So I was walking on Christmas Eve and slipped on some ice. I fell backwards and smashed the back of my head into the pavement, resulting in a pretty bad concussion. I have horrible contamination OCD and an awful, endless fear of dying from an injury/illness. I’ve forced myself to stop googling symptoms every time I don’t feel well, which has helped slightly. This concussion is making me extremely irritable and I don’t feel like myself. My compulsions are out of control, I’m not sure if it’s because of the head injury, or the constant fear that my brain is bleeding and the fear that I’ll never feel normal again. I can’t tell my actual symptoms apart from my OCD. My anxiety has been so bad that I’m sleepwalking during the night, it feels like I am never going to snap out of this. I’m having constant panic attacks because of how overwhelming the symptoms are and how nervous I am of having a seizure/dying. Has anyone on here ever had a concussion that triggered their OCD? If so, what did you do to overcome it and about how long did it take to feel okay again?

You should look into what inflammation in the brain does for OCD.

This is totally normal. Many people experience heightened anxiety after trauma to the body. Heightened anxiety = worse ocd symptoms. But it will end. Everything passes, nothing remains forever. “This too, shall pass.” I know I would be WAY WORSE of a mess if that happened to me. I would probably be constantly fainting

Hi, firstly hope u are feeling better! 2ndly I would see a doctor to make sure that there isn’t a deeper problem, however it sounds like you already have a history of ocd which makes you fear that there is something really wrong with your health... as someone mentioned stressors can make your ocd worse at times, and it seems like the head injury is an added stressor so it can be making your anxiety/ stress worse which in turn makes ocd worse... what I can say is that anxiety and ocd try to heighten things even things which probably more then likely aren’t bad situations... my husband has had atleast 20 concussions from playing hockey and never did one result in anything bad happening to his health, so do keep in mind that more then likely you are fine! If u are really worried that there may be something wrong the doctor is the best bet, but if a doc has let u know all is well then this is more then likely your ocd/anxiety! This is coming from someone who used to think everything was going to lead to my death on the regular! I was able to manage this by doing tons of ERP Therapy!! I suggest downloading free erp worksheets which can be found online and doing them! Also check out cbt therapy as well!! This can help u think more rationally about what is happening to you! I wish u luck!! Just know anxiety and ocd feel terrible but cannot harm you!

Thank you all so much!! I’ve been to the doctors for my head so many times in the last two weeks I think they’ll get a restraining order if I go back again lol. CBT therapy was amazing. I did this over the summer and was feeling so much better until the head injury. It makes me feel better hearing that your husband has had many concussions and nothing seriously bad happened to him. I know it’s all mental but it’s very hard to think logically when you’re in a constant fog. Thank you all! I appreciate it.

Going to the doctor in this case, if they’ve said everything is all right multiple times, is a compulsion