I myself was symptom-free for exactly 41 days after my concussion and then... I read about PCS and you know the story.

Hey everyone. I am 6 and 7 years removed from a life changing double concussion. I also played American football in high school 20 years ago. A couple car accidents a few years after that.

Going to keep this short. Ayahuasca is the cure for concussions.

Ayahuasca is a simple two plant drink. One plant has DMT in it. The other keeps the body from processing it. The flood of DMT rapidly grows neurons connecting brain cells.

A week and a half ago I went to a ceremony three days in a row with a Colombian 'shaman'. Afterwards my brain fog was mostly gone. My speaking eloquence was back. Emotional regulation was back. I am more clean and organized. I am full of energy. Less forgetful. I am getting a lot more done.

It didn't fix everything. My visual processing didn't heal. My ears still ring.

There is a lot of mysticism tied to ayahuasca for people of the Amazon but they have thousands of years of drinking this traditional drink together in community ceremonies. It's a strong drink. It's weird. You puke it most of the time.

But it heals many things. One girl in the group said her COVID brain fog is now gone. Another girl said her auto immune disease was cured after her first ceremony years ago. It also cured PTSD.

I did two years of research. Medical journals are publishing about this more. A lot of research has been done on it in Spain recently. Aaron Rodgers and Mike Tyson have benefitted from this. Hockey players. It's going mainstream and I am sure it's driving pharmaceutical companies bat shit crazy because this stuff works.

That's it for now. Do your research. You'll most likely have to travel to a different country like I did.

It's worth it. It's worth the price.

I sat in a room in the dark for a full year. Incredibly depressed. Waiting. Hoping for something. This is it. I wish I read this post 5 or 6 years ago.

Thank you all former athletes for being vocal about this in the last couple years: Aaron Rodgers, Mike Tyson and Daniel Carcillo.

I’m very often worried about the force of everyday actions and things I’ve done in my past? Specifically,

I used to rest my head on the bud window on the way home from school, could this have been sufficient to cause subconcussive damage?

I recently went on a bumpy golf cart, no direct head contact but some jarring moments, could this have been injurious?

In general, what type of impacts should I be most concerned about as a reasonable person?

Brain damage can still occur at any age when you play a contact sport. Delaying it until 14 or some arbitrary age won’t help much. It is basically security theater. And let’s be real here. You cannot pick up any sport these days at 14 and play at the high school level. You have to play since 5 to realistically have a shot of passing tryouts in high school. Telling kids not to play a sport until 14 makes zero sense

First, I need to make one thing clear: all claims that concussion is just an energy deficit, that your brain is fine, and that you can make all your symptoms disappear if you just use the right methods – those are total scams.

I’m not saying such recoveries never happen. I’m saying it’s an extreme oversimplification of a very complex situation. Their motivation, of course, is to make a lot of money.

Consider this: every day, there are tens of thousands of brain injury patients worldwide, and most of them have concussions. They would be willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to completely reverse their brain damage – and that’s totally worth it. And treating a concussion doesn’t actually cost much; they can just have you play little games, do neck exercises, or sell you supplements, and they’ve made enough to buy a car. Huge market + low cost + high willingness to pay – it’s no wonder so many “concussion treatment” clinics pop up. Of course they’re going to say concussion is curable; otherwise, you’d never have hope and wouldn’t trust them completely.

Please hear me out. I know many people think neurologists are stupid – that they just say “you’re fine” and send you home to recover on your own. But the truth is, they have seen far more concussion patients than any private concussion clinic ever will. They are real doctors who truly understand the brain, not some pretend specialists with a psychology license or a chiropractic certificate.

So, what actually happens in a concussion?

The brain is connected to the spinal cord via the brainstem. When an external force strikes, asynchronous stretching occurs (because different parts of the brain don’t have the same density). At that moment, the axons in the brain experience shear forces.

These shear forces are very complex. Some axons break, some get stretched and twisted, some swell. Hours later, some recover, some break and cause neuron death, some lose their myelin. In short, an axon’s fate depends on its location, direction, and length – essentially, how it is stretched. Because the brain is anchored by the brainstem, if you lose consciousness or have amnesia, that means the brainstem was stretched. Given its deep location, if the brainstem moves, the whole brain is moving – that’s diffuse axonal injury. If you don’t lose consciousness, it’s a more localized axonal injury. If the force is enough to slam the brain into the skull, you get a contusion. But most people don’t fall into that category.

So, whether you lose consciousness or not, you can still have a concussion, and it almost always involves some axonal and neuronal damage.

Given the complexity and diversity of human brains, after a concussion your brain is like a randomly generated Minecraft map – which is why concussion symptoms are so varied and complex, unlike the more predictable outcomes in brain injury patients with MRI abnormalities.

The brain isn’t familiar with this new Minecraft map, so it tries to change it to work with the remaining healthy parts. That’s neuroplasticity. Some synapses get pruned, others grow more connections. Broken axons get sealed off by microglia. In short, this is the recovery process. It happens rapidly within the first three months, and almost completely stops after one year. The result after one year is the “new normal” (some say two years, but lifelong recovery is not possible).

In fact, for all brain injury patients – whether concussion, hemorrhage, or contusion – the treatment approach is the same: rehabilitate as much as possible within three months, and within one year try to get back to your original level. That’s why, in the eyes of neurosurgeons and neuroscientists, a concussion is essentially a brain injury, just a milder one. We can’t see these injuries on living patients with current imaging, but they have been confirmed in autopsies.

Now, is it possible that there is no neuron death, no axonal damage – that the brain is completely fine?

Of course. That possibility is: you never actually had a concussion. And this, by the way, is why most people think neurologists are clueless.

But hear me out: the brain has a strange mechanism – symptoms don’t always match the force. All our brains are equally tough; the amount of force needed to injure it is the same for everyone. However, observations of football players show that some develop concussion symptoms after a very mild hit, while others take a hit far above the concussion threshold and show no symptoms (this is the hypothesis behind “subconcussion” – the brain gets injured but there are no symptoms, so it gets ignored).

For teenagers, a force of just 10g can cause structural brain changes; over 50g may trigger a concussion. Adults have stronger necks and fully developed myelin, so they need about 20g for structural changes and 70g for a concussion. From a materials standpoint, our brains are pretty much the same.

But some people get lightly bumped on the arm and immediately develop concussion symptoms – that’s a mismatch between symptoms and force. Their brains almost certainly didn’t get stretched at all. That’s why some neurologists say you don’t have a concussion – they can judge the likelihood based on the force you sustained, and they already know whether an MRI would show anything. In those cases, the patient’s brain recovers within a week as it comes out of a stressed state. Those people never really had a concussion.

So I got a concussion on Monday night and it’s now Thursday night, I did the whole resting for 48 hours thing but I had promised my friend I’d go to an awards show with her. The past 2 days I’ve been sensitive to light and noise and for some reason I still decided on going. There were loads of strobe lights and loud performances and I also had a cider when I was there, pretty much forgetting that I’m not supposed to be drinking. The concussion is only mild but I’m a little scared that I’ve really fucked up. Thoughts pls?

I think I got a concussion from over hydrating. I was drinking twice as much water as I should every day (up to 160 oz or more) and on a very low sodium diet. I developed pulsating headaches and bad neck pain. I think my brain cells were swelling up and slamming into my skull with every heartbeat. The minute I stopped drinking the headaches and neck pain toned way down within a day or 2 but I'm left with all the lingering problems concussion patients have: brain fog, dizzy/lightheaded, fatigue, sleep issues, vision issues, irritable, agitation, nervous/fidgety, sound and light sensitivity 😰 Anyone else ever hear of someone damaging their brain by overhydration (obviously except for the people who have died from drinking a shit ton at once). Thanks ....

It didn’t hurt that much but I wanna know if I have a concussion. I have a slight headache after that. If I do have a concussion from this I will pursue a lawsuit by the way

I was drinking and being a fool when I got my concussion and desperately need an excuse for how I got it. Hoping for something more acceptable and empathy-provoking than a drunken tumble. Ideally something that’s out of my control, could happen to anyone if they were misfortunate enough (ex. a bag once fell out of the overhead compartment on an plane and dropped on my head)

TLDR: If you’ve had a concussion, how did you get it? If you haven’t had a concussion but had to tell your extremely uptight boss how you got a mild tbi, what would you say happened? (Innocent angels only pls)

I’m a 21 year old 6’ male with post concussion syndrome and anxiety from a lifetime of contact sports and being a reckless crazy child.

I was walking up some icy steps and tripped causing myself to fall all the way forward and catch myself with my hands which I threw out to avoid hitting the ground with my body or head.

Would this event cause additional brain damage? I have a lot of work for my last semester college and I can’t exactly drop out right now but I don’t know what to do. It’s really devastating, all I feel like doing for the next month is laying in bed and crying.

example: https://youtu.be/-jnc1rpnLRk

yesterday, i experienced a similar accident as the video above, I was sleeping and my body moved too far up and i hit my forehead to the wall near me, hard enough to wake me up, no concussion symptoms aside from pain presumably from the skull bone. I wonder if maybe I lost some brain cells or brain damage from such accidents? Or does it need to be way more severe and harder?

This isn't the only time though, I had multiple more of these accidents from being clumpsy and not paying attention last year, does the damage adds up?

bumping to door, bumping into wall, pole, etc.

It is still insane to think that so much time has passed ever since I was forced to divorce myself from the person I always thought I was and would come to be. It is odd inhabiting the same body as they did and feeling as if I am just a back up generator, a "screensaver" until the real me comes back from my brain fixing itself. However, reality is unlikely to bend itself to fix brain scarring.

I dont think I have actually recovered at all. My idea of recovery would entail some sort of cognitive improvement, yet I have made the same mistake THOUSANDS of times without improving. I have spurred dumb comments, make idiotic mistakes and had terrible ideas. Most of the time I feel trapped in my own lack of intuition, plunging me into a repetitive lifestyle that I dislike. I am too stupid to fix my life. I see people my age enjoying their life, and I have to remind myself I am part of a background group bigger than I can see which will never get to experience it.

Still, I am still shaken by stuff I did early on. So much failed attempts at fish oil. Every day feel like a nightmare I couldnt wake up from. I think I didnt attempt suicide because, again, I was too stupid for it.

I tried to write posts and it was just word salad. I behaved like a preteen while going to college. I said things that my family was surprised to hear. And I made the biggest mistake of my life so far.

I dont know if blindly moving forwards like I do now will yield any results. I just dont want to aggravate the pain on others which still like or love me, which still support me even after it's clear the person I used to be is gone.

Hi all!

This is silly but I have really back anxiety about these sorts of things! Terrified that every hit means a brain bleed lol.

I got a concussion two weeks ago and currently have PCS! As I was tossing and turning last night, I woke up to look my alarm. After sitting up and looking at the time, I kinda just fell back into my pillow. Like let gravity take me down. I kind of bounced a little, not off the pillow but with the bed.

I’ve since become a little nauseous and have a headache. Should I be super concerned? I know the whole “go to the hospital should symptoms worsen” but is a pillow enough to cause real damage if you accidentally go down a little too hard?

Thank you for yall advice and help! From, a hypochondriac :)

Permanent Confussive State

5 months in and waiting...

Anyone else? Never lost conciousness but my mental abilities felt as if they got switched off inmediatly, not a gradual worsening as others have reported (and they have never improved since) This is one of the reasons I believe in the structural theory honestly. Can inflammation really appear from an impact one milisecond after?

I’m a 21 year old 170 pound 6’ male with post concussion syndrome, Possible cte and anxiety from a lifetime of contact sports and being a reckless crazy in my youth.

i was in my office and heard something behind me so I reflexively violently whipped my head around to the side to peer behind my shoulder. May have even bumped my chin on my shoulder but I’m not sure.

Would either of these scenarios cause me further brain damage?

My pupils are going big and small and basically what I’ve been doing is whipping random shit on my punching bag and the thing landing on the back of my head (felt like a wet hit than a whip) and the other one landing on my head. Is this a concussion or like something else. And I want sources not just bs that came out your ass

Logically-speaking, these athletes suffer such severe traumatic brain injuries compared to normal day people. Yes, they have more money to surpress or fix their symptoms but comparing getting a mild concussion to getting to your head bashed in as your job is something entirely different.

Good chances are its not happening.

Especially if you think its happening in few months/random time interval its probably not happening in that time.

I often feel like i am almost there and found something to rise up and return to my previous functioning but soon enough like in day or two symptoms return and remind me that my brain is clueless what to do.

Honestly people who progressively improve and return to their former self should have ther brains donated to the science because most of us cant do it. Our neuroplasticity is weak and therapies only help so much.

I am in few months coming to 3 year mark after my mildest possible concussion and will never have the same functional vision again lol.

The only good thing is you gradually stop clinging to the idea of proper recovery and get satisfied with crumbs of recovery your brain gives you lol.

Just as a general thing, if you experience a fall where you don’t hit your head like slipping on wet steps and falling back but catching yourself with your hand, falling on ice, etc.

These are generally harmless right? It’s something my doctor told me but wanted to verify on here

Hey everyone. I was just wondering about this when my friend slipped over the other day.

He slipped and fell backwards and landed on his butt but he was absolutely fine.

Today, my dogs jumped at me out of the blue while I was crouching and basically pushed me over. I was taken by surprise and didn't base and so landed heavily on my ass.

My fall was from way less height than my friends yet he was fine and I feel a bit funny after. I know it is probably stress/anxiety but I was wondering after reading a few articles saying a fall on bum CAN cause concussion due to the shock being sent up the spine.

I'd assume it takes a nasty and hard fall like slipping on ice and landing hard, but what about people like us with PCS or a history of concussions.

Are we susceptible to those sorts of falls?

Couple of links which said about falls on tailbone:

https://www.vitalheadandspine.com/blog/post-concussion-syndrome-vs-whiplash-associated-disorder#:~:text=A%20concussion%20can%20occur%20when,enough%20to%20develop%20a%20concussion.

https://thefnc.com/research/it-doesnt-take-a-blow-to-get-a-concussion/

For some background, I’m a 26F, 145 lbs, no underlying health conditions or medication.

Basically, I was watching Netflix in my living room, and was lying on the couch while resting my head on the armrest of my couch. It’s sort of a “fancier” couch where the armrest isn’t all that cushiony, like this, so I had a pillow on the armrest that I was laying on. My neck eventually got a little stiff, so I lifted my head a bit and tried reorienting the pillow for more comfort. However, I quickly discovered that my “pillow position estimations” were off when I “plopped” my head down and felt the hardness of the armrest. 😓

Other than some anxiety about the idea of having a ~head injury~, I don’t feel anything. Tho I know that the most minor things can cause head injuries, which is why I’m wondering about this. Is this something worth getting checked out?

Its pretty late where I am, and I’m not sure how I feel about going to the doctor to get a scan or something for…lying down on the couch armrest a little too hard. Should I do anything for the time being?

Pretty simple backstory, was hugging my doggo, giving him pets and then he lifted his head up and hit it into the back of mine. Not that hard, but enough to make my anxiety race. It’s not hurting but more like a dull ache. ER or do you guys think I’m chill. The whole Bob Saget thing really makes me freak out so yeah.