What is Post-Concussion Syndrome?
Even a minor head injury can have physical, mental and emotional effects in the days, weeks or months afterwards. Usually, concussion symptoms go away within two to six weeks after you experience an injury. Post-concussion syndrome (PCS) describes a set of symptoms that sometimes happen after a concussion, which can last for several weeks or months.
Physically, you may feel more tired than usual. You may be dizzy, off-balance and more sensitive to bright lights and noise. You may have lasting headaches and visual disturbances. Ringing in the ears or changes in senses of smell and taste may occur.
Your thinking may change – you may have trouble with concentration, trouble finding words, or find yourself becoming more forgetful.
Your behaviour may change – some people become more impulsive, or find it takes longer to do simple tasks
And emotionally, you may feel unusually down, anxious, or be more irritable than before. You may have a loss of interest in activities you normally enjoy.
All of these symptoms are part of the normal recovery process, as your brain slowly heals. For 80% of people, they will disappear over the next 6 months. They are not signs of brain damage, or of permanent change. They rarely need medical treatment, but they can be very difficult to live with.
The emotional impact of Post-Concussion Syndrome
Understandably, all of these changes can be enormously frightening. Tiredness and the other physical symptoms mean that you may not be able to do the things you used to do. Dizziness, poor balance and visual disturbances can make you feel vulnerable. Your emotions may be more extreme than before, with some people even saying that they don’t recognise themselves. Knowing that the symptoms aren’t permanent may not feel helpful when your life is so disrupted. So, it’s not surprising that many people with Post Concussion Syndrome also experience anxiety and depression.
How CBT helps with PCS
Feeling tired, sensitive to light and noise, irritable, and finding it hard to concentrate are symptoms of PCS. But did you know that they can also be symptoms of Anxiety and Depression? If your PCS symptoms aren’t improving, perhaps it’s worth working on the emotional side.
Excessive worrying, such as ‘what if I can’t concentrate well enough to do my job?’, can actually make it more difficult to concentrate. Falling into negative spirals of thought such as, ‘this is the rest of my life now, I’ll never feel like myself again’, can actually make us tired. Feeling anxious can make us hyper-aware of sounds or bright lights around us. If you are excessively preoccupied with these negative thought patterns, your worry and sadness may make the physical symptoms feel worse.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can help you to recognise when this happens, and learn techniques to feel calmer, worry less, and lift your mood, helping your recovery.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can also help you find better ways of coping with the symptoms themselves. This is important, because our normal coping strategies don’t always work for PCS. For example, if you are someone who has always coped with difficulties by pushing through, that coping style may make you more exhausted. If you are someone whose coping style is to keep a close eye
on your symptoms, that focus can impair your concentration, making things like dizziness or memory problems worse. A therapist can help you to identify your coping styles, and what lies behind them to help you find new ways of managing your symptoms.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can’t ‘cure’ post-concussion syndrome. However a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist can help you to cope, not only with the PCS itself, but also with the emotional impact.
If you have been diagnosed with Post-Concussion Syndrome and you want to try CBT, you can refer yourself to City & Hackney Talking Therapies.
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