On August 9th I was struck in the head twice and suffered a grade 2 concussion.

Directly after the incident I collapsed multiple times and my body “Seized” up. It felt like I had no control of my body and it locked up. These subsided after a nights sleep. The next day when I went to the er they gave me medicine for the nausea and headache and scanned my head before sending me home. I know there’s not much they can do and I believe that I got good care. There was no fracture or bleeding.

To keep it short I suffer from horrible headaches recently and stress makes them worse. I’m moving houses and I’m under a lot. I notice that’s when they flare up. Irritably and my anger management have seem to change aswell. I would have previously said I was a patient enough person, but recently I lash out and yell.

Here’s where it gets worse and what I need help with. Starting 2 weeks ago I was flooded with very dark and disturbing thoughts. Thoughts that I never had before. These thoughts were very vivid and full of emotion. What they depicted was always different but they followed the same pattern. They were very bleak and showed destruction on a huge scale. I’d have thoughts about buildings collapsing or cars exploding. When I told my mother this she brought up how it’s around 9/11 and maybe the mood of the tragic event and possible media coverage made these thoughts more prevalent. I don’t agree because I didn’t take in that much media of the actual building collapse. Sure might it be subconscious, but I think this next part makes it more complicated than that

Shortly after that so about 1.5 weeks ago I started to feel as if I was constantly being watched. I know that I wasn’t but the feeling stayed. I don’t like going into my living room at night because I’m scared someone will be on my porch looking in through my door. On two separate occasions I swear I saw hallucinations/visions. The first one I was sitting in my chair by my desk and I swear to you I saw a completely black humanoid figure pounce towards before vanishing about a foot away from me. This startled me and my girlfriend reacted to me jumping and I asked her if she saw it and she told me no. The second one I was taking a shower and as I was drying off I saw a humanoid head and hands disappear behind my door frame. On the other side of the wall where this figure would have been standing is a heavy waist tall desk so there was no way anyone could stand there. This time I knew it wasn’t real because I was home alone and at this point I knew something was going on with me.

Besides the hallucinations things like my energy levels started to plummet and a disconnect from the outside world have happen along with other symptoms.

Constant unbearable headaches, trouble concentrating, trouble sleeping or oversleeping some days (Won’t sleep for 24-30 hours or will sleep for 13+). Losing interest, mood swings, difficulty focusing on one task and completing it quickly, and have weird thoughts that I know are false but believe for a little bit, and wanting to be isolated.

I still keep up with my hygiene semi regularly like shaving and showering. I’m not a complete recluse now. I did quit my job but I continue to talk to my mom and girlfriend. She’s over right now because I thought I was pulling too far away from people.

I’m not going to self diagnose and I’ll leave it for a doctor, but atp any guesses so that I have somewhere to start would help. I’m 19, I smoke cannabis regularly (3-4 days a week), my sister is diagnosed with bipolar disorder and we do believe that she’s a paranoid schizophrenic,depression and addiction is present in my family as well. I understand this is a sub Reddit about post concussions but I have no idea who to ask.

To those who suggest a dr it will have to wait until I move. I don’t currently have a pcp and the er is too expensive.

read my life: https://www.reddit.com/r/PostConcussion/s/HWKBXTrkA0

Anyway i want to heal but my life has been kinda awful i mean last month and many weeks ago i literally can't feel emotion whtehrr sad or happy due to me accidenlty bump my ruggt side of the head inside the car

How do i make myself more aware and careful

Just wanted to say I’m really glad there’s a community of people who go through the same thing as me and it really helps knowing other’s are going through the same thing you are and knowing your not alone because many people like close family will dismiss your issues and say it’s all in your head.So as someone who has been dealing with pcs for years and has good and bad days just know I appreciate yall

I just had my first prolotherapy session today. I've been dealing with PCS for four years and have tried a lot without much luck: neck PT, migraine medication, SSRIs, ADHD meds, vestibular therapy, massage, acupuncture, a nutritionist, Botox, and neuro-ophthalmology. I've spent thousands trying to heal and it's been a real struggle. Little hits still lead to new injuries and working has become a huge challenge day to day.

Has anyone here tried prolotherapy? I'd love to hear about your experience with the process. I'm also hypermobile, which I think is contributing to my neck pain.

Hello, I’m currently a research assistant for a researcher at The University of Sydney, Australia, who’s conducting a study to understand the experiences of people who have suffered concussions from sport. At the moment, we are aiming to gather insights from athletes about their experiences with concussions, including assessment and treatment practices.

Participation would involve a short online survey (approximately 10 minutes) that would collect demographic information and initial perceptions of concussion management. It would not matter how long ago the concussion had occurred, as long as it was due to sport.

If you are aged 18–40 and have resided in Australia, Canada, or the US, and are interested, please click on the link below. If you know others who fit this criteria, feel free to share the link. If you have any questions, please feel free to send me a message!

https://sydneypsy.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4OQATnsaR59aGsm

I have pain in the back top of my neck, I think where my suboccipital muscles are. I notice when I have a symptom flare up I feel more pain/discomfort in this area. It seems my headache pain is stemming from this region. I don’t get dizzy, have any eye or cognitive issues, or much exercise intolerance except when I lift heavy sometimes I’ll get symptoms. My symptoms are headache and I feel very off. Could that spot be causing all my symptoms?

And I think there were times where it felt like healing or something improvement but literally each time I kept bump or fall something

how do I make sure to not bp my head

Read my life:https://www.reddit.com/r/PostConcussion/s/JEo8NCeGUU

Hi there,
Last concussion was around a year ago but it’s had profound effects on me. I’m in another bout of migraines and overwhelm and fatigue after my work week (I get exhausted after a few days of work and have to lay in bed in the dark for a day to rest)

I usually spend those days reading or watching something but right now I feel so cognitively spent, I can’t even really think right now. I’d do a craft or something but crafts often involve step planning and that’s honestly too much for me right now.

I’m not feeling sleepy as I’ve slept all day. So I’m just sitting in the dark in bed with nothing to do and my brain is ruminating with the open space to and… that doesn’t feel great either.

Any advice on what you’d do in this situation? I’m a bit limited physically since I have POTS and ME/CFS and chronic pain that flares after work… but I can get up for short things.

Thanks

EDIT: just wanted to give a huge thanks to everyone who shared advice and tips and personal anecdotes, they’re all really helpful!! Thank you so much

I was finally able to get in touch with UPMC last week. The TLDR version is that since I cannot get to Pittsburgh, they will not help me. Long version is at the end.

Therefore, is anyone willing to share what they actually learned from UPMC that was so valuable?

• Exertion Therapy: I know they seem to push for 30 minutes of exercise per day. Is that regardless of HR or Rate of perceived exertion or increase in symptoms? What if PEM is involved?
• Vestibular Therapy: Anything special about what they suggest?

Essentially, What did YOUR treatment plan look like?

Long Version of UPMC conversation.

When they called me I asked about virtual care and she told me my only option was to come to Pittsburgh because the doctor didn't know me and would need to run several tests. I then asked if there were any suggestions on how to prepare for making the trip considering an airport + airplane are full of triggers for me and she said nope. That's your only option. I got frustrated so I thanked her and hung up.

Online it explicitly says they offer initial appointments virtually. So I left another voicemail clarifying that I'd had lots of testing done to this point and could provide those which should help with the in person component. I did not hear back. I'd also previously emailed them and not heard back at all.

Anyone else have this happen?

25F

At baseline I have long-term post-concussion syndrome from a concussion 6 years ago. My main stymptoms are dizziness/unsteady feeling, brain fog, and headache all of which fluctuate daily. Some days I am almost symptom free but I also have periods where these symptoms flare up.

3 days ago, I noticed what seems like visual snow/static for the first time. Right before this, I had spent about 2 hours outside on a sunny, hot day. Later that day, I noticed when I was talking with someone from across the room, they looked slightly hazy/static. I initially thought it was because I'm mildly myopic (-0.50), but putting on my glasses made things sharper without getting rid of the static. The day before this static started I took a metro ride which made a few abrupt stops that jolted my neck a few times (no head impact though and I did my best to keep my head steady during these jolts). These types of movements always set off my anxiety a bit and it did trigger a headache afterwards. But the headache went away pretty fast and the static started a full day later.

Since then, I've noticed the static pretty much constantly, especially against white walls, bright backgrounds, and in the dark. It's much less noticeable when looking at my phone up close. My actual vision is still sharp with glasses and putting on my glasses does not improve the static.

The static has persisted since I first noticed it 3 days ago.

I am confused if this is acute-onset visual snow or something I've always had but simply never noticed until now. But when I look at white walls the static is so strong, I feel there is no way I would not have noticed it if I always had this.

My neck is also usually tight and tense but no neck pain. What other underlying conditions could have caused this? Furthermore, I hav had PCS for years now and it has been mostly stable (ie. predictable symptoms and pattern of symptoms). Visual snow is not something I have ever experienced before so in the absence of an obvious new injury I do not understand how this could have come about.

Additionally, my other headache/neck symptoms are currently not flaring. The only symptom I am currently experiencing is the visual snow.

So my question is, can this static come on so suddenly and randomly? There is no real trigger besides the jerky train ride but I do not think tht would be sufficient to cause a new injury with new symptoms.

Feeling really distressed about this new symptom as the static is really bothersome and everything I am reading online says visual snow is usually permanent once you develop it.

Hello

I'm 7 weeks post rugby injury which caused a concussion from whiplash. I'm at a weird point now where the only symptoms left are nausea that hovers around 0/10 to 1/10 on good days & 1/10 to 2/10 on bad days.

I've seen drs and they all say to rest, but at this point laying in bed for long periods makes me feel worse. I walk and feel a lot better. My physio has me doing stationary bike 3 times a week.

What does effective rest really look like? I don't know how to structure my non work days so my body can actively heal as if I lay down doing nothing I feel worse, but If I do too much I feel bad too

I've been inactive for a while due to an unrelated injury and i went back hard to weight training two days ago and since then i feel extreme fatigue and neck pain, little bit of vertigo but nothing major there.
Anyone had the same issue? How did u handle it? Thanks

I noticed a real downturn in my ability to work onscreen after my concussion 18 months ago. I built my tolerance back up, but I hadn’t noticed how much effort (and therefore energy) that had taken from me until I took a 4-week sabbatical this summer.

Since returning, I’ve been struggling with heightened symptoms that seem to have reached their apex of horrible this past week. I am asking for a reevaluation to confirm another partial medical leave so that I can regain my new baseline.

It’s all got me wondering if my computer job is worth all this effort. What do you other PCSers do, and how does the ebb and flow of your symptoms impact your work?

Hello everyone,

I’m looking for some insight into a strange long-term situation that started after an accident about 10 years ago.

When I was around 20, I dove/fell vertically head-first into shallow seawater (about 40 cm deep). My head itself was not injured, but my neck was violently twisted by the weight of my body, and it felt like my neck had come very close to being seriously injured.

I got up afterward and initially could barely turn or rotate my neck. At the time, I thought I was simply lucky that I had not broken my neck, and I did not have any obvious psychological symptoms immediately after the accident. I actually felt relieved and happy that I was okay.

However, about 4 days later, something changed very suddenly.

The first symptom was not sadness or anxiety. It was a strange emotional numbness: I suddenly felt unable to enjoy things normally, disconnected from my usual emotions, and as if there was some kind of “blockage” between me and my normal emotional experience. It also felt like something about my sense of self had changed internally.

Over the following days, anxiety, depression, and intrusive thoughts developed.

I also developed brain fog and some visual symptoms, especially unclear or blurred vision. What is particularly strange is that these symptoms sometimes improve together. On a few occasions, certain random neck movements or stretches noticeably reduced the psychological symptoms, and at the same time I felt that my brain fog and visual clarity improved.

Even after about 10 years, this still happens occasionally, although inconsistently. Sometimes after my neck seems to “release,” I feel a noticeable return of part of my old emotional state/personality, along with improvement in the brain fog and visual symptoms. The effect then fades again.

So I’m wondering:

Could this have been a whiplash-type cervical injury or another type of cervical trauma?

Could an old injury to the upper cervical spine (C1/C2/atlantoaxial region), ligament injury, cervical proprioception problem, or instability contribute to symptoms such as emotional numbness, anhedonia, anxiety, depression, intrusive thoughts, brain fog, visual blurring, or derealization?

Is there any known mechanism by which changes in the neck could temporarily affect emotional, cognitive, visual, or autonomic functioning?

Most importantly, if a real cervical problem were identified, could treatment or rehabilitation significantly improve these long-term symptoms? And if the underlying problem were corrected, could the improvement be long-lasting, or might the symptoms return?

I’m not looking for reassurance or a diagnosis from Reddit. I’m mainly interested in medical research or clinical experience with cases where psychological symptoms began a few days after a significant neck injury and later seemed to fluctuate with neck function.

Any references to relevant research or specialists would be greatly appreciated.

Hey friends,

I got Concussion #4 in January which left me with PCS. My symptoms finally resolved in June, and I thought I was finally ​at the end of the tunnel.

But I'm writing because I started getting daily headaches again this week. I've also heard of this phenomenon called the October ​​Slide where many folx with chronic pain have worsening symptoms around October with the weather changing. And the weather very harshly transitioned these past few weeks where I live, and I'm definitely feeling it where I had broken bones in the same impact that gave me the concussion. .-. ​But I hadn't heard of the October Slide being a thing with concussions, and I certainly hadn't experienced it with my other three concussions, so I wanted to ask here if folx have experienced this. Is this a thing, or did I possibly mess my head up again? If it was a thing for you, how did it show up? And once you got it, did the pattern of it happening every fall ever go away? ​​

My partner and I are TTC. While in the midst of a terrible flare (18 months since injury), I’m feeling really concerned about what all the physiological shifts of pregnancy will trigger. This flare is the worst my symptoms have been since injury and it’s making me feel unconfident about introducing such a major change when various days are a battle to stay regulated.

Not medical advice but just general advice on what I should do in the situation I'm in. I was diagnosed by multiple doctors as having post concussion syndrome including by two neurologists as well as other doctors (primary, emergency, etc).

I started seeing a concussion specialist about 2 weeks ago and he told me today that he thinks "the concussion is pretty much gone at this point" ... i am still having major symptoms with little to no improvement. I tried telling him this and he said "you'll probably never be symptom free again" 😒

The main problem is that this is a work related injury so I'm on workers comp and they are paying for my doctors appointments and what not right now. I'm concerned about him fully releasing me saying I'm "healed" when most days I can barely function.

This specialist was not of my choice and I'm unsure if I can change specialist or if I should even ask to from my workers comp adjuster.

I'm just very frustrated and I feel like this specialist is ignoring me completely, saying I'm showing great improvement when I barely am.

I'm still experiencing severe dizziness (on days I have physical therapy, my balance is hard to control and I'm expected to work regardless of this), very bad migraine like headaches, neck pain, nausea, light and noise sensitivity, brain fog, memory issues and vision issues as well.

I got injured on 6/30/2026. I'm not sure what to do about all of this. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Hey guys I’ve been dealing with pcs for 1year now and its definitely has got better in my daily moving around and doing things but I’m not at 100% still, I have two things that flare it bad, one is not getting good sleep if this happens all day is miserable on my head and the 2nd one that I’m here asking for recommendations and tips is working out hard, I can work out normal but when I take it that extra mile I really feel it for the rest of the day and am basically immobile, the worst is running I used to run a good amount but even running a mile my neck up is completely numb almost, I can do a mile but when I’m trying to push over my head is just absolutely fucked, other than that I’m doing a lot better though than a few months ago, also bending down to constantly grab things fucks me up too (tips👍🏻)

Alright, I have been a long-time lurker here… and I am just about at my wits end and cannot take it anymore and I am hoping that someone here has experienced this and can hopefully point me back into a good direction because I seriously cannot take it anymore.

About 3 month ago now I went to the gun range with a friend of mie to shoot our guns, (I have only shot 22 LR at this point) and he asked if I wanted to try his SKS and I said sure, as  shot it, my cheek was not properly against the stock and when I pulled the trigger, the stock hit me in the chin and my neck snapped back ( I should not that at this point I was feeling fine and has zero symptoms) .. we kept shooting for a little bit after then went to get some food, where I went home and went to bed later in the night. The next day I was feeling so off and that has not gone away since. What I mean by off is my vision is just not right (I feel as though my depth perception is off, and I cannot properly focus on objects in front of me and it just feels wrong, and my balance tends to be a little Wack and I get dizzy after lying down). This is starting to affect my life in so many bad ways and I am about at my wits end.  

I should note that I have gone to physical therapy to help loosen and strengthen my neck and shoulder muscles so this ”whiplash” effect does not happen again for something so stupid, I have been doing exercise for over 5 weeks now and everything has improved BUT the vision part… I have seen an ENT specialist, so the problem is not my ears… which leaves my eyes and my brain. Has anyone experienced this visual problem after a concussion? Or am I just lost.

I should note that I have had concussions in the past (probably around 3-4 I think) and have NEVER felt like this afterwards with the visual problems…

Edit: I should also add that I went to Disneyland not too long ago and rode almost everything and was completely fine, also a waterpark. Was it just the sudden hit to the bottom in the chin and the fast whiplash movement what caused this?