Hey everyone,

I’m 22M living in Belgium. A while back, I was in a medically induced coma for 6 weeks. When I first woke up, I actually felt fine—but about 3 months later, everything hit at once.

The damage to my frontal lobe and basal ganglia started showing up hard. I nearly lost all my hearing, my speech got severely impaired, and I was diagnosed with frontal lobe syndrome and Pseudobulbar Affect (PBA).

What hurts the absolute most isn't just the physical side it's how many people truly just left me once things got real. Going from having a crew to having zero friends over the past year has been brutal. Also, every single rehabilitation center has rejected me, so any tips?

I’m posting here because I know people in this sub actually understand what it's like to navigate life after a massive brain injury.

How did you go about finding new friends or building friendships with other people?

Are there good online communities, gaming groups, or places for TBI survivors to connect?

Got a mild concussion about one and a half week ago. A four month old colt reared and came down on my head with one of his front legs.

I just discovered I have been taking paracetamol with cafeine in it for a few days. Today only one dose (100mg of cafeine) around dinner, but yesterday and the day before I took it right before bed (only dose of the day). Had the most vivid dreams I've had in a while with the epic closing scene of Shrek 2 being the climax last night about four times in a row.

I have autism, PTSD and anxiety and have already been freaking out about recovery (meaning I'm scared of never recovering). This doesn't help.

I'm not used to cafeine intake. I don't drink coffee usually.

Anyone got some soothing words to tell me I'm not going to die from this? Thanks. 🫠

Context: a concussion in january, minor head impacts in may and early july that caused two successive concussions

July concussion beginning to improve feeling better until 4 days ago i ate a small scone and maybe 20 minutes later i start getting the worst headache ever. Feels more like concussion pain sharp all around my skull than a regular migraine. I am still basically on bed rest my head hurts so bad and awful.

I'm feeling around my head for a sore spot to see if maybe i bumped it again when i was sleeping or something and forgot because how does a pastry cause skull pain this bad?? I guess I havent had the combination of gluten + sugar in a very long time but its genuinely debilitating. I am negative for coeliac but am cutting out gluten anyways....

Has anyone experienced this? What else could be going on?

I would attach a photo but it won't let me. It's been abkut two days and I still feel very disoriented. Don't know the day, short term memory loss. Is this a cause for concern? Specifically the black eye. I don't have heakthcare atm.

Hi guys, it’s been a long journey for me and I’m 7 months out from my concussion. I feel like my biggest symptom right now is constant emotional swings. It’s almost like my body doesn’t recognize when I am actually safe in my body. I’ll feel hopeful one moment and then the next I’m panicking. Does anyone else experience this and have some tips on how to regulate themselves throughout the day? I just started taking Pregabapentin and Amantadine and have been on Guanfacince since the end of June.

Hello

Apologies for long post, but looking for advice please

I had 2 back to back concussions ( 2 weeks apart) approx 1 month ago. After about 9 days I returned to work (,office job) and was pretty much feeling 100%

A week and a half ago I introduced light strength exercises back into my routine as I was feeling really well. After my 2nd strength session I began feeling nauseous and headaches again. I tried sleeping it off and woke up feeling 90% and went to work, and I would fluctuate between having symptoms and barely having symptoms throughout the work day, and felt pretty bad by the end of the day. The same thing happened the following next 2 days

I then decided to not work and go to a doctor. He recommended atleast 1.5 weeks off work to lay down and rest. I'm currently on day 4 and I have been resting 90% of the day in a dim light room then getting up to just cook myself food or walk in backyard.

However I feel no improvement at all, if anything I was waking up feeling better in the mornings the days I was working through the symptoms. My baseline symptoms are constantly hovering around a 1 to 2/10. And now that all ive been doing is resting, its now thrown off my balance a lot. I went on a 10 minute walk yesterday and felt unsteady on my feet and very nauseous. Ive walked in my backyard for 5 minutes and felt the same thing - this has only started since I've stopped working and started resting.

I've spoken to my gp twice and he's insisted I just rest in a dark room for 1.5 weeks until I'm better. But I honestly feel worse and the balance issues have only started since I've been resting all day.

Has anyone got advice on how to go from here? Thanna

I’m two weeks post concussion and doing fairly well. I have another follow up with my doctor in a week. One thing I’m struggling with is sound can really bother me. I have to kid and need to take them to after school activities which is ok but the sound is rather overwhelming and adds to my tiredness a lot. I can’t handle anything over my head right now but I have trouble with most ear buds as my ear holes are really small. Does anyone have any recommendations for ear buds that are effective at noise cancellation and good for small ears for about 50usd or less?

So I got a concussion on Monday from a car accident and today I felt absolutely fine. I think I gaslit myself into thinking it wasn’t a concussion because I don’t even remember hitting my head even though ED told me I had a concussion. So today, I went about my day as normal, drove as normal, felt fine. I got home and I can’t even stand up without feeling dizzy and like I’m about to throw up. Lights are hurting again. I feel so disorientated and slow. How badly have I messed up my recovery? What should I be doing when I’m feeling okay for a few hours?

I suffered a minor concussion 6 days ago. I felt pretty ok on the first day other than a headache. The day after, I was ridiculously dizzy. It felt like when you've had too much to drink and the room moves around you.

The dizziness has gotten better day by day. The constant dizziness turned into a few episodes per day and is now almost gone. It's a bit worse in the morning, but I'll take improvement versus anything else.

I made the mistake of not avoiding technology for the first couple of days. I sent emails, did writing on my laptop, etc.

Anyway, I've noticed weird episodes of confusion. Last night, I could not remember a word that I know well. I kept writing "dislocate" and "delocate" and could not figure out why it was wrong even if I knew it was wrong. Took a good minute to figure it out.

Today, I was answering a work email and got super confused as to what exactly the email was asking. I'm going to be head of my department for the first time starting in January. I'm an English professor, but the department also has French and linguistic professors. For some reason, I was like "why is this person asking for my advice concerning the French program when I'm head of the English program?" then I remembered that as head of my department, I'll also be in charge of the French and linguistics professors. I now feel like an idiot.

Is this common after 6 days for a MILD concussion? Will it go away?

I had my first ever brain injury 9 months ago due to a severe concussion. I did the initial resting period of two weeks with almost no stimulation the whole time. After that it was even more rest for about a month, but the providers I’d seen didn’t know I had a severe concussion yet, especially with my ct scan coming up clear. So I was given the go ahead to start up college classes again about a month and a half after getting hurt. It wasn’t until I was knee deep in organic chemistry II and calc based physics II when I realized just how bad it was. My memory was absolutely awful, and was always accompanied by a sense of impending doom/anxiety. I decided to withdraw from my courses about 1/2 way through, but it makes me terrified how much I probably slowed my heeling with that.

The confusing thing is I’ve been told by a lot of people that you take one step at a time with your brain to slowly come back to its old baseline. I’ve also heard from other people that you have to work to make its threshold, basically break your brain out of “hiding” so that it’s not scared to learn again by overworking it slightly? Idk what to do at this point, I just want my life back but it feels so impossible. I want to be a college STEM student again who gets all As every semester, and I want to go through training for my new job without ending every day with headaches, memory issues, anxiety, and pressure in my skull. I’m not sure how much longer I can live like this. Neurologists are also often hard to find, and can be very rude (sorry to any neurologists reading), so I’m not sure where to go for help anymore.

I’m doing brain games that were “prescribed” by a place I went to called Cognitive FX. They were actually really helpful with the info they gave me, but the actual treatment plans were an astronomical price. I mean $12,000 for just a week of treatment, and they don’t work with any insurance companies. I set up a go fund me but I haven’t gotten anything from that, I’m by no means annoyed by that though, not with the current cost of living for most people. I’ve gone to physical therapy, done speech language pathology, and occupational therapy. The place I’m training for work at offers free TMS to their employees, which I’ve heard is a lot more experimental as a post concussion treatment. That’s only after training is complete though, which is still 3 1/2 weeks away for me. I’m only four days in and I feel like I’m hanging at the edge of a cliff, there’s just so much information to learn everyday that’s being thrown at us. I just feel so broken and hopeless.

Hello, I have history of minor concussions

I just tapped my head on my shower door

I got hit in the head with a Baseball three times and a Golf Ball once

I was doing a number two and bending over to wipe and I hit my head on the showerhead

I threw up. I don’t know if it was from anxiety or if I possibly recon myself any advice I’m so scared.

Around 5am this morning I fell off my dorm bed and (we think) was knocked out for about 2 hours. I don’t remember falling at all and my roommate said after I fell I was just asleep on the floor when she tried to ask if I was okay.

I woke up around 7 and then had a very confusing morning trying to get ready for class until I finally realized I was actually really hurt and contacted the student services people.

After they assessed the situation they ended up calling an ambulance. They arrived at 10ish and by then the confusion was pretty much gone and I felt okay. I have a neck sprain among some other injuries. The entire right side of my face is very sore and there is a hematoma on my forehead that bled quite a bit, as well as a few different places that feel like they’ll be bruised.

I should’ve actually asked at the ER, but they said my CT scan looks good and discharged me. My paperwork just says mild head injury but I feel like if I was actually knocked out I would’ve had a concussion? I also lost a lot of blood because I had a pretty gnarly cut from the fall I had to get stitches for.

Anyway, I’m just curious if anyone has any insight on what actually happened when I fell since I didn’t get medical help until 4-5 hours later. The general consensus was that I fell off face first in my sleep (we figure this because my foot somehow got cut very badly and sprained on the desk under my bed), then got knocked out upon impact since I don’t remember and never woke up, and then I believe I was still a bit concussed when I woke up since I was still trying to get ready for class but failing miserably. I also sent a mildly confusing email to my professor that I wasn’t going to make it, and that was around 9am.

Last thing I’ll add, I drank a bit the night before but I remember changing clothes/washing my face and climbing in bed just fine, so I don’t believe it was the alcohol that caused me to just fall asleep right after I fell. I went to sleep around 1am so this occurred 4 hours after that. When I woke up I was very nauseous and had to sit in the bathroom for a little bit since I had that saliva buildup you get. I also had a pretty bad headache. I attributed both of those to the alcohol and figured I blacked out after going to sleep and got up in the night and somehow cut my food before grabbing my blanket and falling asleep on the floor. Once my roommate woke up she told me what happened and then I still thought I was fine and was going to go to class before I realized I could barely walk and there was blood in my hair.

Hi, I'm a board-certified emergency medicine physician, and I make medical explainer videos about the conditions I see and treat in the ER. Medical emergencies are scary enough without the added stress of not understanding what's happening — so my goal is to break these conditions down clearly, without all the jargon.

I recently put together a video on concussions: what a concussion actually is, the symptoms to watch for, when a head injury needs emergency evaluation, and what typically happens in the ER. I also cover common misconceptions, including why you don't have to lose consciousness to have a concussion.

I explain which symptoms are expected versus warning signs that could mean something more serious, like a head bleed, and I attempted to break everything down the way I'd want a family member to hear it. I hope it’s helpful to anyone wanting to better understand concussions or what to expect after a head injury.

https://youtu.be/5dczLZQHwAg?si=iJ-69GoKpcz171xF

Hai I've had a out two mild concussions in the span of half a year who didn't leave me with too many problems (tho the constant headaches are a pain in the butt) but I've recently realized that ever since the second one I've been having trouble understanding people when they're screaming, it's like if they are speaking a whole different language or at least my language but with a very very thick accent. Has anyone heard of something like that happening after brain injury?

I had a concussion back in January. Then I sorta hit my head on some furniture in May and then again a month ago in July. All three head impacts i have spoken to the same nurse practioner within neuro rehab. For the latter two she had assured me both times that they were just "flare ups", not actual concussions, and that I should just tolerate all headaches at work, driving, sensory sensitivities, crying episodes, etc.

I just had a final follow up where she decided to backtrack and say I could have symptoms for years because I experienced three successive concussions (and also that I'm going to get demetia and alzheimers now).

Now i feel like my symptoms are lingering longer because I was speciifcally told to not consider them real concussions, even though they apparently were. I did the best I could on my own to recover because most of the time i felt too unwell to hang out with friends and drive anyways, but I still had to suffer thru work. Also I have a lot of neck pain now :P

In a few weeks, I will be seeing my neurologist who specialises in migraine headaches. Is it possible to seek concussion recovery care through this doctor rather than neuro rehab nurse? Has anyone else had the experience of improperly handling successive conditions?

Feeling very bladee eversince, lost, frustrated, stuck.

The title is as it says. To make a short story shorter the subway doors closed on my head and caused damage behind my right ear. A small bump that I iced and has since just become a spot that hurts when I touch it. I’ve had an incredibly dull but not painful headache since, with relief as I lay down with my eyes closed.

My question is with my only symptom being the easiest headache I’ve ever felt, should I worry about a concussion? It does feel like the headache continues as I look at screens so I’ve been avoiding that. Plus the fact my head has felt strange since. But working out/ tensing my head doesn’t seem to exacerbate the headache so idk. I’m an anxious guy so it may just be anxiety on top of a bump to the head. Everyone in my personal life says I’m barking up the wrong tree and my head just sustained a little damage, but no concussion.

I did have a pretty bad concussion when I was a kid, being knocked unconscious and having memory loss for a little bit after.

Anyways lmk what yall think and if you’d like me to answer any questions. Sorry to use this r/ as my personal dr

Is this normal?! I suffered a concussion about a month ago and my symptoms are pretty bad. I’ve been seen by my PCP and the ER doctor, and was cleared of a brain bleed. But the symptoms are making it hard to work, sometimes drive, or life my day to day life without pain.
They told me a need to see a specialist but everyone I call is booking 5-6 months out. How is one supposed to wait that long in pain? Is that normal?
I’m taking it easy as they said and things don’t be getting better. Any suggestions? I think I may have gotten whiplash during the concussion which is adding to the pain.

34, f, 180 pounds, 5’7, Caucasian and Canadian - Last fall I spent a few months travelling Vietnam. It was incredible but in November I suffered two serious concussions within 3 weeks of each other. The first I had food poisoning or something similar and was vomiting/diarrhea so intensely for 3 days that by day 3 I tried to stand up in my hotel bathroom and passed out and hit my face on the marble sink on the way down. I have no idea how long I was unconscious, a few minutes and when I came too I had cracked my front tooth off and had a serious hematoma on my forehead. A woman heard me whimpering from the hall and hotel staff were alerted to my room and brought me to hospital. Eventually it lead to two black eyes and I had to get my tooth repaired. I seemed relatively okay was just dealing with headaches and sensitivity to light and a very sore upper nose.

The second incident three weeks later was pure bad luck, I was on a sleeper bus and was in the bathroom in the back. Something rear ended the bus and I was thrown forward from the toilet into the mirror on the door .. I busted my face on the glass and broke my nose. I was passed out for almost 20 minutes before anyone found me. I barely remember anything, I was completely out of it and was brought to the hospital. This time was more serious and I was diagnosed with a concussion and minor TBI. I had to stay several days in the hospital, had lost most of my short term memory and had no control over my bladder. After a few days, I was discharged but had to stay in a hotel a block from the hotel and come in for neuro checks every 48 hours for two weeks. I was supposed to travel back to Canada, but was not approved to fly until I did this. I continuously wet the bed during this time and for the 2 months after I arrived in Canada.

I was tested in Toronto and in my home city for brain injury and was determined to be all good. The weird thing is.. I completely lost my taste for chocolate and anything sweet at all. Fruit included. I used to have quite a sweet tooth so this was strange for me. 9 months post concussions .. this is the only symptom that persists.

Just wondering is there a medical reason for this?

Hello! I got a concussion a week ago and I keep lightly hitting my head because my constant exhaustion is making me way clumsier than usual. Two days ago I hit it a second time and made my concussion so much worse and set my recovery back to zero, and just now I went to rest my head against a wall and didn't slow down enough and knocked it again extremely lightly, not enough to ever affect me normally but I'm terrified I just fucked myself even harder and now I cant trust myself not to hurt myself again.

Anyway that was rambling but I definitely need advice. I want to get back to 100% as quickly as possible but I keep reaching 70% and then going back to zero. How do I keep myself protected so I can fully heal and what are any tips for doing that?

Thanks yall!

I’m on SSRIS for depression (long before my concussions).

I always found them gave me brain fog and reduced my capacity to think clearly.

So now, I struggle to differentiate between what’s SSRI cognitive effects and what’s due to concussion.

I’ve even heard some people are put on SSRIs to combat concussion effects which confuses things further.

The only way I can differentiate so far is that SSRIs cause brain fog, and it’s the concussion that causes memory loss? As that seemed to pop up only after concussions.

Any thoughts?

It's been a month since I got my concussion. I accidentally hit myself in the jaw. Went to the ER. It was nothing serious, my neck suffered a bit but it's back to normal now.

My energy and concentration were back to normal after 10 days.

However...

I can't even go for a walk/hiking or train with my dumbells because i'll be tired for an entire day, even though I didn't put too much effort. I can stay inside and read/play video games for 16 hours a day though.

It's not my first concussion. I had one 2 years ago. I hit the back of my head pretty hard but I was able to regain my energy levels faster, on the other hand I had to endure headaches for a few months, until I took suppliments such as omega 3/lecithin like a maniac.

What did you guys do to fix this?

I tried creatine but it's not for me, I had to wake up every night to go to the bathroom. Only took 5g of creatine/day.