Lauren B. Transcript

 Hi, my name’s Lauren, and I’m here to share my concussion journey. Um, after having what has now been discovered, my seventh concussion, I realized that I’ve had prolonged symptoms from concussion ever since I was about five or six. Um, the Concussion Legacy, have been fantastic in helping me with my journey as I was actually misdiagnosed for many, many years. Um, which was incredibly difficult. Um, as it’s really shaped how my life is now. I’ve gone through some incredibly tough times. 

Um, if we start from the start of my journey, I was a very active child. Um, I was always out and about outside, and so my brother and I would love to do things like going into climbing trees, and my first memory of knocking my head was actually falling out of a tree. And then several more occasions like that occurred. Um, I fell off a seesaw, fell off the monkey bars, and broke my arm, as well as knocked my head. I recall after these times that I had like a headache, um, and then I actually started getting dizzy spells and it was really obvious to me in year seven that I had dizzy spells. And then, another massive symptom was actually dehydration. And I didn’t know until now, doing my own research and talking to others, that actually that is something that is quite common amongst concussion patients, is dehydration. 

Um, these migraines, as I got older, became more and more intense. And what has happened is I actually have only had three recorded concussions. So that’s when they really could tell, and that was in my adult life. And not until I, um, went down this journey and had different misdiagnoses and had to reach out to so many services, did I find out that I most likely had suffered at least seven concussions in my lifetime. And it’s super important that we look back into our medical history and see where it stemmed from, cause it shapes how your life is. 

Um, at school, I always struggled when the teacher was telling me instructions. Um, I now know that I had a dysregulated nervous system from a young age, and so that can look like, um, a child that is unable to sit still. Noise sensitivity, light sensitivity. Um, again, the headaches and dizziness. Um, I was very off balanced, and I also would play sport, uh, basketball, netball. And from those seven concussions, it doesn’t include those knocks I had in netball and basketball. I felt very clumsy. Um, I was disoriented. I got knocked. Um, by netball basketball a fair few times. Um, and so now that I look back at my past, the answers were there, but the, um, information wasn’t being put out to us. It’s something that is a very unknown space. 

Uh, I had my last concussion a year ago, and it was a car accident. And so what happened was I was walking, and then a car reversed into me. I was the pedestrian. Um, they knocked me, they were going at a little bit of a speed. Um, they weren’t watching what they’re doing or distracted, and, um, I actually, you know, was taken from the ground, flew in the air, and landed on the concrete. Um, and, but that car didn’t stop. They didn’t see, they kept going, and they didn’t, the only reason they stopped was because, um, my partner at the time had to physically tell him to stop banging on the car door, and that was, as you can imagine, a very traumatic experience. And from there, it took, has taken at least 11 months. I was then diagnosed with, um, complex PTSD. So if you put it all together, all my different concussions plus that event, has led to complex PTSD. 

And the work that I do now is to help other concussion, um, patients to realize what may have happened and to explain a lot of these symptoms they may have. My interest is the fact that a lot of concussion patients experience low moods, um, and have depression symptoms, which is incredibly disheartening. It is so sad to watch, and many it has led to suicide, and that’s something that, um, I’m researching about. I have wonderful colleagues that I’ve surrounded myself with, wonderful friends. I have a researcher at ACU University who specializes in this. Um, and we’re trying to look at the links between concussion and depression. It’s a space that we need to keep talking about and advocate for. 

Um, in my work as a caseworker, I come across a lot of clients, mostly males. Um, and it’s very obvious to me that they haven’t had someone to talk to. They’re unable to communicate what has been happening to them. And now that I have been there and I’ve experienced those things, um, you know, I wanna be able to help them. And I think I can because of my experience. So, with my latest concussion from the car accident, I had several times where I would get into this deep depression and as people know it now, bed rotting. But to the extreme where, you know, weeks, it would be a week go past and I wouldn’t get outta my bed till four o’clock. Like I, it was very unusual for me. I’m a very positive person. I am a people’s person. I was a teacher educator for 14 years. Um, so there was unlike me, and it’s very scary for your friends and family to watch someone go through that. 

And, you know, I’m so grateful for all the friends and family that would message me, and that was the, you know, pull to get outta bed. I knew I had to, and I did it for them. As much as I struggled with it, I, I made sure I get outta bed each day and, you know, that was a win. That was always a win. If I could get outta bed, that was the win, you know? Um, I just have to think like that. And it’s really tough. And the, you know, the research shows that when you have a concussion, it does affect the, the chemicals in your brain, such as dopamine and serotonin. And that causes that deep mood change. 

And you’ll know that the symptoms of that, uh, the moodiness, um, people have a short fuse. They’re agitated easily, all those sorts of things. Um, and we’re not talked about enough. And people just, you know, are then pulling away from those people because they are frightened and they’re not understanding it, and we are not talking about enough and giving them the care that they need.

Um, so that’s what I wanna do as an advocate for this, is be able to have a space where people can talk about it and, you know, it is confronting, it’s really confronting what people go through, and not many people can understand or listen to that. Um, and so that’s where I feel like it’s a wonderful space that I can go into and, you know, the intrusive thoughts that come through.

And these days we normalize some of this behavior, and we don’t realize that we’re in a very stressful world. Um, you know, and we really need to ground ourselves. From my experience, I didn’t work for a number of months after the car accident. And what I did was I got out and I would connect with others. I would go to, um, hydrotherapy rehab, and I’d meet people that were 65 to 95. And that was the best experience because they ground me. They tell me their life stories, their, their parents went through the war. And I think to myself, you know. Yes, we have challenges, and they’re different challenges, but gosh, we have a roof over our heads. We have the ability to travel. We have, you know, wonderful opportunities that these people would’ve only dreamt of. And, you know, it, it, we do validate, I validate what we’re going through, and I went through some really, really tough times. And we do need to validate that, but we need to change our perspectives.

It’s all about, you know, not being alone and speaking up and being there and you know, yes, you’re gonna have some people that aren’t gonna be able to handle it. Um, and it’s finding those right people. But trust me, there is plenty of people out there that can help. And I think it’s just really important we keep talking about it, especially in the sporting world, we’re seeing it more and more that this contact sport leads to concussions and we need to know what the correct recovery is because not everyone’s doing the same path. And you know, there’s a lot of people out there that have the answers and are showing us the best recovery. And it is a multifaceted approach.

You need to be seeing a range of different allied health. And get yourself a team together and talk to different people, and they can share their experiences. And I think that’s the best approach to this. And having a community to speak with. Um, I think it’s super important and having lots of different communities, um, together, and how fantastic that we have this opportunity to speak with people around the world and constantly connect. Um, yeah, I’m so grateful for this opportunity. 

Advice to others: So my advice, if you have experienced a concussion, um, our first point of call is going to your local GP. We call it here, general practitioner. And from there, hopefully, they’re able to get you onto the right people. There is, um, a range of people that can assist. Most places have a concussion clinic, and also wonderful websites like the Concussion Legacy Foundation are able to tell you in your area where a concussion clinic would be. At these concussion clinics, It is a bit of a one-stop shop and they will have a range of different allied health for you. So they would have a, um, they had a physiotherapy there. They might offer osteo there. Um, then they’ll be able to get you onto a psychologist. It’s really important that you are able to talk to someone about the mental injuries and the physical injuries from concussion, and it’s super important that you’re seeing a neurologist and a neuropsychologist or a psychologist.

Um, super important to talk about how it’s affecting you physically and mentally, um, and they’ll be able to create a program for you. Um, so in that, it’s saying that it’s a multifaceted approach, and knowing that the biggest thing is people don’t realize how much your neck is affected by a concussion. Um, and so that’s when an osteo and a physio can come into play and assist with that.

And it’s about de-stressing. Your body has sustained a massive stress from a concussion. Um, and you’ll notice your, in your body, you’ll feel that anxious feeling. Um, you’ll know that your nervous system has been dysregulated. And it’s all about regulating that because you’ll see things like your sleep disrupted, um, and it’s really important that you take the time and do those simple things, and those simple things can actually feel impossible at times because your head is pounding. I think, you know, really try and be holistic and natural. 

My advice, in my experience is I’ve had terrible times with medications and all that, and really read through what is being prescribed to you. But there is many people out there that have a holistic approach and um, really ensure that it’s a calming process for you. Um, and I think it’s really important to listen to your body and to speak up and be able to try and advocate for yourself and articulate yourself the best you can by writing it down before you come, go and see a general practitioner write down everything, cause everything is related.