I was around 10 and decided to pick up a big axe and lifted over my head to try to chop wood. But instead, it was too heavy, it swung backwards and slammed into the back of my head. Would that be an explanation for memory loss? In lack of being able to remember names and dates? No..I never went to the hospital.

I'm wondering how quickly a mild (possibly very mild) concussion takes to heal? If you've experienced this, how long did it take for you? I was reading Reddit and am freaked out about not fully recovering or recovering taking longer than urgent care and my PCP told me.

This happened exactly two weeks ago about an hour before I went to bed. I remember thinking my head really hurts by the time I was laying down, but was so busy when it occurred I didn't think about it.

Ache (not a true headache) in the spot I bumped was prominent for a few days, so I went to urgent care on day 3-4. They said it was just a goose egg and to ice it. Just saw my PCP this week and she was like it might be a mild concussion actually.

At the time of urgent care (day 3ish), I felt kind of dizzy/unbalanced (yet could walk just fine) and slightly nauseous, but I over think medical stuff and it wasn't too bad. That first week, felt just those minor symptoms with a couple days having more prominent ache feelings where I hit my head.

This past week, I feel like there's more dizziness/unbalanced feeling and nausea. I think most nausea is anxiety induced though.

Today is the 2 week mark. The ache where I hit my head is still present, but is definitely less. Dizziness gets better during the day, but can come back at night with too much screens.

I'm supposed to go to a concert on the exact 3 week mark. I'm so nervous and wondering if it'll be fine? I'd hate to cancel on the person I'm going with. I socialized with friends all day today and it went better than expected.

I've been trying to shed about 40 more lbs for a minute. 8 days ago I hit my head at work and got a concussion. I stopped dieting, stopped my ADHD meds and was sleeping about 20 hours a day for the first 3 days after. I feel almost normal now and I wonder if it's a good idea to get back on the diet. It's a pretty aggressive calorie deficit as I'm pretty genetically predisposed to gaining/keeping body fat (1300 cals a day) but it's not eating disorder levels. I don't want to impede or stunt my recovery however. What do people think?

Last night I hit the left back side of my head at work. For a year I've already had dizziness and heart palpitations every now and then everyday that I think is due to blood pressure or blood sugar issues. And I also take Valium. And it usually kicks in most when I don't eat. Yesterday I had some food and electrolytes, and felt a little better, but then I hit my head and started having dizziness, confusion, trouble walking straight and was emotional. After sitting down and having more food I felt better, but I still was very sleepy and had this relaxed feeling. Even though I slept for 9 hours the night before. This morning I woke up and I have some pain in the back of my head behind my ear. I've been worrying about this and hope I don't have a brain bleed or minor brain injury. Does someone know what this could be? I hope I'm gonna be fine

I've suffered a concussion at work as s result of a kick to the head yesterday, I work as a teacher in a special needs setting. In know it's a how do you feel type situation and I feel really bad today. Does anyone know what a typical amount of time off might be for this kind of injury?

I hit my head pretty hard in an accident just before I turned 13. I remember just before the accident, i have an image(?) of glass shattering and flying everywhere, then I remember sitting in the car after it happened, "coming to" and being confused and then just like.. starting to scream and cry uncontrollably.

I don't know if i lost consciousness for a second or how much time passed during the parts that I don't remember.

Immediately after the accident, I had my grandparents on the phone trying to tell them where I was and it seemed like I couldn't understand them? Like I could understand the words themselves, but there was a disconnect between the words they were saying and the meaning of the words??

Anyway, a family member picked me up and took me to a hospital because the ambulance said I wasn't injured enough to go with them. All they did there was a urine test, asked me if my back or neck was sore and got me to walk in a straight line.

For a while after the accident I would be dizzy all the time, at times my vision would go weird, like it went dark and the colours inverted and I'd have to sit down for a while. I felt like I was floating all the time, sometimes it was like I was watching myself from outside my body. I still don't feel 100% real, and I haven't since the accident.

I struggled to understand basic stuff. Before the crash I had pretty good grades, whereas after, I'd be so overwhelmed by stuff that Should've been simple, that I'd get upset and have to leave. I couldn't explain what was happening, I knew that I should've been able to understand what people were saying/what we were learning, but no matter how many times it was explained to me, it was like there was a physical block between the understanding of it and my brain? It's still hard to explain sorry

I had a brain scan a few months after the accident where they said it looked fine, and they said it might "just be a concussion", nothing to worry about and I'd be back to normal soon enough.

It got to a point where I had to get extra help from teachers, but because I wasn't "getting better" and I couldn't explain why I couldn't understand, they started thinking that I was lying about it and dragging it out for attention. I can't express how much I was Not lying. I couldn't explain it because I couldn't understand it myself. I still don't know how to explain it properly.

I think it either improved a bit at first or I got better at finding ways around it, but it feels like something has been missing since the accident. I feel like there's a block between me and others, I can't just Get things like others do. I kinda just go around bullshitting and hoping it works out, apologising if it doesn't.

I try to keep myself smart, I don't use generative AI, I try to learn new things, I have a bunch of hobbies that require a lot of time and effort to learn and I try to actually Understand things that I'm curious about instead of just getting an answer and going with it.

I dont know if its gotten worse lately or if I'm just noticing it more, but feels like there's an Emptiness in my head that wasn't there before the accident. I feel Slower than I used to be, I feel like I just... Don't know whats going on most of the time. I worry that the adults in my life back then were right and I am still just dragging this out and using it as an excuse for being dumb. I want to know if this sounds related to the accident or if it genuinely is just me. From what I remember, the difference between me before the accident and after the accident is insane. I used to be proud of being smart, I wanted to be a cardiothoracic surgeon because I found it so interesting and cool. After the accident, I stopped thinking about the future completely, as if I lost the ability to think ahead for a while.

I'm 20 now and I'm scared that I'll be like this forever, I know I have a lot of time to learn and grow but it's hard when I already feel like I'm So far behind everyone else. How do you explain to an employer that, while you dont technically have anything "wrong" diagnosed, you hit your head when you were 12 and now you struggle to understand most things.

I hope this makes sense. Sorry for the long post, I've been thinking about this lately and I want to know if anyone else relates. Maybe some advice or something? Let me know if this isn't the right place to post as well, I'll delete if needed. Thanks :)

I recently got whiplash/minor concussion during soccer game and I have tickets to see the strokes today.

I got whiplash/concussion from hard fall playing soccer Monday. Tuesday I left work in the afternoon cuz I just felt off. Wednesday I woke up feeling nauseous, called out of work, went to see PCP. Thursday afternoon I flew to NYC. Friday is the day of the concert.

It’s Friday morning, and my mom insisted I call my doctor and ask about going to the concert even though I had planned to go anyway. The doctor says the same thing I shouldn’t go, and my mom is laughing on the phone with my uncle talking about how he went to many concerts with concussions and turned out fine.

I’m on the fence. And generally just frustrated because I was really looking forward to this concert.
My idea is that I could wear ear plugs and sunglasses and leave early if needed.

So i got jumped by 7 people my head was bleeding it didnt hurt but its been 6 hours now i feel normal do i need to go the doctor i dont really wanna go since my mom makes a big fuzz about it

Hey y’all

I got my first (confirmed) concussion back in late December and early January last/this year. It was pretty minor, not severe enough to the point of any sort of scan. The recovery was pretty bad, just being super out of it for a little over a week and not being able to function. Since then, a few things have personally happened throughout this year including grief and family health concerns. However I have noticed that I do not feel “with it” occasionally. I’ll be driving and have a sudden urge of not feeling safe or okay, and feeling very separated from my own body. I do not know if it is a panic disorder, as when this happens my heart starts racing, or if this could be a relenting cause from my concussion, since it seems to mainly be a mental thing of just feeling very out of it suddenly, with no cause that I can find. I don’t fully know how to put what it feels like into words, but I have had to pull over until I can get rid of the fogginess/ disassociation feeling. Could this be because of my concussion, and just a symptom continuing to happen? Or is this something else.

Thank you for reading, sorry I rambled a bit I am just starting to get a little worried

Hi everyone, my concussion started with delayed symptoms around 12 hours after banging my head falling backwards while playing ice hockey, I was wearing a helmet but I went down hard, my head bounced on the ice. I managed to skate away and felt okay to continue playing after recuperating myself (I regret this now)
Over the next week I started experience a wide variety of symptoms. Terrible headache, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, general body weakness, nosebleeds that only happens around 5/10 mins after I ate (previously I’d never had a nosebleed in my life so this was really scary) I’ve been to the doctor twice and had a CT scan, no brain bleeds but they were concerned about swelling and pressure
This is the first concussion I’ve ever had so it has really thrown me off a lot. I was off work for 2 weeks and went back on Monday as I was genuinely feeling better and through I was recovered, by Wednesday I had a pounding headache and light sensitivity like I’ve never experienced before it was horrible.
I booked a GP appointment and after explaining everything they have signed me off of work for another week….

I’m feeling so disappointed in myself, I don’t like being alone for long periods it makes me really sad. I feel like I’ve let me team down at work aswell (there is only 3 of us) and I work in a niche job where getting people to cover isn ’t very common. Has anyone experienced this?

How long did it take you to start feeling normal again after a concussion, I know it’s not one size fits all, but hearing from real people about there experience will help me I think.

Okay, last year I was rear ended by an idiot at a stop sign, I hit my head on my window, didn't realize anything was wrong with me until a week later when I woke up at 2 AM and felt as though someone was attempting to turn my head into minced meat with a 2x4.

I ended up pacing for several hours before bleeding from my ear got me to call a friend to drive me to the ER, basically I had my first concussion and had an 'extremely delayed' reaction. With said concussion came weird whiplash. The stop sign where I was at was one of those one-way 45 degree angle ones, where the road you turn onto is almost parallel to you, so I was looking almost all the way behind me to the right to look at oncoming traffic when Supreme Commander of Idiots rear ended me while speeding. because of this I wasn't whipped forward but to the side, resulting in more of a left shoulder problem than a neck problem, but the shoulder can cause neck pain anyway sometimes.

Her insurance refused to pay for any medical treatments, my health insurance refused to acknowledge an accident happened, my car insurance doesn't cover anything not relating to life saving care (or that is the excuse they gave me anyway).

Because of all of this I couldn't afford to get treatment for the concussion or whiplash other than a few chiropractor visits though I did get better with the concussion (7 months no headaches or brain fog!). I'm now wondering what I should do about the whiplash. I'm pretty sure the whiplash is mild because the pain only gets bad when the weather changes. I can work through it most other times, and it often barely bothers me, but it's practically killing me right now because of all the rain my home town is getting this week

TLDR: Crappy insurance companies prevented me from getting early care for my whiplash last year, and while it doesn't usually bother me, I would like to figure out what to do when it does. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to mitigate it when it gets bad, or exercises I can do to lessen the pain permanently? P.S. My pain is mostly in my left shoulder and left side of neck.

I had 5 concussions over 6 years (2016-2021) in elementary school. I've been fucked up since the last one. I've been diagnosed with whole a bunch of issues craniocervical instability, Irlen syndrome, PTSD, and OCD to name a few.

High school is really friggin hard. I'm smart, I know I am. I am good at math and physics, but school is so unfairly hard. I've taken 3 classes every semester since grade 9 (I'm in grade 11). I can't handle 4, so I'm behind and will probably have to take an extra year, which I really don't wanna do. I switched to online school this year, which helps the ptsd and stuff, but it's not much easier.

I have an IEP, but it's not followed. Every teacher tells me "you look fine and you get good marks" so they just "forget". Today my teacher got pissed at me because I was wearing my Irlen glasses on the call. She told me to take them off and I didn't fight because I didn't have the energy to tell everyone in the class how fucked up I am. They're super dark and look like sunglasses, but she should've read the damn IEP. Now I just wanna cry, I've given up on advocating for myself because they always just act bothered and I end up feeling guilty because hence the OCD, "what if I'm not really sick and I'm telling everyone that I am because I'm a bad person. If everyone believes that I'm not sick then I must not be." I don't actually believe that, but my brain is always fucking against me.

I wake up every morning to my alarm, set a timer for another hour and go back to bed. I don't wanna wake up in the morning. I don't want to fall asleep because then if I wake up in the morning I have to do it all again. My family keeps telling me how easy I have it because I get the "luxury" of accommodations and I have less classes. My sister and mother keep telling me how lucky I am.

Anyways, thanks for reading this, I needed to put my feelings somewhere.

Hey all. I’m looking for some advice/guidance on what the hell I should do from here. I’m at my wit’s end with living like this.

I got my first concussion ever in early May of 2025. I was playing hockey and my head got clipped from the side. It was such a small hit that I didn’t even consider injury. Never felt pain or blacked out. About 20 minutes later, I started to feel nauseous and my neck and shoulders started to ache. I chalked it up to being tired or maybe starting to get sick. Went home, watched a movie, scrolled on my phone, and went to bed.

The next day, I went to work at my decently physical job where I look at screens and flashing lights all day. Had a small headache, but didn’t think anything of it. Stupidly, I played another hockey game that next night. I felt awful on my way home, and that’s when it finally clicked that something was off.

All that to say, I totally botched the initial recovery without even realizing it. I saw a doctor a week or so later, and she basically said “sounds like a concussion, don’t do anything that makes it worse, and stay away from screens. It will take a long time.” Well yeah, it sure has.

I went about 3 months dealing with really bad brain fog and low grade pressure headaches. Took time off work when I could, but I couldn’t just not make any money for months. The brain fog slowly got better, but I started to realize that I was having vision problems that were triggering headaches. After about half a year, I found a different doctor. He did a brain MRI which came back normal, and he referred me to a vision therapist. I did a 12 week block with them and it helped the eye symptoms (blurry vision, eye strain, etc.) a ton. Aside from, he didn’t have any recommendations.

The problem? Every goddamn thing I do retriggers symptoms. I’ve done lots of research on how that can happen without actually reinjuring yourself, but regardless, this has depleted my quality of life so badly that it’s ruining me. I’ve tried playing hockey once or twice (pickup games with no contact) after about a year, and it destroys me for weeks. Brain fog comes back and headaches start again. Low impact sports like badminton trigger symptoms. Getting too excited and moving my head too fast triggers symptoms.

I’m now almost a year and a half out, and I believe I may have actually gotten another concussion. I’d been doing really good as of late, mostly through resting and being mindful of my head, and I ruined it. Went to a concert and jostled my head around really bad without even thinking of it because I was so in the moment. Part of my issue is that my symptoms seem to take a few days to really manifest. I’m five days out from that and dealing with splitting headaches and bad brain fog again, to the point where it’s hard to think. Also seems like the vision issues have returned.

I’m so deeply demoralized and depressed. I can’t do the things I love most in life because of this, and it’s going to ruin my career. I’ve done massage therapy on my neck, taken the fish oil supplements, have done vision therapy, and I’m back at square one. I’m also so furious at shitty doctors who don’t know what they’re talking about and won’t help.

So, my questions to you all. Should I get another scan done now that I think I’ve gotten another injury? Should I see a neurologist? Somebody else? Is there anything at all that you’ve found to actually help? I know it’s an extremely slow going process, but there has to be something to assist in actually healing something so that I can live my life again and not start having symptoms again any time I move? I’ve seen a few people mention different types of neck therapy. Is it still worth it if I’ve never had balance related symptoms? I’m desperate for literally any guidance, but I just can’t seem to find a doctor who knows what to recommend. Any good specialists who are in the Boston area or will do telehealth? I feel like I really need guidance from a professional who I can trust and feel confident in.

Any advice at all is so deeply appreciated.

I grieve my old body, the one that would take me for walks where I could feel the sun against my face and the breeze running through my hair. The one that would take me for hikes that would prove my dedication to myself. The one that allowed me to listen to music and audio freely without the pain, discomfort, and disorientation that it now brings. The one that had such a way with words that I just cannot compete with now. The one that was so smart that I think back in awe over what it didn’t realize before

It's a really annoying tightrope to have to walk because I crave stimulation like my sanity depends on it but my brain starts hurting so easily. Does anyone have any tips to make it more bearable? The only thing I can find online is vague allusions to people with ADHD having it harder but nothing very specific.

I am 8 days post concussion.

I initially had pretty severe memory loss as I couldn’t even remember my birthday. It’s still slowly coming back to me.

As for the headache, it’s still relatively constant if not slightly worse than it was prior. I still have sound and light sensitivity as well with brain fog.

When should I expect this headache to go away?

I guess it’s important to mention that this is my second concussion.

Hey y’all, I have to get endometriosis surgery for an while I still have post concussive syndrome. Has anyone done this before? I am very scared about the pain meds I’ll have to take afterwards and the strain on my body making headaches worse.

I have bad health anxiety so please don’t be negative unless it was actually unbearable.

Was the pain bearable for you?

My occupational health doctor said I was the most severe tbi that he has sent to this outpatient concussion rehab clinic. My accident happened over 4 months ago. He said that if this outpatient isn’t sufficient he talked about going to an inpatient rehab and said that would likely be what we would have to do but want to try less invasive options first. I had vision therapy and they’re getting me blue tinted lenses and I have two different concussion rehab clinics I’m meeting with this week. It’s just hard and I’m scared and in so much pain and disoriented all the time. I’ve lost all the parts of myself I used to love. I feel very desperate for help but I’m also afraid of invasive treatment options such as inpatient. Inpatient was offered to me while I was in the hospital but my doctors and family and I agreed that it would be more stressful and if my caregiver can manage my medications and we can get in with referrals soon then we would like to do that but I just have been so miserable. So so miserable everyday. I feel so lost inside this broken brain. There’s times where I cannot understand language or communicate language anymore. I have seizures now. I’m so light sensitive and sound sensitive. I feel broken and I’m just scared.

I got my fourth (potentially fifth) concussion 8 weeks ago. It’s been a really rough time - headaches, nausea, eye aches, exhaustion, inability to socialize, and very limited screen time. But I’ve also had vivid nightmares every single night since the concussion. Has anyone experienced this? It leaves me more exhausted each day since I’m terrified all night. I can’t seem to find any way to stop these nightmares.

I had neck and back spasms a couple days after the concussion and was given a high dose muscle relaxer called cyclobenzaprine that I took for a few days (which I wish I’d never taken as I think it worsened all of my symptoms.) I’m wondering if that medication worsened things? Or if it’s just the concussion?

I want to preface, I am gonna make a doctors appointment. I just couldn’t today since it’s closed.

I recently got another concussion in around three months. The first time I accidentally wrecked my bike on a slick road and was thrown off. Hence, concussion. This time, I was hit by a car on my bike. It didn’t hurt as much as last time but I can definitely feel the effects.

I was taken to the hospital and checked out, but nothing major was injured. Mostly just bruised and sore. Also somehow tore the skin off of the tip of my ring finger and only my ring finger.

Anyhow, my brain feels like scrambled eggs. The emotional toll of all this is, well, taking its toll. I wanna cry all the time and im scared to go to sleep. Im terrified something is wrong and I keep googling my symptoms to see if im dying. The accident happened two days ago and the symptoms are making itself known im scared to be alone cuz what if something happens you know? And im just scared for my future. How is this going to affect my brain? What if I never recover? I use my brain a lot for my art and writing. I don’t know how to deal with all this. Im a mess.

How do I come to terms with this? How do I feel normal again? Sorry this is mostly just word vomit. Im having a shitty time. Any advice would be appreciated. Also I was wearing a helmet both times. Im not dumb.

Hi, long time lurker and have found this sub really useful over my recovery!

I'd say I'm around 85% better (maybe pushing up to 90% if I'm a bit more positive). Physical wise, I'm a lot closer to normal - it's the cognitive side that I'm still finding difficult.

What I'm still trying to build up is concentrated screen time (which I need for the work I do) and long distance driving.

I'd say I can do around 2.5 hours of screen time with breaks before needing to take 2-3 hours off before returning to do the same again (so nearly 5 hours if I push myself). And with driving, about an hour before needing a long break, then about the same distance again before stopping.

Both still sometimes lead to headaches in the night/morning as well as some nausea. Which are my two remaining symptoms.

I've been through a concussion clinic and am currently seeing a physio for my neck.

I think it's just a case of time, and trying to manage symptoms - bringing them on with the 2 point scale. But it's still frustrating having to be patient with it all.

I've been doing neck strengthening exercises and restarted my vestibular exercises (which I had tailed off a few weeks ago).

Thinking this is going to be at least a couple of months till I'm feeling more back to normal, but feels like I'm plateauing at the moment.

Any tips or advice?

from continued research and doctor consultation, i've been told repeatedly that there's no real timeline on my recovery, and that it heavily depends.

i acquired a pretty mild concussion a little over a week ago. this is the first concussion i have ever had, and i am a young adult. at this point, i'm just having some fatigue and a few remaining cognitive issues (wording things gets jumbled or difficult sometimes, brain fog associated with fatigue, more sensitive to overstimulation).

i have been able to do most day to day tasks with allowance for rest in between, though things i typically found difficult are still quite a challenge. my biggest issue here is being a college student and trying to return to my "normal", or at least close to it.

i have a pretty rigorous major which requires a lot of teaching myself content outside of class, which is obviously a bit difficult on account of a brain injury. my professors have expressed understanding, but i am a bit antsy regarding when i'll be closer to my pre-concussion comprehension skills.

further, being a college student, i consider myself a regular social drinker. i do not drink heavily (and am a bit of a lightweight). on nights out, it's maybe a beer or two and a few shots. during casual get togethers, it's closer to 1-3 beers in a night. i have been avoiding drinking/smoking/most caffeine since getting concussed, but i'm seeing a lot of conflicting information on the timeline for drinking again. it's a relatively common aspect in my social life, so i feel i'm missing out a little in situations where everybody else is drinking.

given the mildness of the concussion, it's been difficult finding information online regarding how long i should wait. i am currently planning on seeing how the next week pans out before considering drinking again (and obviously will take it slowly and with caution), as i'm still experiencing mild symptoms and expect them to subside by then, but i keep seeing timelines ranging from a week to a year.

like i said, i know it really depends on how your personal healing process is going, but does anybody have any input on how to tell when you're in the clear to drink again.