Advice - Writing a character who's just gotten a concussion?

[Tromroan]

Hello all! I hope this is the right section to post this under. I was wondering if anyone here had experienced a concussion before?

A character of mine is going to bang his head really badly, against the side of a bathtub while falling, and get a concussion. He won't really know he has one, and won't seek medical help. I've tried looking up symptoms on the internet, but it is hard to find anything that isn't an endless list of very technical possibilities. I know there are problems like headaches, and not being able to look at bright lights/screens, but I've had trouble finding more relatable information.

If anyone has had a bad concussion, could you tell me how it was for you, symptom wise?
How bad headache's were? Both immediately after regaining consciousness, and as time goes by?
Also, very importantly I was curious as to what "difficulty looking at screens" really meant. In the hours IMMEDIATELY following a concussion, are you really unable to look at a screen for long? Like seconds, or just minutes? Is it unbearable?

Really any kind of more personal views on concussions would be helpful. Thank you very much!

[Kura]

• I didn't remember the fall or getting hit. I just woke up on the floor confused how I got there.

• Logic was all over the place. I was bleeding all over the place from my head, and people kept freaking out and pointing it out and telling me to go to the hospital. I kept telling them they were over reacting, that it's not blood it's orange printer ink. Because for some reason I thought my blood was orange printer ink. Possibly because when I woke up I was laying on the floor next to the closet that had the printer ink refills??? I duno. You're brain works REALLY weird when you have a concussion.

• Why are people concerned?? Was my thought process every time someone showed concern. Maybe it was because I had no memory of getting hurt for my brain to signal that something was wrong in that way?? I don't know. But to me I felt fine, but to everyone else I was seriously messed up because my forgetfulness, motor skills, and speech was all over the place and not dependable. Every time I ran into something or messed something up it didn't... really register??? Like... I was aware that whoops I made a mistake, but the mistake would not register nor would the action to correct or fix it trigger.

• Sort term memory and executive disfunction was absolutely horrible, and I know I'm bad with those already because of ADHD, but the concussion added it to a lot. Doctor told me not to work for 2 weeks. Boss would not let me take too weeks off and I kinda sided with boss because I needed the paycheque. Day of work (which was the day after I got the concussion) I spent the entire day on the busses trying to get to work cause I kept missing busses, stops or taking the busses to other locations I would usually go to. When I finally got home had to call in and admit 'ok yeah I think the doctor is right, I really shouldn't be working.'

Note: These are examples from 2 separate occasions when I got concussions, though most of the thought process was similar to both I was only bleeding for one of them and then ended up in the hospital for 3 days. The second one I was not bleeding, which is why I thought I would be good to go to work.

[SleepingPoppy]

i cracked my skull as a kid, but since I was so young I really don't remember it well.

I know that after falling, I was conscious but in shock, and couldn't move or speak. I remember my mom carrying me. I remember going to the doctor, but they just gave us ice and sent us home. Only other memory is bouncing around in the backyard like normal later that day, I don't even remember any headaches! (Meanwhile there was actually internal bleeding, and a big ol crack in my skull, lol)

*when I say "remember" I mean genuinely I flash to each of these and have no memory if getting from a to b or anything else. I do remember the fall really vividly, though!

Sorry I can't give better feedback. I might suggest having the character a bit dazed/unfocused. There probably wouldn't be much besides what you've said, depending on his severe the injury is supposed to be.

[AnonymousHouseCat]

I never had a concussion, but I had a friend who did, and the main symptoms for her were sensitivity to light and sound for a while (like a month). So I remember that in math class the teacher turned off the lights and asked us to keep it down to help her out (although I’m sure the teacher liked the reduced noise too).

[arxianfall]

I'm in extreme sports. While I didn't have a loss of consciousness hit yet I have been through a few with friends.

The instant knockout:

Had a friend backflip a quarter pipe and the back of his head hit the railing, knocking him out mid spin. He ragdolled the rest of the flip and landed on his back on the airbag. He woke up roughly a minute later.

5 minutes in he was doing in an interview on what went wrong. 15 minutes in he forgot he got interviewed and what he talked about. He had a few more short term memory loss surrounding the events. A few hours of confusion followed.

He kept asking questions, time location, everything that could jog his memory. He had symptoms of dizziness and haziness, but experienced no headaches.

What's to note is that he felt no pain and just slept through it. Also the multiple questions, they keep happening throughout the day.

This was his second accident. In the first one he forgot the whole day. That time he was sporadically asking when we were going to the event. The one that he already crashed in.

---

Not so instant knockout

I don't know the whole follow up symptoms for this one because the cases I've seen didn't wake up. They are in a state of semi awareness where they move they moan they give out sounds that resemble words and don't react to stimuli. Especially verbal. They can also have they eyes wide open but again, no reaction.

I leave these cases to trained professionals and just keep tabs and monitor everything that happens so I know how to give a detailed description of everything.

[therosesword]

I took some sports medicine classes at the U but they were so long ago I wouldn't trust my certificate any more.

Sometimes there's nothing, sometimes you end up being rushed to the hospital (me when I was 4).

I suggest looking at a sports medicine page.

there can be vomiting
sensitivity to light
short term memory problems

here's a big one... if the person is on blood thinners the chances of an intercranial bleed are strong and can lead, literally, to squashing the brain into the size of a walnut... that's what killed a relative.

Signs and symptoms of concussion

[rajillustration]

I had a roommate who fell off of a longboard and got a concussion, and she completely lost her sense of smell for about 3 years. She also lost a lot of her sense of taste after--she only could really taste cinnamon so she'd put it on everything she cooked (and obviously, everything she cooked was very, very bad because...she didn't care). She had this one recipe where she'd put cinnamon on a raw chicken breast...and then just cook it in the microwave for 10 minutes. Crazy that anyone can eat that, but she just did not care.

Also, shortly after her concussion she had chocolate cake, and the threw it up because she wasn't well at the time. Since then she decided that she hates chocolate, and I never saw her eat it once after the concussion--she'd turn it away, despite not having any sense of taste or smell.

Oh and I should add that when I was a kid I had a concussion--I was backflipping into the pool, and hella missed. There was a lot of blood but I don't remember much of anything at all. Not even pain. Next thing I knew I was getting stitches at the doctors office.

[kaetana]

I got a concussion back in high school when I crashed while snowboarding. It knocked me out, and the first thing I remember is my friend who (thankfully!) was with me insisting to me that I needed to wake up, which I very much did not want to do. I didn't immediately remember that I had fell and it was like I was just really sleepy and wanted to nap another five minutes. She did eventually get me up. I had to get back down to the lodge, which was difficult because my motor control was completely borked. I ended up having to sit on my snowboard like a sled because I couldn't stay standing, and even then I ended up veering wildly off into the woods several times. It was...not great lol. I don't remember much of anything from the rest of the evening after I got back, I think I took a nap?

I had school the next day, but I had a really bad headache and was dizzy and couldn't focus. I went in to the school nurse and mentioned what had happened the previous day, and she told me I likely had a concussion and sent me home.

Thankfully, I had no further negative effects after that. ^_^

[cortezlord96]

Here are some people talking about their experiences with concussions. Hope these help

News story about concussions from 2016

Cristabelle talking about her concussion

NFL player talking about his experience

[skicoak]

Hola!

Between organized football, bouncing, and being an independent professional wrestler in my youth...I have a vast library of information/stories spread out over several decades in which the terminology and methodology was changing as the medical field learned more and more about traumatic brain injuries.

But what you're asking about is mainly how they affect the individual so I'll try to avoid the mostly clinical stuff. The basic rule is nobody re-acts the same across the spectrum of concussions from mild to severe. That's why there's a range of stuff in antidotes about personal concussions...and that it's an unreliable point of view because it comes from the person with the brain injury. Lol.

The first thing locker room doc's check after a potential injury is your eyes. You're looking for sluggish reaction time from the iris to bright light, jittery unfocused eye movements and loss of peripheral vision. These are the clear signs further medical treatment should be sought out but most people use to getting mild concussions tend to skip this. Once you've gotten a concussion lecture from a couple of ER doctor's, you pretty much know what to expect/look for.

My personal mild to medium concussion symptoms were mainly jumbling words together but awareness of doing it, unable to accurately keep track of time and sluggish physical reaction time. My severe to traumatic injuries added the sensitivity to light stuff and short term memory loss.

Never had the range of nausea problems or sleepiness but saw others go through them.

Interestingly, I only saw one person lose their basic logic and knowledge functions because they had severe swelling and a cranial damage.

You should know that when your character has a brain injury... They're susceptible to increasing the damage much easier. Dramatic brain damage can and does stack on itself.

Hope this babble helps.

[Tromroan]

@Kura Thank you so much! This is so helpful and has given me so many more ideas and stuff to work with, especially your examples of someone being confused/forgetful.

@sleepingpoppy Thank you! The dazed/confused aspect is really good to know.

@AnonymousHouseCat Thanks! Sensitivity to light helps with a plot point too

@arxianfall Thank you for so much details! It's very helpful

@therosesword I will look at sports medicine, I hadn't thought of that specific research angle

@rajillustration I think I'd feel to sorry for my own characters if I took away their sense of taste, but thank you very much for the info!

@kaetana Thank you, I never considered very visual effects like dizziness or lack of balance.

@cortezlord96 This is very helpful! I guess I just didn't know the best places to look on the internet, thanks for your help!

[Tromroan]

That helps a lot! Thank you so much, I'm a bit overwhelmed with everyone being so helpful over here on Tapas, I kind of assumed my thread wouldn't really get seen.

The details in your response are really helpful, especially when it comes to symptoms like trouble keeping track of time and sluggish responses. This weirdly fits very well with other themes of my story. Thank you!

[cortezlord96]

no problem, hope it helped

[unicornfield]

If you still want one more input, here's mine.

I had a concussion before and I completely blacked out after hitting my head and got carried to the medical room at school (I was told, I completely didn't remember anything after hitting my head) then I gained consciousness after maybe an hour or a couple of hours (not too sure) and I remember feeling dreamy and very dissociated which very slowly got better with time. I went to the hospital later that day and I ended up fine and back to normal the next day. I don't remember how badly it hurt or headaches though, and I never experienced difficulty looking at bright screens, although I know someone else who also had a concussion experience double vision so I imagine the symptoms can vary.

[Tromroan]

Hey I'll take any input I can get! Thank you so much for letting me in to some of your experiences!