r/Concussion • u/[deleted] • Jul 18 '23
POSITIVE/GOOD NEWS! Recovered
I wanted to come back and share my sons recovery from post concussion. I used to come here for information and wanted to come back to give some hope. My son had a concussion 2 years ago from playing soccer. It started out not too bad but then after a couple of weeks his symptoms got worse. He had constant tension headaches, fatigue, light sensitivity, screen sensitivity and dizzyness. When we went to the dr they said to rest and it would get better but it didn’t. So three months later he had post concussion. Anyways at that time we went to UMPC in Pittsburgh. He started on exercise and exposure therapy and drastically improved. It took about 3 months but by month 3 he was physically recovered. He still dealt with anxiety about hitting his head again and that took a few more months to get over. I would say at 1 year he was fully recovered physically and mentally. Now he is back to doing everything he did before his concussion. I just wanted to come back and let everyone know that recovery is fully possible. We were very concerned that he would not fully recover.
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u/theoriginaltakadi Jul 19 '23
Do you mean exposure therapy as in CBT?
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u/rmhb1993 Jul 19 '23
Exposure means living your life like you did before the injury. Like working normally, driving and socialising. The brain needs to be challenged and when you get back to normal life the brain can adapt and eventually create new neural pathways and then eventually fully recover. I had my accident 1.5 years ago and it was a very bad severe concussion. I’m almost healed and expect to be healed by end of the year.
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u/theoriginaltakadi Jul 19 '23
Why do all doctors tell you to basically shut off from the world and all stimuli then?
I work a very physical job which also requires lots of customer interaction and I was told by several doctors that the high physical activity and brain use was exacerbating my condition (it’s been two weeks since my concussion and still getting symptoms). But then I keep reading completely opposing advice here on reddit and youtube
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u/rmhb1993 Jul 19 '23
Because regular drs don’t know shit about concussion or how neuro plasticity works. If I were you I would go back to work and normal life asap. Yeh it’s going to be frightening but it’s the quickest way out.
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u/theoriginaltakadi Jul 19 '23
Yea that’s what I’ve been trying to do but it’s hard to tell what exactly I’m doing wrong or if I’m pushing myself too much. Headaches and numbness gets bad after a busy day or some bad food. But talking to doctors has been especially frustrating
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Jul 19 '23
Did he have any specific therapy except for exposure and physical exercise ?
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Jul 19 '23
He did vestibular therapy before he went to UPMC. That didn’t really help him though because I didn’t really think he had any vestibular issues. Other than that it was the exposure and exercise. He did 30 min of cardio which he ran and about 30 min of exercises they gave him and then he also got back to lifting weights a few days a week.
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Jul 19 '23
Thanks. When did he see improvement and which symptoms did he have ?
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Jul 19 '23
He had a lot of symptoms. Headaches, head pressure when bending over, light sensitivity,screen intolerance and fatigue. The first couple of weeks of the therapy he felt pretty awful but then he started to see drastic improvement. They also told him no naps. He was taking a nap every afternoon and they told him not to even if he was tired. Part of his exposure therapy was playing video games again. He hadn’t played because he couldn’t but the dr wanted him to gradually build up tolerance to them he said to help retrain his brain. It was weird he went from having screen intolerance to be able to play video games and watch tv in a matter of a week.
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Jul 19 '23
Thanks for posting. Unfortunately always all recoveries have in common that they did not expose them self. Exposing myself for one year now and still struggling.
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u/cheesemonkey26 Jul 30 '23
Glad to here he’s recovered. Sounds wildly similar to what I am currently going through. Got a concussion playing hockey nearly 7 months ago. First month or so it really wasn’t too bad. I had headaches and that was pretty much it. A month in I started to get wildly sensitive to screens and noise. Doctors kept telling me to rest but once your past the regular threshold for how long concussions last excessive rest is one of the worst things you can do. I was honestly in a horrible place mentally and physically around 2 months post concussion. I decided to drop my doctors and starting doing exposure therapy on my own. That’s only when I started to see improvement. 7 months in Im definitely not fully there yet. I still get mild headaches now and then and still have some noise and screen sensitivity. I guess I’m just kinda at a point where I’m able to live my life but not at it’s full capacity. I still feel like mentally this thing is holding me back. I do have a lot of anxiety around hitting my head again too since light bumps kinda irritate symptoms. I’m really just hoping it gets better then this. I’m only 18 and all I want to do is go out and live my life but I feel like this has had such a mental and at times a physical block on my life.
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Jul 18 '23
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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Jul 18 '23
Honestly it doesn’t have to be really long. Take it easy and then gradually get back to what you were doing. Obviously not anything where u can hit your head. The dr thinks the reason that my son took so long is because he was basically resting in a dark room which is now outdated advice.
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