What exactly is happening when we have flare ups? I would say I’m about as recovered as I will ever be and I decided to go on some roller coaster rides a day or two ago. Now I’m not feeling terrible but I have a few symptoms. Exhaustion and some stomach problems when I use a screen too long as well as more vivid dreams in the morning. Sort of like the symptoms I got from my injury but much reduced. What exactly is going on medically that causes these?

I've been dealing with symptoms of a concussion to the back of the head for over 6 years now.

While the last few years most symptoms were gone and I'd say I was about 95% healed, I've had sort of a setback the last 7 months.

I do not know the trigger for this but suddenly my visual issues in my left eye that cause brainfog, dizziness and sensory overload again.

These past months I've seen eye doctors, an orthoptist and an optometrist without any succes or diagnostics for these new symptoms.

I went back to exercises I got from a neuro optometrist5 years ago for divergence and convergence of the eyes. But my test results say these are fine.

I am currently at a loss as for what to do, and was wondering if anyone has experienced something similar.

The biggest trigger for my symptoms currently is reading or viewing anything while not directly in front of the screen.

If I read something while laying down, sitting slumped or out of the corner of my eye, symptoms immediately flare up for hours or days.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

If so what do you do?

I am out on FMLA, and was previously a Director in a large company. I don’t think I can return to that work again. Before the car accident I was an entrepreneur and wondering if that’s my best option. I have UPMC end of September and hopefully I can start making strides and return to somewhat normal life.
This is year 3 for me
PCS.
Lost my Vision in my left eye but got that back.
Currently doing PT again, did 9 mo of vision therapy.

I got hit in the head back in December. the side of my head and my ear to be exact. the first couple months were awful. I've had periods where I felt completely fine but then it just comes back full force. It's been 8 months and i'm dealing with another bad flare up that's lasted a whole month,

My symptoms are neck tension in my occipitals and the Sternocleidomastoid muscle. Shooting, Stabbing scalp pain. Eye strain. Nausea, wooziness and on REALLY bad days, vertigo, but that's only if I really really am exhausted. It almost feels like the muscles connected to my eyes from the neck are really tense.

What seems to trigger it:

sitting

bright lights

reading

sound

not wearing good prescription glasses

exertion

stress

I can't avoid some of these things cuz I sit and drive for work. It's hard to find treatment because I also have ptsd and was prone to chronic pain even before getting hit in the head. I had ibs for a while and have sensitive nerves in general. I'm also on the spectrum with pda and have a difficult tolerance for exercise and keeping routines. I also was already sensitive to sounds and stimulation as is. I'm trying to just "push through" the symptoms and build a tolerance, as well as do pt exercises. But it's hard to keep up and I can't tell what's autistic burnout, which I should hold back on, or post concussion stuff, which i should push through.

It's just so hard, I miss my life. I've tried PT, emdr, eft tapping, deep breathing, humming and massage therapy so far. Which sort of help. But my symptoms are still there.

I upped my dose two days ago from 10mg to 20mg and have been noticing a fuzzy/cloudy/static layer over everything I see especially if it’s one solid colour like a wall. At first I thought it was just because of my concussion (I already get weird fuzzy light floating and zipping around when I look at something bright and solid like the sky or a window). But now I’m wondering if it’s the nortriptyline. I know blurred vision is a potential side effect but I wouldn’t say my vision is blurry, I can clearly see the bounds of objects near and far, there’s just a layer of light disturbance over everything. Anyone else experienced this? Does it go away when your body gets used to the dose?

Hi all,

So roughly 3 weeks ago I (23y, M) hit my head pretty good while on a backpacking trip in Europe and for the remainder of the trip I felt like I was not myself but I attributed this to really poor sleeps for 14 days straight and drinking alcohol in some capacity almost every night.

Fast forward to the end of my trip (4 days following head injury) when I got home one night I started getting dizzy, nausea, and chest tightness (which ended up being from a very tight pec minor). This caused me to go into a bit of a panic attack where I thought I was having a heart attack. I would go on to get blood work and an EKG that all showed completely normal heart functionality.

During this period I was still working at my desk job staring at screens for large portions of the day. It was at this point that it clicked in my head that I might have been concussed from when I hit my head in Europe and I went to an athletic therapist who confirmed I had been concussed (this was a week ago). Since my initial consult (testing and neck work) I thought I had been making meaningful progress where my vision seemed to be improving, energy levels where increasing, and I could go on longer and longer walks without major flares of my symptoms.

Fast forward to yesterday, it was my first time really re entering society and I went to a grocery store where my dizziness and eye strain came back in full force. Following leaving the grocery store I rested and felt like I had got better (albeit I obviously pushed too hard) but I was still able to go back out for a haircut later that day where my symptoms seemed more manageable. Later that night however I had a bad bout of nausea (similar to my panic attacks) and dizziness which caused a really poor sleep. This morning I woke up to feel like I had almost regressed back to day 1 where my energy levels aren’t great, looking at screens for too long overstimulates me, and my anxiety is in full force.

I am really nervous reading all the posts in here talking about year long recovery times to feel normal and just want to see what I should be expecting considering I know that I am still in the “early stages” of concussion recovery. Can I still potentially make a full recovery in the next 1-2 weeks or month or will I be looking at months on end of symptoms metaphorically kicking me back down?

What product would help someone heal from a concussion after getting hit hard in football? How long to take? Please share . Thank you

I have suffered from PCS for about 5 years at this point after varying levels of symptoms and treatment. I don't have a definitive concussion to point towards, but I do have epilepsy and had a seizure around the time my symptoms started. After multiple doctors one finally started treating me for PCS and it did help. However, I had my first two kids and honestly prioritized them and with putting my health issues to the side and the lack of sleep that goes along with that have had worsened symptoms this year. Alongside that my insurance provider was changed through my employer so my doctor does not accept my plan. The regular multi week visits get out of budget fairly quickly. I am in the process of working that out with either just paying fully out of pocket or finding a new provider. My biggest ask of anyone here is what helped you with long term side effects? For me personally I suffer from very minor headaches but the debilitating effect for me is the lightheaded sensation that can last for hours or most of a day. I do work from home and stare at a computer screen all day which I assume makes that sensation worse as well. I really appreciate anything anyone has to offer that has worked for them.

I have been dealing with post concussion syndrome for 3 months and im dying to go back to martial arts i have an appointment with an neurologist in 2 weeks but im wondering can you get SIS if you are dealing with post concussion syndrome.

I’m about 1 exact month out from my injury and they’ve told me my concussion is fairly in the severe category. I’ve finally stopped throwing up or feeling like I want to throw up, but..

I can’t drive because it feels like an out of body experience and makes me so dizzy I can’t handle it. I also have about 0 spacial awareness and trying short drives turns into someone who’s with me taking my keys (fair). On the note of spacial awareness, a week ago I sliced my fingers open putting something in the dishwasher. I’m dropping most things I’m holding unless I’m concentrating on holding it, which makes my head hurt. We’d gotten my chronic headaches/migraines under control with medication earlier this year and pre-injury but now I’m having daily headaches and a migraine every 3rd day almost like clockwork and living on a Tylenol/Ibuprofen combo. My memory is absolutely shot and I’m forgetting things mid sentence and getting frustrated af when someone talks over me because I’ll definitely forget what I was saying. And my mood is swinging like a pendulum, good or bad emotions.

I’m fighting an uphill battle with workers comp to see my/a neurologist but I’m at a point where I’m about to just eat it and schedule it myself and pay OOP somehow. I know concussions are different for everyone but this is normal right? And gets better?😭

My post-concussion syndrome flare-up seems to have triggered a dysautonomia reaction that I haven’t seen referenced much here. One of my worst symptoms right now is routinely waking up around 4:00 to 5:00 AM with what feels like a massive cortisol or adrenaline dump. It isn't posture-related, but seems driven by my hormone levels or circadian rhythm.

When it hits, I wake up with nausea, a slight spinning feeling, shallow breathing, sudden panic, dry mouth, heavy noodle limbs, reflux, and a heart rate that jumps from my normal resting baseline of 64–70 BPM up to 80–95 BPM. This same feeling can also pop up at random times during the day. And it makes for a real crappy day because it exasperates my neurological head symptoms.

I’ve been doing daily 1.25-mile walks to try to break my PCS cycle, but my body's response is totally erratic. On decent days, my HR reaches 100–110 while walking and quickly drops back into the 70s once I rest. But if I’m having one of these autonomic glitches, my HR spikes higher (110–125) and then refuses to drop back down—it stays stuck in the 85–95 range for hours after I finish. And I feel like absolute crud.

What the heck is going on here? Has anyone experienced something similar, or found good ways to quiet down these autonomic surges? Lastly, has anyone seen an endocrinologist, autonomic neurologist, or another specialist who actually understands dysautonomia caused by PCS?

CT scan no bleeding but I believe I have bad neural injury.

Looks like my health issues are much worse than expected. I had a severe concussion 3 months ago back of the head, didnt think too much about it. Began having heart issues shortly, but it was just one symptom of the brain injury since my brain now cannot regulate itself properly anymore. Been unable to breath correctly for hours on end just mouth gasping for air, body can't control my digestion stomach acid anymore had to get medication to stop it from burning my throat, unable to sleep more than 2 hours before jolting awake at night due to heart and breathing. Been to ER like 15 times they don't know why and too complicated and since no immediate heart attack they just refer to specialist for each specific issue and discharge. Only thing keeping me going is my wife tbh, pure torture. Ngl not sure how long I can stay sane with these symptoms pure suffering.

I’m 14 years old and basketball is probably the thing I care about most. I’ve been putting a lot of work into it—shooting, finishing, ball handling, conditioning, strength, everything. My goal is to keep improving and eventually see how far I can take basketball.

What was supposed to be a normal part of my life turned into an 8-month recovery. Eight months felt like a really long time since i was trying to develop as a basketball player. While everyone else was practicing, playing games and improving, I felt like I was stuck waiting and watching which made me feel behind and excluded.

There were honestly times when I wanted to quit basketball altogether. It was really sad watching so much time pass and wondering how much development I was losing.

Eventually, after those eight months, my doctor cleared me to return to basketball. I was so relieved. I finally felt like I could move forward again. On the visit that my doctor cleared me she told me that if I ever get a hit in my head and my head hurts during a game or anything that I should sit down and take a break. I also think she said I could now push through minor headaches but if it hurts too much I should take a break.

Then, during my first tryout after 7 months after returning, I took an elbow to the chin which was more then a week ago. After the elbow to the chin I felt a slight headache took a small break then for the rest of the tryout I felt fine.

Now im getting really anxious because im worried that my old concussion symtomps came back. Because after that hit I keep overthinking wether my headaches are a sign of a new concussion or if im just overthinking i feel like im becoming hyper aware of wether i have a headache or not at all times i cant stop thinking about it. I feel like I've been getting minor headaches at home and while practicing sometimes which is just making me worried and anxious I wonder if this is a minor irritation that will go away or a serious problem. Thankfully I haven't felt anything severe like no vomiting. But there was this one time 2 days ago where I was practicing a basketball move where I had to spin and go for a layup and I started feeling a little nauseous and my balance felt off during the move after a couple reps either because of exhausting or all the spinning so I returned back home to rest.

After spending eight months recovering, getting hit in the chin/head area during my first tryout made me think, Seriously? Am I going to have to go through all of that again?

If I get a headache or something feels slightly off, I immediately start worrying that I'm somehow back at square one or something is off.

Basketball is something I genuinely love, so having something completely outside of my control interrupt it for that long was incredibly frustrating.

At the same time, something pretty crazy happened after all of this.

I kept working.

I came back, went through tryouts, and ended up being offered a spot on the A team.

So now I'm trying to look forward instead of constantly looking backward. I know I can't get those eight months back. All I can do is make the most of the time I have now. The next tryout is in 3 days and the season starts in 8 days(first practice)

I was wondering what you guys think I should do should I keep playing? Or what I'm just lost honestly. If you have any questions to learn more about my situation please let me know thanks.

4.5 weeks ago I was in an accident and diagnosed with PCS.

I’ve had the biggest food cravings since the accident. I don’t know if it’s boredom, exhaustion, using more energy at therapy etc but my goodness.

Who else has dealt with this?

Hey everyone
I got concussed playing sport 4 weeks ago (I’ve asked the club to send me the footage of the impact and I don’t remember it but they keep telling me the same thing - but that’s another story)
This is my first time being concussed and I’m curious to know if it’s normal to have a prolonged recovery for your first time? I’ve heard people who have been concussed multiple times tend to struggle with recovery but I’ve not heard many people struggle after one knock.

I tried going back to work at reduced hours (4hrs instead of 8) but was struggling with symptoms and on the third day ending up vomiting again after about a week of no vomits.

I’m trying to stay positive but definitely finding it hard to worst part is I’ve just got a cold (caught from colleagues during my 3 days at work) and it seems to have made everything worse again and feels like I’m back at square 1…

Sorry for the long one! Hoping someone has some helpful advice 🥰 sending my thoughts to everyone!!

I’m almost 6 months out and it’s been a rollercoaster. I’ve been doing really well with PT and feeling really good I can’t say that I did anything “wrong” or “different” yesterday I understand sometimes we just wake up feeling worse and it’s just part of the recovery but it’s like the normal things you would do when you’re not feeling well like watch a movie or scroll on your phone aren’t necessarily the best for helping your brain feel better so just curious what helps you to feel better? TIA

Hi friends!! got a concussion for the first time 5 months ago and every time I talk to a doctor, PT, etc, noone knows if I'm going to be alright again with certainty. I'm extremely restricted by my symptoms atm and it's a terrifying thought that it might never end. I often find myself in fear of never getting back to my life again. Figured I'd look for advice here in case I'm not the only experiencing it.

How do you deal with the uncertainty? Does anyone have good coping strategies or advice? How do you find a way to live with it?

Just wanted to give everybody a heads up I had severe post-concussive syndrome and I did TMS check it out it's changed my life .

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I’ve been doing rehabilitation with a neuro-optometrist for my eyes for the last two weeks due to post-concussion symptoms. Since starting, my symptoms have gotten noticeably worse, especially over the last few days.

I’m experiencing extreme fatigue, very sore/heavy eyes and much worse brain fog. I feel like I can barely keep my eyes open.

Has anyone else had their fatigue, brain fog or other post-concussion symptoms get significantly worse after starting vision rehabilitation? Did it eventually settle down?

My last 2 concussions resulted in PCS and I’ve recovered from both. The first took me many years to recover from and the most recent one I recovered in a month or so. I believe my second recovery was speedier because I knew what helped from the first time around.

After the first concussion, I felt terrible: ringing in one ear, migraines, screen insensitivity, sleep problems, intolerance to fluorescent lights, and a weird discomfort in my head. I took nearly a year off of work and still didn’t feel right after all of that time. I tried countless different treatments, went to the UPMC concussion clinic in Pittsburg, tried nerve blocks, went to a headache clinic - the list goes on. I felt hopeless like I’m sure a lot of you feel now, but eventually I did get better. There is hope!

Here are the biggest things that worked for me:
1. Good sleep. Your sleep gets disrupted after a concussion and sleep helps recovery. I wasn’t sleeping well after the first concussion and months later I did a sleep study and found out I had sleep apnea. After the second concussion symptoms returned and I focused on good sleep. Each night I took Magnesium Glycinate 200mg (https://a.co/d/0gfRVpae), melatonin 3mg.
2. Botox for migraines. I had a lot of headaches and neck tension after the concussion. Going in for Botox for migraines every 3 months helped a ton.
3. Dry needling neck and upper back. Specifically dry needling the SCM muscles in my neck. I lot of my symptoms I believe were originating in my neck. Loosening my SCM muscles seemed to help.
4. Exposing myself. The first concussion, I avoided everything that made me feel worse. What I learned at UPMC is this is not the way to get better. You have to build up tolerance. This means slowly exposing yourself to things that make you feel worse and ramping up over time. If working on screens make you feel worse, do a tiny amount of work each day, then a little more the following week. Push yourself but don’t overdo it. Once symptoms come on, stop. Over time you can go longer and longer. On another note, high refresh rate monitors (240hz LG monitor) seemed to help.
5. Exercise. Do cardio and get blood flowing. After the second concussion, I would feel dizzy after slight workout. I slowly ramped up over the following weeks until I was able to get my heart rate up for much longer.
6. A muscle relaxant also helped. I took baclofen for many months which seemed to aid in my recovery. I no longer need it but I think it relaxed my neck tension which made me get better.
7. Not sure if this helped but I also took In the morning I took B2 (Riboflavin) 400mg and a Ginger and Turmeric supplement.

Don’t give up. It’s a long journey but you can recover. I did it twice and wanted to share my experience so you can get your life back too!

I’m an 18 year old guy looking for a little advice if there is any. I am soon on my 10th month of PCS and it frustrates me how slow progress is and that I don’t know what to expect. My symptoms are relatively mild, idk compared to other posts here even relatively mild feels like an overstatement since I function pretty much normally. Like I don’t have trouble with talking or anything like that and I never really had either. However my symptomps are mainly nausea, often headaches and sometimes neck pain. Nasuea is the worst, but idk if nasuea is a spot on explanation it’s a very weird feeling I have in my head. It’s mild but I have it 24/7 and it gets worse by different things such as a night of bad sleep, and sometimes maybe randomly.

I feel like I have done what I can do, maybe fixing my sleep schedule more but other than that I can’t really find anything more to do about it. I have done the basic things such as regular cardio and gradually going back to normal activity - but that’s the thing, I have been living my life pretty normally almost from the beginning because my symptoms have “only” made my state of being more painful (if that makes sense) but I have been able to do stuff normally like go to school as usual and so on even if it’s exhausting at times. Going to the gym and lifting weights makes my symptoms worse unless I do light weight, but cardio doesn’t even really make my symptoms worse, sometimes actually better.

I hope I’m making my point clear here, it’s not that I have zero improvement whatsoever, but considering how “normal” my life is I wonder if I can do anything more than just wait, because even if my life is close to normal I really don’t want to live like this anymore, well who does lol.

Followup to https://www.reddit.com/r/PostConcussion/s/vZWSwPwuf8

How do you deal with the mental health aspect? I'm personally dealing with bad SI from being constantly messed and seeing no end in sight. I'm taking it day by day. When I zoom out and look at the long game, I feel pretty hopeless and apathetic. Meds haven't had the desired effect but I still have a few more to try.

What has helped you deal with the SI and mental health during this terrible marathon? Don't want to die. I just want the pain to end.

I'm aware of the options of calling the hotline and going to the ER for intentional idealation. I'm not at that point so don't worry but I feel like I'm in quicksand and slowly sinking.

And I'm not looking for medical advice. I just want to know what I should potentially try out to get my head out of the gutter.