Rethinking Post Concussion Recovery

It's brain injury awareness month, and there's a lot that we're not aware of, particularly when it comes to ongoing post concussion symptoms. It's a functional problem, not a structural one, so we need to raise our awareness of other day-to-day interventions that are simple, and critical to recovery. Because a concussion affects the multiple systems in our body it doesn't fit into any neat 'ology' and can't (usually) be resolved by medication or surgery.

That's why I'm working to raise awareness of:

The neuroscience of pain - how using pain reprocessing therapy to retrain the brain's neural pathways can reduce headache pain within weeks, and eliminate it all together longer term. No, we don't have to live with debilitating headaches forever. A year was enough for me, thanks. This simple approach is critical to recovery and yet it's a connection that I've not seen mentioned anywhere in relation to concussion. It's a game changer.

The role of the nervous system - how a concussion impacts our ability to move between nervous system states and we can get 'stuck' in a 'fight / flight' or 'freeze' response. That can look like anger / irritation or depression / fatigue ... or a mix of both! Nervous system regulation can seem like Instagram fodder but it's a fundamental way of regaining long term function and returning to normal life.

The role of nutrition - how healthy fats, balanced blood sugar, and restoring gut health are critical to reducing systemic inflammation and enabling the body and brain to heal. Our 'normal' food, the highly processed and inflammatory stuff, do nothing to support the body's innate healing ability. Again, it's not complicated once the key principles are understood.

Then there's the other stuff like exercise (creates BDNF which strengthens neural connections, yes please), sleep (for brain 'cleaning' and improving cognitive function, I'm onboard with that) and emotional support from a professional psychotherapist (sceptics, take note) when your life has been turned upside down.

This takes time, an open mind and a way of thinking outside of our existing treatment paradigms. If people are to truly recover from long term post-concussion symptoms, not just "learn to live with it" (I refused) then it starts with awareness of the full breadth of options and approaches.

If you're in the post-concussion space I'd love to connect.