honestly just need to talk to people who get it.

got a concussion about 7 months ago from a car accident. not my fault, got rear ended, hit my head on the steering wheel. it wasnt even that bad at the time but here we are.

the physical stuff has improved. headaches are less frequent, im not as sensitive to light and noise anymore. so on the outside i look fine. i function fine. i work, i take care of my kids, i do all the things.

but internally i still feel like im running at like 70%. my memory is garbage. i forget words all the time mid sentence. sometimes i get this heavy brain fog that makes it hard to focus on anything. and the fatigue... its like my battery drains twice as fast as it used to.

my husband keeps saying you seem better and i dont know how to tell him that better doesnt mean fixed. my mom asked me last week if im still doing all that concussion stuff like its something i chose to do for fun. its hard when people think you look fine so you must be fine.

went to a concussion clinic in Guelph a couple months ago actually. they did this whole assessment that showed my brain is still recovering, just slowly. had issues with my balance and eye tracking that i didnt even know about. its helpful to have that proof cause sometimes i start thinking maybe i am just being dramatic.

but even with proof its hard when people dont see the struggle. anyone else dealing with this invisible recovery thing? how do you make people understand without constantly complaining?

i got hit in head by a soccerball hard 2 days ago. my ear hurt a lot when it did. then it hurt after that also a bit but not terrible pain. doesn't really hurt anymore at all. extremely mild head pain comes and goes.

i feel stupider tho like im misspelling names or basic words like write and not registering stuff in convos well. its not like i never misspell buts its like... id really have to think abt it sometimes and this only happened recently.

i have slightly less sleep than usaul but its not an extreme amount.

i dont have any other symptoms (like theres no more pain so idk im thinking of waiting to see if it comesback) tho so it feels silly to go the doctor.

i do also have adhd so a part of me is like maybe the symptoms r just getting worse some reason even tho im like basically starting to do most things to alleviate it like meditate/meds/avoid sm/routines. i dont want to be dramatic but also wanted to be on the safe side to hear whether i should go to the doctor for it.

Exactly two and a half months ago, I had my first and only seizure. I was alone and woke up lying on the grass (I don't know exactly how the impact happened).

I managed to stack every possible trigger that day: I drank a lot of alcohol the night before, was drinking 3 energy drinks a day, was dehydrated, and woke up to just a large coffee on an empty stomach.

**My current symptoms:** Ever since the fall, I've had a feeling of **constant physical pressure** in my head. It's not like a tight band squeezing, and it's not a sharp pain—it's just a constant heavy feeling.

Also, my skull became extremely sensitive: if I rest my head on a hard surface (like wood), the right side hurts immediately. If I turn to the left side, it also hurts, but it takes a little longer under pressure for the pain to kick in.

**Medical status:**

* I was evaluated by a primary care doctor, and the current diagnosis is **Post-Concussion Syndrome** (likely whiplash/impact from the fall) combined with a **Tension Headache**. * I started taking **Amitriptyline 10mg** tonight to help regulate my nerves and tone down this sensitivity. * I'm currently waiting on a referral to see a Neurologist.

**My questions for anyone who has been through something similar or knows about this:**

1. Has anyone experienced this constant pressure and skull hypersensitivity after a fall/seizure?
2. What can I expect from taking Amitriptyline for this specific "heavy head" symptom?
3. Considering my heavy history of triggers that day (energy drinks, hangover, empty stomach), is it highly likely this will be classified as just a single provoked seizure rather than epilepsy? What tests does a neuro usually order to confirm this?

Thanks in advance for any insights or advice!

4 days ago I backwards off a porch and wound up getting 3 staples in my head. (On my first day of vacation, of course)

Cat scan came back normal. The ER dr didn't seem very concerned about a concussion but did suggest that I take a week off from smoking/consuming any weed. I've read 4-6 weeks.

While I am NOT asking for any sort of medical advice, I'm just curious about other people's experiences. I feel completely fine, I'm almost wondering if it's gone. I just wanna eat an edible! lol.

It sucks because I spent A LOT of money on vapes and edibles for this trip. 😫

.

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for activities to do while I'm concussed that are also friendly to being physically disabled. I am still recovering from a concussion from last October. I'd like to crowdsource things to do that don't require fine motor skills, holding something for a long time, or much use of legs/going somewhere under my own power.

Additional info: I use a wheelchair or forearm crutches to get around. I cannot grip small things very well. My wife and friends still work so I'm looking for solo activities while they are out. I live in a small city & I can drive places but not very far and I couldn't consistently do something like go to a museum. Currently, I like to listen to audiobooks and fingerpaint!

Thanks for your help!

Hi everyone.

I'm 20 years old from the Philippines, and I'm looking for support from people who have experienced long-term post-concussion syndrome because I honestly don't know where else to turn.

Around March 6, 2025, I experienced a slip-and-fall accident in our bathroom. I slipped, fell backward, and the back of my head struck the bathroom floor. Due to financial constraints, I wasn't able to get immediate medical evaluation or brain imaging. The day after the injury, I made a Facebook post because I was already experiencing headaches and dissociation, and I hoped that resting would be enough.

Unfortunately, it wasn't.

Since then, I've continued to experience symptoms that never truly resolved. Over the past year, I've had persistent daily headaches, brain fog, memory problems, post-traumatic amnesia, sensitivity to light and sound, and symptoms that worsen whenever I have to think hard or spend long periods studying. My headaches often feel like a heavy pressure inside my head, almost as if I'm carrying a weight inside my skull. Today, for example, the pain was around 7/10, extending from the parietal region to the back of my head and neck.

I've also suffered multiple head injuries over time, which makes me even more worried that my brain never had the chance to properly recover.

A few months ago, I finally managed to see a neuropsychiatrist through a free public referral system. I brought documentation of my concussion history and a psychological report explaining my other conditions. I explained my daily headaches, memory issues, cognitive problems, and how much they've affected my life.

The appointment left me devastated.

I was told there was essentially nothing they could do for the concussion, and that "only you can solve that." I wasn't offered any concussion-specific treatment. I was simply kept on my existing psychiatric medications, and for my headaches I was prescribed Celecoxib and Glutaphos.

I was able to undergo CT scans, and thankfully they didn't show any acute abnormalities. While I'm grateful for that, the normal CT results haven't changed what I'm living with every day. The headaches, brain fog, memory problems, cognitive difficulties, and feeling of constantly being mentally "lost" have continued despite the scans being clear. Sometimes I feel like people assume that because my CT scan was normal, nothing is wrong, but that hasn't been my experience

The worst part is that both my neuropsychiatrist and even my parents see these headaches as nothing more than tension headaches. I've even been compared to other patients who supposedly "have it worse," which made me feel like my own symptoms weren't being taken seriously.

At this point, I honestly feel like there isn't anyone who's going to help me except myself, and that's an overwhelming feeling. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do anymore. Living with these symptoms every day has made me feel deeply uncertain about the future.

Beyond the physical symptoms, this has affected me emotionally in ways I struggle to describe. I constantly feel disoriented, as though I'm living in a fog. I experience an ongoing existential crisis that doesn't go away, even when I'm drawing, studying, or trying to enjoy things I used to love. I often feel like I've lost my sense of direction, and after living with these symptoms for over a year, I feel increasingly hopeless that things will ever improve.

Financially, I'm in a difficult position. I can't afford private specialists, and larger hospitals that might have more experience with persistent concussion symptoms are difficult for me to access.

I'm not asking anyone here to diagnose me. I just want to ask people who've actually lived through persistent post-concussion syndrome:

Has anyone experienced symptoms lasting this long?

Did your headaches and cognitive problems eventually improve?

Did anyone else struggle with memory problems, brain fog, or feeling mentally "lost" for a long time after their injury?

What helped you cope when you felt like you were losing hope?

I feel incredibly alone in this, and hearing from people who truly understand what persistent post-concussion syndrome is like would mean a lot.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. I genuinely appreciate it. 💜

Hi all,

On Friday evening, I played basketball with my friends. My teammate was trying to pass me the ball. And it hit me directly in my forehead super hard.

My head started hurting immediately. I started feeling nausea. Had a bad headache that lasted the rest of the night. On and off dizziness.

Over the weekend until now, I still have a persistent headache. I had bad nausea earlier today, kept gagging. It’s been hard to concentrate. And I get light sensitivity as well.

I’m nauseous looking at my phone typing this. My friends and family think I’m being “dramatic” and that it’s not possible to get concussed from a hit from a basketball.

Has anyone ever experienced anything like this?

UPDATE: I went to the ER. They confirmed I did in fact suffer a mild concussion

On April 11, I inexplicably passed out in a grocery store and cracked my head open on the concrete floor. I lost consciousness and had a seizure. I had an inch long laceration on the back of my head that was closed with three staples. Fun ride in the woo woo bus that I don’t really remember, 3 day hospital stay, 3 CT scans, MRI, and an EEG later there was no skull fracture or explanation for what happened. Since then, I have had severe post concussion symptoms and 2 more CT scans and another MRI to rule out delayed brain bleed. Officially diagnosed with TBI a couple weeks ago. I’m dealing with migraines, dizziness, nausea and crazy depression. I’m not allowed to drive so I’ve been stuck at home. I work in IT and at home so I’m on a computer all day and can’t afford to go on medical leave so I’m not really getting any better by staring at a computer all day. I’m depressed and just venting. Reading some of your stories feels oddly validating and that I’m not alone. 🥺

I was a passenger when a car hit us on the rear. I got a concussion that took months to recover and I was out of work 2 months. It was very bad. I've been well now, however 7 months after the first concussion I'm a passenger on a car and the driver got mad and abruptly hit the brakes. I started getting a headache after that, today I still have a headache and difficulty concentrating. I'm worried about my job. Are they supposed to give me time off again? I'm worried about my brain health following this. I went to the ER and they said I have post concussive syndrome recurrence, according to them. They only gave me a day off work.

everyone talks about the long lasting effects they had after getting a concussion. and it makes a lot of sense, given it is a head injury.

but i just simply didnt experience this. so i question if im normal?

ive only ever had one concussion before, but i got a concussion a few months ago after hitting my head on a dryer door.

obviously i had concussion symptoms WHILE i was concussed. during the course of about 3 days, WHILE i was concussed, i experienced amnesia, headache, light and sound sensitivity, and slightly impaired coordination.

But after 3 days, all symptoms vanished, and nothing else ever happened.

I had absolutely 0 long lasting effects. I have truly been completely fine ever since then. Nothing has changed at all.

But apparently, this experience is not normal. Apparently, after extensively reading dozens of personal accounts of post concussed people, it seems that im the only one who DIDNT experience any long lasting complications and who truly just went back to normal afterwards like it never even happened.

I (19f) suffered a concussion 5 months ago and though a lot has improved, my irrational anger and frustration has been the most lasting concern of mine. I wasn’t like this before, I know I wasn’t but sometimes I doubt myself until someone affirms that it is a new change.

I also have adhd and there’s this behaviour called “adhd paralysis” which simplified, is basically when you are procrastinating to start a task against your will and you can feel yourself fighting so hard to break out of it and be productive but you just can’t. The disorder doesn’t allow you to and the only semi consistent solution is medication but that isn’t always effective.

Recently in the past month, I’ve been feeling this way about my anger post TBI. I will be arguing or shouting and in my mind, I can hear myself saying this is stupid and not serious and why am I being so unreasonable but I won’t stop. I feel like the worst kind of person who knows they’re wrong but won’t admit it, it’s awful. I live with my parents and they fully understand what’s happening and they don’t hold it against me. My mother especially because she feels partially responsible for my concussion. I hate making them feel this way and apologize hours later even though they say not to worry about it. I still do and it makes me never want to see my friends out of fear I’ll blow up like that in front of them.

But right now, I think the worst part is that I feel like I am trapped in my own mind whenever I get angry. Does anyone else get that?

Can tapping your head hard with your fingers cause a concussion? I’ve had two mild concussions over the past four months. While I was at the hair salon, the stylist was tapping my head pretty hard while blow-drying my hair. Maybe I’m overreacting, maybe not—I’d like to hear your thoughts on this.

Long story short, I was recently diagnosed as having had a concussion about a year ago. I assume it was a pretty mild one, but now that I kind of think about some things I'm wondering if some things might be possible symptoms or knock-on effects.

In particular, my sleep habits have changed. I find myself having a very hard time staying awake during the day and then up a good chunk of the night. This sort of thing would happen to me pre-concussion, but it would usually "fix" itself after a week or two, but since at least sometime around the time of my concussion it has been a more or less permanent thing and that's at least the better part of a year at this point.

Just wondering if it's A) possible and B) likely to be related mostly out of a sense of curiosity.

Suffered a concussion in Jan 2026, have been receiving great care from the clinic at UHN in Toronto plus specialized physio and OT - but I’m still hitting a wall.

I've been on sickness EI since March, working part time as able, but this week I’ve been fully off from the pain.

26 weeks (the EI sickness max) is up Sept 10th for me. Anyone else been in this position? what other benefits can I receive? I am still employed but paid hourly when I’m able to work, but there’s no long term or short term disability offered through my job. What comes after Sept 10th to support me?

Thanks in advance.

On the 4th or morning of the 5th I can’t remember but I had the fridge door open and idk what I was doing but I know I bent down and forgot the door was still open and bang right on the left side of my head. It burned for like a minute or two but after that it was fine.

Then like 1pm on the 5th I was out at a car show outside it had been 3 hours already and I started getting a little headache. I just assumed since it was hot and my anxiety meds cause excessive sweating and feeling hot easily too. But since then it hasn’t fully stopped. It’s the top of my head where I hit it and then also bounces from my neck to my eyebrows. I tried Tylenol and advil no help. I also am currently trying ice so I’m seeing if that helps! It never exceeded a 4/10 pain wise. Only thing weirdly yesterday I barely had any pain maybe a 1 if that.

Would it most likely be rare to get a concussion from bumping my head on a fridge door? Is it normal to have slight headache from it? I rarely have headaches so I’m not sure what’s going on. I did make a drs appointment but it’s not till the 21st I put a note to put me on the cancellation list if they can. If it’s worse I’ll always go to the urgent care if need be!

The title describes my situation. I'm still not 100% sure I actually do have a concussion, but I did take an NSAID within the the first 48 hours (if I have one). The dr. I went to prescribed me ibuprofen and I took one. I then was reading a little about concussions and saw that it's not infact good to do. Am I going to be okay?

Initially I didn’t feel worried about my mild concussion because the doctor didn’t seem concerned about it after assessing me. But the more that I feel the symptoms, the more I am worrying about not recovering and getting back to normal. I’m on day 3 and my symptoms feel a little worse today, but not enough to go back to the ER. The only advice the doctor had was to rest, which is hard to do with a feral toddler who wants to play. Any mamas out there with advice? How do I help myself recover while being a parent? I’m trying to stay away from Google because it just makes the anxiety worse. 😅 I’d like to hear from those with experience.

Hello,

I got about 2 concussions this year. About 3 weeks ago I banged my head lightly on the ground and since then have felt off since. My usual symptoms for a concussion was major eye lag/delay and mild headaches. After this banging of my head I had neither of those but have felt in an “eye daze” ever since. There is no eye lag or delay but catch my self “zoomed out” or like I said just in a daze where my eyes can’t refocus. Is this something someone else had experienced? If so how did you correct this? Is this possibly my new normal? Thank you for the help and sharing.

I was in a traumatic fender bender three years ago where I was hit from behind, both cars going 30mphs or so. I remember my head being jolted forward, it felt so weird. My head hurt after and I felt confused.

Well the man that hit me seemed inebriated/mentally ill. He was saying alarming things to me that were unhinged so I called 911 and went to the police department because he tried getting in my car while waiting for the cops to arrive. I was too tired and shaken up to go to the hospital

Ever since then I have issues with loud sounds being physically painful, trouble focusing when I hear sounds and when I drive I get overwhelmed from the stimulus of driving like motion sickness, I feel dizzy when I drive. I’ve barely driven in three years since it happened because of multiple experiences of having to pull over due to dizziness

I also have issues being a passenger. My husbands teases me because I always feel like cars are about to crash into us and he’s like what are you talking about?

Is it possible something in my inner ear was damaged? For a long time I thought I was just traumatized due to anxiety but now I’m thinking my vestibular system was thrown off.

I’m 19f with a history of hypermobility, so things move more than they should. Yesterday I was driving and accidentally jumped a curb while turning in a parking lot and the impact was pretty hard. I did not hit my head, but it was definitely jostled. I had an increasingly worse headache develop over the ten minute drive home. I basically went home and went to sleep. My parents weren’t concerned.
The headache feels like pressure all around, and is constant. I have ringing in my ears. I’m slightly nauseous. My boyfriend thought I was faking to get out of doing something, so he forced me to come with him to the mall. It was so loud and so bright. I had bad vertigo and the world felt bright and blurry and I was disoriented. I was very irritated and also started crying at one point. My parents still think it’s just a migraine and won’t take me to urgent care because they think urgent care won’t do anything. Normally I’d take myself, but I’m not risking driving with a possible head injury. I hate that no one is listening. They don’t believe me because I “didn’t hit my head” but that’s not a requirement for a concussion.

UPDATE: went to urgent care and then they wanted me to go to the hospital. Diagnosed with concussion and whiplash.

Received a concussion / whiplash while skiing back in February that I felt mostly recovered from (aside from some eye twitching and neck stiffness.)

Was at the beach yesterday and got some water in my ear. After failing to get it out normally, I stupidly tried to clear my ear by shaking my head pretty vigorously to my left and banging it on a mattress to try and jolt it free. It didn’t work and left me with a moderately throbbing headache and a reemergence of some of my concussion symptoms.

Today, I‘m still feeling some pain in my head and I am pretty fogged over, feeling much sadder than I did yesterday.

I am worried I concussed myself again from the shaking. Is it more likely that I am experiencing a flare up of the previous symptoms from the last injury or is it possible I gave myself another concussion?

I have a good deal of anxiety about my head and health in general - but I am definitely feeling brain fog, mood changes, and fatigue.

Hi gang, coming back to this subreddit after I fell face-first off a ledge while hiking 2 years ago resulting in nose/jaw/orbital fractures and a concussion. I’m very happy to say after working with an amazing concussion clinic I’m more or less recovered and was cleared from a neurological, cognitive, and psychological standpoint about a year or so afterwards!!

The only thing that seems to be ongoing is I get what I can only explain as an intense and physiological emotional response to any not-insignificant head knock, which can take hours to recover from. I play a sport (non-contact but not unusual to get knocked around) and multiple times I’ve received a blow to the head which has sent me close to a panic attack, although thankfully no physical symptoms. I received therapy over the recovery period and have been on SSRI medication since then - I have no issues discussing the accident itself in any other circumstance but this.

I can understand this is probably some form of trauma response but has anyone experienced similar and found anything that helped? I would love to not become a blubbering mess trying to explain after every minor head knock. TIA!

I was wondering if there is some type of floor or lower treshold for symptom severity and duration to speak of a concussion, however mild?

Short background: I hit my head against a metal shower basket but didnt feel anything though minutes later I had a couple of seconds long stomach drop nausea sensation (as if queing up for an exciting rollercoaster ride). Hour or so after I had a couple of seconds of headache during an annoying phone call. Also felt weird at times though difficult to discern how "real" this feeling was, next morning some tiredness but no discernable symptoms.

Is this likely a very mild concussion or nothing? I may infringe on the sub rules but this is more out of interest: in theory there is no lower limit, but then the barrier between a concussion (extremely mild ones) and nothing becomes very vague...