Recovering from a Concussion and the Dilemma of Unseen Injuries

Chances are, if you are a teenager, you know a number of people who have had concussions. In fact, recent research conducted at the University of Michigan School of Nursing showed that about one-quarter of teens report having at least one concussion. Concussions, which are classified as a traumatic brian injury and can have many lasting negative effects, are unfortunately normalized as being part of sports.

The Center for Disease Control estimates that 5-10% of athletes will experience a concussion in any given sports season. In total, this could add up to 3.8 million concussions each year in America just from sports-related injuries. While many of these concussions are mild -- people will suffer from a headache for a week or so before feeling completely normal -- more severe concussions leave people with disrupting symptoms lasting months, including constant headaches, memory loss, fatigue, dizziness, increased anxiety, and irritability.

The length of time it takes to recover from a head injury is drastically different for everyone, and what makes concussions especially complicated is that there is no sure-fire way to know when your brain is completely “back to normal.” With a broken bone, it is easy to find out; a simple x-ray will confirm when you are, in fact, fully healed. However, unless one has suffered severe head trauma, concussions typically do not appear on CT scans or MRIs. This makes it so that the individual is responsible for knowing when they are 100% better, and there is little doctors can do to confirm this other than running generic brain tests (repeat the items of list back, walk in a straight line, etc) that are not necessarily indicative if one’s brain has healed.

As someone who has had five concussions, most of which came from soccer, I can attest to the difficulties that come with recovery. Recovering from each concussion has been different; some have taken me longer to physically recover, others have taken me longer mentally (getting back into a sport after an injury can be challenging if you are fearful of getting injured again).

Personally, I -- and many others I know -- find that one of the hardest parts of recovering from a concussion is the fact that it is unseen. As mentioned earlier, injuries that cannot be visibly seen by medical tests leave people wondering when they are able to resume normal activity. It is quite easy to rush back into athletics after a concussion, which can increase the risk of getting another, more severe one shortly after.

When I was in fourth grade, I pushed myself to get back into soccer quickly, and just two weeks later, I found myself with another concussion after hitting my head given that my brain was not completely recovered. The risk of rushing back from a concussion is not only physical, however. It can also leave one feeling overly-anxious about receiving another injury. In tenth grade, I tried to return to soccer too soon after my fourth concussion, when in reality I was not mentally ready; I would have benefitted from a few extra weeks of recovery so I could feel more confident in playing again. Instead, I suffered from panic attacks during scrimmages whenever someone got near me. It took me nearly a year to regain complete confidence.

The other dilemma that comes with concussions is the fear that others will not believe that you are still experiencing symptoms. Obviously, a traumatic brain injury can impact one’s academic performance, and they may need accommodations -- like staying off screens or not taking tests. However, after a certain amount of time, many feel that they cannot use their concussion as an “excuse” to get out of tests or assignments. Evidently, this leads to students over-extending their brain power, and possibly not doing as well as they could in classes.

I was in a bad soccer collision in October, and I ended up completely snapping my left wrist and getting a severe concussion. Now, three months later, I am out of my cast and my wrist motion is almost back to where it was before the injury. For the most part, my wrist’s recovery was fairly linear; it consistently got better, and there was never a point when I thought my pain was significantly worse than previous days.

Unfortunately, that is not the reality for my head. At first, my headaches and memory were absolutely horrible (I’d forget where I had been just five minutes earlier). Then, little by little, it improved. I found my memory getting better, and eventually I did not need the two naps a day I was taking. At one point, I felt confident that I was improving so much so that I could return to all activities. However, my symptoms got worse again, and my brain seemed to slow down; I was more exhausted, my memory was deteriorating, and my headaches were suddenly bad again. Now, three months after my injury, I am still experiencing these symptoms, and at times it feels I am not physically able to complete assignments or take tests.

Nevertheless, I feel like I must. I fear that teachers will perceive me as making excuses to get out of tests and assignments, so I push myself to do all my schoolwork. Unlike with my wrist, there is no physical break in my brain, and I am not wearing a head-cast around, and I worry that because of this, teachers will think I am 100% when in reality I’m not. One day, when my head was on fire and I could not even see clearly, I took an in-class essay in English. Of course, I was unable to get very many of my thoughts out, and I ended up writing a note to my teaching explaining why my essay was not even a page and contained only one paragraph. Luckily, my teacher was incredibly understanding (shout out to Ms. Brown) and let me retake it at a later date. Had I asked before the test, I would have saved myself the misery of trying to write something I was incapable of.

The bottom line, and the message I want to send through this article, is that my fears that people will not believe me are not necessarily needed. Teachers are reasonable, understanding people (for the most part). Your physical recovery is more important than any assignment or test. You only have one brain, and it must be preserved at all costs. So, if you are suffering from an unseen injury, please do not push yourself to the breaking point.