JENELLE CARTER

Post-concussion emotions

May 11, 2021 | Newsletter, Writing

Although it’s been over three years since my last concussion, there are still a number of things that aren’t yet back to normal. The hardest and most frustrating part has been and still is my messed-up emotions. This is due to a combination of hormones and/or physical issues with my head and neck. No one’s ever been able to properly diagnose the neck injury (which occurred in 2013 alongside concussion 2 of 3) so I’ve been at a loss as to how to move forward other than trying to take care of my health as best I can. Through my own research, my best guess is that there is a blood flow issue, but unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much out there on the topic. At this point, acupuncture and chiropractic treatments are the only things that have helped, but I don’t know if that is something that will be a necessary part of maintenance or if it could ever lead to a permanent solution.

Thankfully when it comes to these messed-up hormones and emotions things have immensely improved, so I can usually get through the various cycles relatively unscathed compared to before. Occasionally, though, things are bad enough to wipe me out for a little while, which is the reason for my lack of writing these past few weeks. Hormones decimated me initially, and then just as I was starting to get back on track, a full day of painting a large room in our house (which didn’t bother my head or neck at all at the time) led to a significant setback which I am only now just getting over.

Hopefully, someday I’ll have a nice conclusion to this concussion journey and have all the answers to share with someone else going through similar circumstances. For now, I ride the emotional ups and downs as best I can (some days much better than others), extremely grateful that they no longer happen every day, and hopeful that there just might come a time when they don’t happen at all.

Pin It on Pinterest