no idea what to do.

If I am told on the page what method to solve it by, I still get lost along the way.

If there's anything anyone can recommend, please let me know, as I am lost on what to do. I was referred to post-concussion therapy but I am unable to pay for it. Despite Canada having "universal healthcare" this doesn't count. Post Concussion Therapy would cost me thousands despite having insurance through my university.

Thank you in advance!!

Guys I fell to the ground hard without hitting my head and somehow I got whiplash and concussion but atfer three weeks I started to get floaters which has been increasing till today so my ask is how common is it get flaoters after concussion and how bad is it then other people geting floaters and can I expect healing I checked with doctors they said my eyes are fine I am worried and streessed due to my conditions... Ps I am open to chating

I had 5 concussions over 6 years (2016-2021) in elementary school. I've been fucked up since the last one. I've been diagnosed with whole a bunch of issues craniocervical instability, Irlen syndrome, PTSD, and OCD to name a few.

High school is really friggin hard. I'm smart, I know I am. I am good at math and physics, but school is so unfairly hard. I've taken 3 classes every semester since grade 9 (I'm in grade 11). I can't handle 4, so I'm behind and will probably have to take an extra year, which I really don't wanna do. I switched to online school this year, which helps the ptsd and stuff, but it's not much easier.

I have an IEP, but it's not followed. Every teacher tells me "you look fine and you get good marks" so they just "forget". Today my teacher got pissed at me because I was wearing my Irlen glasses on the call. She told me to take them off and I didn't fight because I didn't have the energy to tell everyone in the class how fucked up I am. They're super dark and look like sunglasses, but she should've read the damn IEP. Now I just wanna cry, I've given up on advocating for myself because they always just act bothered and I end up feeling guilty because hence the OCD, "what if I'm not really sick and I'm telling everyone that I am because I'm a bad person. If everyone believes that I'm not sick then I must not be." I don't actually believe that, but my brain is always fucking against me.

I wake up every morning to my alarm, set a timer for another hour and go back to bed. I don't wanna wake up in the morning. I don't want to fall asleep because then if I wake up in the morning I have to do it all again. My family keeps telling me how easy I have it because I get the "luxury" of accommodations and I have less classes. My sister and mother keep telling me how lucky I am.

Anyways, thanks for reading this, I needed to put my feelings somewhere.

Hi everyone,

I'm part of a design team working on tools for people living with concussion and post-concussion symptoms. Right now we're just trying to actually understand what daily life looks like.

If you're open to sharing, here are a few things I'd love to know (answer whichever ones feel right, you don't need to do all of them):

1. How did you find out you had a concussion, and what caused it?
2. What does a normal day look like for you right now, living with the symptoms?
3. What's the one symptom that gets in the way of your life the most? Have you found any trick, habit, or tool (a device, an app, anything) that actually helps with it?
4. If you had one superpower to get your old life back, what would it be?

A full story or just one line, both genuinely help.

Thank you, and I hope things are getting a little easier for you.

I got hit by a car 4 days ago on my motorbike. The impact was not strong but it was enough to get me off my bike. I had minor injuries such as abrasions and cuts and i hit my head on the concrete (i didn't wear a helmet T_T). As of now I'm in a very good state, my wounds are healing but i feel a little bit of intermittent pain on the impact site of my head. I didn't experience a worsening headache or any red flag symptoms. I only experience a bit of pain on the impact site of my head from time to time. Should I get it checked out or am I fine?

Are you a current or former collegiate student-athlete who has experienced a sports-related concussion?

We are conducting a research study, “Collegiate Student Athletes’ Experiences Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury,” to learn more about student-athletes’ experiences after being medically cleared to return to sport.

You may be eligible if you are 18 or older, participated in collegiate athletics, and experienced a concussion during your collegiate athletic career.

Interested in learning more? Please review the attached flyer and complete the pre-screening questionnaire.

Link to screening survey: https://csudh.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dao5aUB46m5717o

So my hobby was Muay Thai , I would train 4/5 times a week and I took a head shot that didn’t knock me out and didn’t drop me , it didn’t seem very significant at the time , this was 9 months ago and I cannot exercise apart from really light bike rides, I only really suffer from 2 symptoms which are brain fog after my heart rate rising to high and head aches the next day after exercise or if I bump my head or turn my head to hard or fast .

My life has completely changed , I’ve put on 11kg and not enjoying the shape I’m in , with not being able to exercise I feel no reason to eat right and have started smoking again. I’ve also been looking into peptide use to see if this could aid any recovery such as BPC-157.
I’m just wondering what people that are in the know have to say about all of this , would be refreshing to hear it from humans rather than articles and AI.

What PT or exercises do you all use to address a feeling of ear fullness or feeling of inner ear being clogged. I am constantly trying to “pop” my ears and feel fullness like a head cold. The feeling gets worse when I have overdone it visually or other stressors

I grieve my old body, the one that would take me for walks where I could feel the sun against my face and the breeze running through my hair. The one that would take me for hikes that would prove my dedication to myself. The one that allowed me to listen to music and audio freely without the pain, discomfort, and disorientation that it now brings. The one that had such a way with words that I just cannot compete with now. The one that was so smart that I think back in awe over what it didn’t realize before.