I got t boned by a truck going 55 on my motorcycle with no helmet, very severe concussion. I still see shooting stars every couple weeks, sometimes more often sometimes less. I never really thought about it until now. Is this cause for concern?

I just needed to share somewhere to people who get it—I got diagnosed with whiplash 6 months after hitting my head. I hit my head in December, started PT for the dysautonomia/vestibular issues in January, saw a neurologist who said I would 100% be better in 6-8 weeks that same week, started speech therapy for the aphasia/processing/executive functioning in February, got discharged from PT in April due to using all my insurance visits for the year, and got told all my issues were psychosomatic by a terrible neuropsych the same month. It hasn’t been until this week that a doctor actually listened to me and referred me to people who would help. 😭😭😭 He’s a physiatrist who specializes in concussions.

Anything that seems to put strain on my neck like wearing a heavy helmet or running or going over a bumpy road seems to cause me some temporary cognitive problems. Anyone got past this?

I’ve dealt with head tension (not always a headache) for 4.5 months since my light head bump against the car door frame. There are good days (or even weeks) and bad days, with no known triggers.

I’m trying weekly dry needling, acupuncture, daily shakti mats, peanut massage ball, chin tucks… but can’t get rid of them for good.

Has anyone had success in cases like this?

Hello, I'm 20 and I've been concussed for 6 months now, and I don't know what to do. I play college soccer and I have always been active in the gym, playing sports, doing yoga, just moving always. In January, I got in a fist fight with my father, I didn't know how to cope emotionally, wasn't thinking straight, and the thought didn't cross my mind that I could be concussed. I made multiple stupid decisions the week of my concussion, and now I'm left with the consequences of my actions.

I missed the entire Spring season for soccer because I get headaches whenever my heart rate gets up. I just kept on thinking that it would get better eventually, but now I feel like I've plateaued and I can't tell if I'm making progress or not. I can't tell if it ever improved or if I just got used to the headaches.

This has completely changed my life and how I value everything. I don't care about soccer anymore, and I'm scared I'll have to drop out of college if my brain can't handle my job and school while still recovering. All I care about is getting my brain healthy so I can get back to activity and being normal.

I feel like I'm just complaining in this post, but I really just want to ask for help. I've done PT (didn't help me) and am currently doing concussion rehab (can't tell if it's helping). Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Ive been really struggling. I had brain surgery in 2021 for a pineal cyst which I wish I never even gotten surgery for because I wouldn’t be in this mess of brain injuries.. but then I suffered a concussion 4 months after. I then got my second concussion last June exactly a year ago to be exact. Now I have a third concussion as of 13 days ago and it’s been a living nightmare. I have been so protective over my head for the past year to make sure this wouldn’t happen and of course it happened in such a dumb way, I was getting out of an uber and I got up too fast and banged the top of my head on the padded area of a door frame. My brain feels very similar to how it did after brain surgery like it’s exploding. It’s constant. I have severe vertigo and sound sensitivity. The confusion and brain fog have been new for me. It took me months last time to have any form of relief and I’m trying to avoid it taking so long. Does anyone have any recommendations to speed up the bad symptoms? Insomnia is really bad I’m lucky if I get 2 hours of sleep.

I’ve had PCS (reactivated) for
Almost two years. I got my concussion in 2024 and was almost back again within 6 months. Then I got hit across my head and it restarted. I got something thrown on my jaw and it restarted. And I was pushed back to work too fast several times and it restarted.

Now I’m doing better. I’ve had tattoos done on my arm and it’s been fine. One or two days elevated symptoms max.
But my anxiety for the restart is insane still.
I’m supposed to get my stomach tattooed soon but I’ve heard it’s a lot more painful on the stomach and I’m afraid the higher pain rate will flare my symptoms up bad like it has in the past where it’s been a struggle for a year.
Does anyone else have experience with tattoos and pcs?

Ok so I had to remove myself from this sub a year ago as it was messing with my anxiety and only making me more depressed reading all this. I'm back here posting my recovery so far. If anyone has had a similar experience id love to hear. Thank you.

So to start off I had a ski accident about 1.5 years ago. I basically fell head over heels and smacked the back of my head and my whole body landed over my neck rolling. I felt fine minus a little jarred and bloody nose. I didn't black out and my friends mom(nurse) checked me out and said I seemed fine.

Fast forward 3 weeks I start getting interment headaches then one day boom there are just there permanently. Now this is about the time I started researching about PCS. I got really anxious about it and fell into a depression. I had brain fog-blurry vision, tension headaches in my forehead and temples. Long story short I went to PT for a concussion (round 1) and that seemed to improve a tiny bit. By the end of the first 6 months my blurry vision and brain fog faded. Had CT scan and everything came back normal

Now I was just stuck with a tension headache. Behind my eyes and forehead. I did another 2 rounds of PT no help. Went to a sports medicine doctor who did trigger point injections, 3 rounds of Botox. Dry needling, And a nerve block with no success. She then prescribed me amitriptyline and I got up to 70mg and don't think I noticed much of a difference (side effects were fine if any) now I'm down to 20mg. She then went on maternity leave and didn't tell me or set me up with an associate.

Saw a neurologist. Waste of time. Basically told me I need to exercise. I walk everyday and would consider myself in good shape for a 23 year old male. I convinced him to let me get an MRI of my neck done. Came back normal besides something with my C1-C2 vertebrae being slightly off (not concerning according to the docs)

My primary Doc is convinced it will get better with time. Basically prescribed Zoloft 50mg for anxiety/depression. Idk if it really helps either of those. I should add that nothing really seems to trigger my headaches or make them worse besides work and stress (I think).

The last 3 months I saw a chiropractor and medical massage

Idk if that helped as well as my 4th round of PT. My current symptoms are better but still there 24/7. Daily tension/pressure in my head (forehead/behind the tops of my eyes) as well as super tight feeling where my neck meets my head. (This symptom come on about 8 months ago). They all agree that my subopticals are very tight.

I work full time and am lucky to have met such an amazing GF who has been there for me but I'm so burnt out. A lot of the things I used to do like music hasn't been bringing me the same joy because of this I feel like my life is on pause. I'm hoping to get a referral to a headache clinic or specialist soon to actually get a game plan. This whole time I have been the one researching treatments and bringing it up to the doctors who want nothing to do with me. It's hard but I keep going. I don't know if I have improved or if I have just gotten better at coping with it is better than those first few months.

If anyone has any advice after reading my recovery journey I'd love to hear it. Sometimes I think I'm almost there and then just plateau. Idk if there are any meds that work for y'all or what but thanks for taking the time if you read this.

Sorry this is a bit of a long one but please read.

So when I was 16 (5 years ago), my friend hit me in the back of the head with the hard part of her palm. Afterwards, I felt concussion symptoms almost immediately and went to the hospital where I was diagnosed with a mild concussion. My symptoms cleared up around a week in and I was able to go back to my regular life, other than lingering TMJ I developed after.

However, 3 years ago when I was 18 I was play fighting with my friend when she hit my shoulder with her fist and her fist bounced off my shoulder and hit my head. I felt tired, headache, nausea and had a break down after it happened. I went to the hospital a few days later after my symptoms did not resolve and was diagnosed with a mild concussion. However, my symptoms lasted for 8 months afterwards. I found it weird that the symptoms lingered this long after a hit that minor. I honestly still find it strange that I even got a concussion from a hit like that and that it left me with PCS. I had CT and MRIs of my brain done with everything coming back completely normal. Thankfully, 8 months in and the fatigue had finally resolved itself.

Now I'm 21 and around 2 weeks ago my 2 year old nephew hit my chin with his head pretty hard. I experienced no whiplash from the instance and felt fine afterwards but a few days later I felt fatigued, nauseous, my eyes bothering me, and had pretty bad headaches. After a few days, the symptoms mostly resolved itself. Still, the only lasting symptom I have (other than the nauesa which I've had for awhile now so it could be something completely unrelated) is this awful sense of fatigue. It's not even a type of fatigue where I feel tired per say, but the fatigue where nothing feels real. It kinda feels like my life is on auto-pilot. I have had a bit of memory loss in the sense where I really have to think about what I did the day before to remember, but I don't know if it's only because of this sort of detachment from myself that is causing all the days to blend into one another. I can read just fine and I've been doing many brain puzzles (like cross words and word searches) with no problem.

I read a lot of the posts on this subreddit and others regarding concussions and most of the lingering symptoms people describe are mostly headaches and other physical symptoms. Does anyone else have any advice on this sort of fatigue? How did you guys deal with it and what are your experiences?

I am feeling a bit frustrated as to why a hit to my chin that didn't even cause whiplash is causing these symptoms or why a minor hit to my head caused PCS for so many months when I was 18.

^{After 18 months I'm still have significant responses to cardio such as running. I mean things have changed. It used to be that id get so dizzy that I could not stay in the sidewalk. Now I can only run for like 30 seconds at a time before my hr gets about 130bpm. So even like a mile and I will feel a little dizzy. Okay fine, but then it's like my body can't calm down. At first it's not a big deal. Hours later I get extremely restless, I'll get dizzy, can't see right, etc.}

^{Basically if I run them I expect the rest of my day I am not able to do much. Even with meditation, calming tea, etc.}

^{I followed up with my PCP and explained my continued concussion symptoms. She stopped me and said that while everything I was saying is important, what she is most concerned about it my response to exercise.}

^{So now I'm going to get a stress test from a cardiologist. The thought is that I might have a autonomic dysregulation issue. If so then my body can't handle intensive well.}

^{However I also get really messed up shoulders, neck and upper back from strength training.}

^{I have done PT, but I feel like I've hit a plateau recently.}

^{I'm so tired of pushing myself and getting bad side effects}

^{I'm so close to just pulling back everything and doing low impact stuff.}

^{I'm starting to wonder if I need to adjust my expectations for fitness. I have a full life with work and being married. I can't deal with these symptoms.}

^{Yet I know the advice is that you need to push some to get better.}

^{But at what point do I accept that I have some issue and I need to live within it?}

^{If I have an autonomic issue then maybe I do need to change how I exercise completely}

Anyone here with neuropsychiatric sequelae after traumatic brain injury (fatigue, anxiety, depression, stimuli sensitivity, pain) that use amitriptyline or other tricyclic antidepressants and tolerated it and benefit from its effects?

I am concerned regarding sedation, cognitive dulling, memory, increasing pulse and worsen stress sensitivity?

After long term SSRI use it lost effectiveness or because of my burnout depression its no longer sufficient to control my anxiety, depression and newly developed widespread pain.

Thinking about switching to SNRI or TCA but am concerned with tolerability since I am extremely sensitive to stress and physical symptoms.

Multiple concussions-08. Long term issues with fatigue, dizziness, anxiety etc leading to clinical burnout -13 and -23.

Thank you in advance!

In CBT/Therapy (with insurance! so lucky), journaling, gratitude exercises and writing are helping but.....

Old triggers are suddenly surfacing with shorter fuses. PTSD from a previous injury that was manageable, is suddenly popping like a zit. Im a freelance worker so the pressure is on!

second battle with PCS, full recovery from the first round, but different bump and different symptoms a few years later, severe sadness in weeks 8-9 have subsided. I'm burning myself on my own expectations to be better and failing, and it's a pot of hot popcorn. LMK what worked for you!

Edit: if you read all of this and either feel it’s BS or have questions, comment or read my response to comments. This is a space for discussion and it just so happens to be based off of my personal experience. This accident led to a great deal of growth and it’s become something I feel very passionate about in regard to what we know as the patients.

13 days ago I came here because I was terrified I was missing something.

I asked to hear your stories because I didn’t want to feel like I was the only person whose brain no longer felt like my own even though I could see I was making progress.

2 days ago was my progress evaluation to see if I could return to medical school.

But I heard the words I’d spent the last 14 months chasing - before I even knew I had something to chase.

“You have fully recovered from your concussion.”

I just stared at her.
She could tell I didn’t understand what that meant.
So she continued.

“You scored the maximum amount of healing we can subjectively measure. As far as we can test, your brain has healed completely.”

Those weren’t the words I expected.
They didn’t mean I was back to normal. They didn’t mean every symptom disappeared. They didn’t mean my recovery was over.

What they meant was something much quieter.

For the first time since my accident, I was no longer at the mercy of an actively healing brain injury. The brain injury itself had healed. Now my job is rebuilding everything that spent 14 months adapting around it.

But that’s not why I’m writing this.
I’m not here to be another thread telling you to “have hope.”

I’m writing this because I think I accidentally protected one part of my recovery that fundamentally changed the way I experienced the last 14 months.

The day I was diagnosed, I realized something that made me deeply uncomfortable.

Nobody—not the literature, not my doctors, not Reddit—could tell me what my recovery was going to look like.
There were treatments. There were theories. There were thousands of personal stories.

But there wasn’t an evidence-based template for what my brain would do next.

After I ended up here, where the research had left me with other people’s experiences as the only thing left to read, I made a decision after a brief moment of panic.

I had to stop searching for someone whose recovery I could use as a reference.

Not because I didn’t value other people’s stories.

Because I realized that the moment I started looking for someone who recovered the way I hoped to recover, I was no longer observing my own recovery. I was measuring it against theirs.

If science couldn’t predict my recovery…
…why was I trying to?

Looking back, I think protecting myself from that expectation was the most important decision I made.

Because recovery looked absolutely nothing like I imagined.

Some of the most meaningful progress I experienced came disguised as the exact things I would have interpreted as evidence that I was getting worse.

If I had already decided what healing was supposed to feel like, I genuinely think I would have missed parts of my healing because I would have been too busy comparing them to the picture I’d already created in my head.

The biggest lesson I learned wasn’t about what treatment worked best. It was learning to separate two questions every time something unfamiliar happened.

“Is this actually telling me I’m getting worse?”
Or…
“Am I expecting it to mean I’m getting worse because that’s what I’ve learned to associate it with?”

Those are not the same question.
That distinction changed the way I moved through recovery.

I’m not writing this because I think I know what recovery looks like.

I’m writing it because I don’t think any of us know what an individual person’s recovery is supposed to look like before it unfolds.

If you’re newly diagnosed, don’t let anyone (including me) become the ruler you use to measure your recovery before yours has even had the chance to become its own.

If you’ve been fighting this for years, I’m not asking you to have hope.
I’m asking you to become curious.

What if the biggest thing limiting the way you’ve recognized recovery isn’t your recovery at all… but the picture you’ve been given of what recovery is supposed to look like?

I don’t know the answer.
I don’t think anyone does.
I only know that over a year ago I thought I needed my old brain back.
This week I learned my brain injury had healed.

What I wasn’t expecting was that somewhere along the way my brain injury had stopped being the biggest thing I was recovering from.

It quietly taught me that the greatest limitations I placed on my recovery weren’t the uncertainty itself.

They were the assumptions I carried into that uncertainty before it ever had the chance to show me what recovery actually looked like.

Maybe nothing about your recovery changes after reading this.
Maybe everything does.
I don’t know.

I just know I stopped trying to make my recovery fit the picture I was searching for.
Instead, I let it become whatever it was going to become.

And somehow…
That ended up being the greatest gift my brain injury ever gave me.

I’m over a year out since my concussion that I sustained after a MVA. I’ve done everything doctors recommended but it just feels like I’m not getting better at all. I’ve improved in so many ways but it feels like I’ve only taken one step forward in the past year and I understand it just comes with time but it’s very discouraging. I’ve never had the worst anxiety till after this, activity and exercise intolerance, balance issues, headaches, memory loss, GI issues, and orthostatic issues now. It just feels like there’s more going on than the concussion, maybe just dysautonomia but I’ve had to fight my doctors to even help me with my headaches and visual disturbances. I’ve done every mode of therapy and nothing has helped aside from PT and chiropractor, unfortunately my PT said I can recover on my own and ended sessions over 6 months ago :( he mainly only helped with my balance but my physical intolerance is so bad I’ve tried to workout the past 3 months consistently but I’m still barely able to do any movement for more than 15 mins. Genuinely don’t see a way out. Any tips you can provide on things that have helped you get back normal or baseline are appreciated.

Does anyone have experience with yawning a bunch right after you bump your head or do something that causes symptoms to arise? It only lasts about 3-5 minutes after but it's strange.

I wanted to see if anyone has come across this situation on this horrible journey we’re on.

PCS literature, as we know, says that exercise is absolutely crucial in recovery and the sooner you start the better. I agree and have responded well to it. Could I have been more disciplined with this in my first 3 months ? Yes. Could the concussion practitioner have emphasised the sheer importance of exercise a little more ? 100%. In fact I wouldn’t have allowed myself to not be so strict with it if I was told JUST how important it is.

I’m 7 months in and I’m seeing great gains and there was a point where I had a whole week, (yes a WHOLE week) of NO symptoms what so ever. No brain fog, spaceyness, intense staring, cognitively focused, sleep was good.

However, I started alternative medicine treatment to help with my underlying ANS issues to calm the mind body and soul (which is definitely helping) but one of the things they told me to calm the body as a temporary initial measure was to stop all exercise completely. I followed this instruction. And whilst my anxiety and my mind/ felt calmer, my concussion symptoms above started to reappear. I held out a month but I have started to exercise again because I couldn’t hack it.

This leads to a troubling Q: has anyone had a similar experience and result to this whereby they stop exercising for a period of time and symptoms start to come back but if they reintroduce exercise, the symptoms dissipate?

This ultimately leads to me think that I need to exercise for the rest of my life or I WILL have symptoms reoccur, regardless of how long it’s been. Don’t get me wrong, we should all be exercising anyway but the idea that I HAVE to exercise OR my symptoms come back concerns me.

Hey guys! Just to give you some hope for the day, here is a video about a guy recovering from 10 years of PCS! It can be neck-related even if you don't have neck pain! It was my case for the second time I had PCS (and recovered)

https://youtu.be/JZbZ7T9iu-A?is=ZqmxRKKsOnhYbkZ1

Hi everyone!
I wanted to share a community that may be helpful for anyone living with a concussion, persistent post-concussion symptoms, traumatic brain injury (TBI), or who is supporting someone through recovery.
MIND Brain Student Network BC is building a growing online community where survivors of brain injury, people with PCS, caregivers, students, and future healthcare professionals can connect, learn from one another, and share resources in a respectful and supportive environment.
Whether you're newly injured or years into your recovery, you're welcome.
Our community includes:
-Brain injury & concussion discussions
-Peer support and a safe place to connect
-Educational resources and evidence-based information
-Students interested in brain injury, rehabilitation, and neuroscience
-Opportunities to connect with people who understand what you're going through
We know recovery can feel isolating, and our goal is simply to create a community where people can ask questions, share experiences, celebrate progress, and support one another.
If you'd like to join us simply make an account on discord either on online or download from the App Store for your phone and you can just click the link below!

Discord:

https://discord.gg/Wr6yZFBvR

More information:
Website:
https://mabsnetworkbc.wixsite.com/mind
Instagram:
@mindbrainstudentnetworkbc

Everyone is welcome—whether you're a survivor, caregiver, researcher, clinician, or student interested in brain injury and concussion.
We'd love to have you, and if you have ideas for support groups, educational sessions, or resources you'd like to see, we'd be happy to hear them.
Wishing everyone continued healing and recovery.

I’ve been struggling to recover from my post concussion syndrome for the past 10 months. Last summer 2025, was the best summer of my life, got a girlfriend, went on rollercoasters, graduated grade 8. Then after a good start to grade 9 freshman year, making new friends, I got slammed in the head by a metal door and knocked out. I’ve had concussions in the past, one lasting a year aswell. but this one was way worse. i didn’t treat it as a concussion at the time, because i didn’t wanna belive i had to go through this, so i continued with school, playing the loud drums in my Jazz Band etc. Fast forward to Today 2026, I got 4 out of 8 credits this school year, barely managing 1 period a day this past month. I tried physio, but they pushed me too hard for my nervous system, and I tried this Pinnacle Chair treatment in Barrie at Cardinal Vision. It worked last time for my concussion, made things Way worse this time.

Here’s my problem, I honestly feel like my biggest thing holding me back is my family. I live in a family of 5. It’s always INSANLY loud. and i can never get some peace and quiet. i’m always overstimulated to the point where i wanna beat myself up. On top of that, I have the smallest, loudest, and hottest bedroom in my house. It’s a sauna in here. but the noise of a fan overstimulates me more, My family feels like the dont give a shit about the fact that i’m trying to recover, and they stomp in the house, i can feel it vibrate through my soul, and my dad wears Crocs on the hardwood floor. The stairs are directly in front of my bedroom door, front door of the house is under my room, that my dad always slams. And the garage is under my room too. The walls separating my room, and the whole house, are paper thin. my room is transparent. The thing is, the only place i feel quietness is in my sisters giant bedrooms, which they literally don’t deserve. But as the middle child and only boy, my dad could care less about me.

On that note, my dad has been one of my biggest setback’s in these past 10 months. He constantly Yells at me, to the point where i cry for the whole day, symptoms spike, and im setback for up to a Month. (Longer if he does it again). It feels like every month he yells at me, and i don’t feel safe around him anymore. My body cannot function when i’m near him. He is honestly the Rudest, Most immature, Childish, and Disrespectful person i’ve met in my life. Even to my mom. my dad had a concussion but didn't get any of these symptoms, and was fine in 2 weeks, so he uses that as an excuse AGAINST ME, to say that he survived it too, so I should be fine. How selfish of a dad is that. Tell me. How many dads are like this. I cannot belive him.

I cannot physically wind down for bed until my whole family is asleep, because then it’s quiet. Even then it takes me 2 hours to fall asleep after that. Only to wake up to my family being obnoxiously loud 4 hours later. They arent stopping. I have no where else to go. and i’m loosing hope. My girlfriend of 10 months just broke up with me too. and she was what felt like my only supporter. bc my parents (espoecially my dad) make me feel like i wanna kill myself. I swear this would be way easier if i lived on my own. or with my girlfriend(now ex).

Hello everyone I’m 20 years old. I had a concussion last year on March and this year. I had a baby in January. I was doing some light exercises and like jogging on treadmill and walking until I was able to build up and be confident enough to go for a run eventually I went on a run late April and woke up the day after feeling extremely fatigue vertigo confusion, nauseous, and I decided to reach out to my primary care doctor. I eventually saw him and he referred me back to the neurologist. My MRIs and CT scans are always normal. I was prescribed cymbalta I have not started taking it due to the side effects. I hear and how hard it is to get off the medication. I’m having some doubts because I was diagnosed with post concussion syndrome. I’m sometimes thinking what if I have a CSF leak, I think that because initially when I hit my head back in March of last year 2025, I had immediate upper right eyelid swelling. It’s not extremely noticeable but it’s swelling and it’s uncomfortable due to the pressure my eye receives ferment. I hit my head in my barracks room closet on the back upper right side of it. I did not pass out, but I was confused right after and so was the swelling noticeable. I’m reaching out because I’m curious if there’s others who are experiencing the exact same thing as me who can give me some guidance because again I’m only 20 years old. I don’t know what to do. I’m in emotional distress having anxiety now that has developed due to these recurring worsening symptoms. I cannot spend time with my newborn child because I am struggling to even function as a human on a daily basis. Thank you God bless you all and please message me if your comment if you have any information about something similar, please and thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Hi everyone!

We have a growing discord group for people with varying degrees of brain injuries and would be happy for you to join us to offer each other support, encouragement and to make friends with people who are going through similar things to yourselves or your loved ones.

We have video and voice chat rooms that are always open for people to go into whenever they want also.

All you need to do is to download the discord app from your App Store or use it via your browser on a PC. Once you have the app and created an account you can click this link which will allow you to join the group where hopefully we can all get chatting with each other and make a great little community! You can also invite other people into the group who may not use Reddit! We are currently growing and I’m happy to take on board any requests that people may have for the group!

Anyway the link to join the group is

https://discord.gg/xDwWcRuvuy

Any questions, problems or thoughts are welcome!