About concussion:

Concussion is a traumatic brain injury brought on by forces that transmit impulses to the head. These forces do not always come in the form of a direct impact to the head and can result from a whiplash type injury where the head rapidly accelerates and decelerates such as a fall to the ground. This leads to a mechanical shake of the brain and is characterised by the rapid onset of changes in neurological function that can last from minutes to months. It is important to remember that it is not necessary to suffer loss of consciousness to have sustained a concussion and the presentation of symptoms can be immediate or take up to 48 hours to come on. So if you suspect a mechanism that could lead to concussion the safest thing is to reduce your activity levels and avoid screens for 48 hours. .

Symptom types:

All concussions are different but sufferers will generally suffer from a combination of the following symptoms: .

• Headache
• Pressure in head

• Neck Pain
• Nausea or vomiting

• Dizziness
• Blurred vision

• Balance problems
• Sensitivity to light

• Sensitivity to noise
• Feeling slowed down

• Feeling like “in a fog“
• Don’t feel right

• Difficulty concentrating
• Difficulty remembering

• Fatigue or low energy
• Confusion

• Drowsiness
• More emotional

• Irritability
• Sadness

• Nervous or anxious
• Trouble falling asleep

Triggers:

Everyone that suffers a concussion will also experience different triggers that make their symptoms worse. Typically these will be things like bright lights and loud noises, busy environments, raising heart rate, screens and activities that require a bit more concentration. If you notice that certain activities are making your symptoms worse it’s best to limit the amount of time that you spend doing them as consistently aggravating symptoms could prolong your recovery.

What to do

Following the initial 48 hours, you can begin to build up activity levels as your symptoms allow- that is to say without doing anything that leads to a significant increase in symptoms. If you need some help with this you might find using a symptom and activity tracker like the one that Heady provides to help you understand and achieve the right balance of activity and rest.

In addition to regulating and progressing activity levels there are functional systems in the head that should be assessed to establish whether they are part of the problem and leading to symptoms. Once assessed these systems can be treated through rehabilitation exercises that can help to resolve symptoms and speed up recovery. By downloading and using Heady you can assess and treat these systems yourself, just like you would in a specialist concussion clinic. Stay in touch for our next blogs that will explore these systems and explain how we assess and treat them!

Heady’s concussion rehabilitation platform

We are helping sufferers of Concussion and Traumatic Brain injury take ownership of their recovery through a tailored and evidenced based treatment programme, available by downloading Heady, the specialist digital rehabilitation platform.

Coming soon.