Depression and Anxiety Common Even Years After TBI

Rest, time, lots of time! I’m 60 years PTBIS and still struggle. Stay well hydrated and never give up. Good luck and God bless!

I am just reading this and I really hope that you have found some help?
I too went through gen years of debilitating depression and massive anxiety and panic attacks....and the worst was the "anticipatory panic" ...which is a 24 fear of mmmaybe having a panic attack. Was brutal!
And I resisted medication for ten years....finally I tried three different melds...first two did not work and it was a hard road. Last one was a life saver. "Prozac" ...or the generic "Fluoxitine". ...took 5 weeks to take affect. (Sometimes it only takes 3 weeks for some people.). So that was a really hard road too! Waiting! ...but when it works there is no "hmmm, I feel a little bit better" ...its like a VEIL has been lifted! ....I felt "normal" and clear and it saved my life.
So I suggest you do due diligence in trying Prozac....first on a baby dose of 20 mg. First week is 10 mg....then going to 20 .
Anyway, you may already have found help and I hope you have! But if you haven't,....then do the right thing....take care of yourself.....go to a free clinic if you have no health insurance and tell them your symptoms and ask to try Prozac on a small dose at first. It will be worth the wait! And there are no terrible side effects. If any side effects are there they dissipate after 6 months and they are not painful ones or anything you can't deal with. And Prozac is so safe they allow pregnant women to continue taking it during pregnancy.
I wish you health and happiness xo

Seven years agp I had a 4 cm abcess on my left frontal lobe...had no idea it was there until it ruptured, it honestly felt as if I had been shot in the head! The incredible burst of pain in my head was unbelievable!!  My husband was at work and all I remember doing was going to bed (at 11 in th morning).  I didn't wake up until the following morning and it was then that my husband noticed that my left eye was drooped.  He immediately took me to the nearest Emergency Room where they did a CT Scan WITHOUT contrast, diagnosed me witn 3rd nerve palsy of the left eye. The doc (I use that term lightly) gave me 20 Vicodin and sent me home.  In less than 24 hours I had taken all 20...I was eating them like candy and they weren't even touching my headache. Its at this time, day 3, that I start to lose my memory of the events of the next four days.  I know that on day 3 my husband took me to the local walk in clinic who referred me to an opthamologist (????). We are  now at day 7...I go to the Opth. and he very lackadaisically states that I should PROBABLY see a neurologist.  Following this appt I went to pick up surgical records from neck surgery I had 3 months prior.  Thank God I went...my orthopedist took one look at me, fast tracked me into the ER as a stroke patient.  It turns out that when the abcess ruptured it spilled bacteria into my CSF leading to a very bad case of bacterial meningitis.  I should, by all accounts, be dead but I am not.  But my life as I know it before is...I used to be a social butterfly!  When my husband and I first got married he would get upset because he said that when I walked into a room I "took up all the space"!  I loved people!  So much that I was attending University to become an Anthropologist.  After my brain injury I became a literal hermit!  I didn't want to be around anyone except my husband.  I acted inappaproiately toward my adult children and that caused a rift between my eldest son and myself that lasted a year.  I finally found a doctor that understood and was put on an anti-depressant and a medication for anxiety.  It worked wonders!  I felt like myself, well not totally, but kind of.  Then I moved...the next doctor I went to said that I shouldn't be on med's for anxiety long term and wanted me off them. I tried to explain that this anxiety was not situatiional but biological/chemical.  He insisted that I come off so I did.  It was horrible!! I became a hermit again, just laying in the chair staring at the stupid tv all day.  Last year after Christmas I ended up in a Mental Health Facility because my depression and anxiety were so bad that my husband became very concermed. The psychiatrist there understood that my type of brain injury could indeed manifest in the symptoms I was descirbing. He put me back on anti depressants and anti anxiety meds.  Felt great. Moved again...same deal!  I have an appointment tomorrow with a new doc and I am really hoping he understands that this is REAL.  I kinda hate doctors...

Marina

9 months post mTBI, knocked unconscious in kickboxing by overhand punch to left temporal lobe, second concussion in same spot within a week (first no loss of consciousness in sparring), third in less than 6 weeks. Angry at myself for being uneducated about the risks of repeat concussions and even more angry at my coach for letting me fight in spite of the risk. Laying blame won't help however. For the past 9 months, dream like state of derealisation, chronic debilitating anxiety, burning extremities, chest pain, palpitations, nausea, chronic fatigue, major depression, chronic insomnia (I literally cannot fall asleep unless it's at bedtime and then have early awakenings with inability to return to sleep = extreme torture). No meds or therapy have helped thus far. Suicidal thoughts non stop, I've even researched the shit out of carotid artery compression and exit hoods as supposed peaceful methods but cannot bring myself to do it. I have the will to live and have a loving supporting fiance but I don't feel human anymore, cannot work, cannot socialise and symptoms so crippling that I feel there's no hope for me and I'm trapped in a never ending nightmare. Most days I feel like in going insane. I just want the torment and suffering to end...

25 years after mva severe depression and anxiety. No medication of help. Where now?

My traumatic brain injuries are the result of 21 ECT. Why is a procedure that injures the brain CAUSING anxiety and depression used by so- called doctors to "treat" depression?I have severe cognitive dysfunction and short and long term memory problems and feel apathetic and hopeless as a result of the ECT. The depression and anxiety are unbearable. They destroyed the person I used to be.

After reading these comments I thank u for sharing u r talking straight to me Knowing I am not alone is so supportive I am 63 post closed head injury from MVA 15 mos ago and other internal contusions but I am not the same I had to retire early as A RN and Professor and I am much better but the depression and anxiety and apathy r new to me to handle Zoloft and Atarax help a lot but I have definite nemort loss fear to go places I don't know or travel far I pack backed alone in Europe yearly I want that person back I am thankful to b alive and what helps me is fighting family friends and part time work schedule to keep a Low Energy State it's all I can take Go Forward and adapt U R ALIVE

I was hit in the face by a line drive baseball in a men's ball game at 12... hit by a car driving a bike and went thru a windshield at 15... and hit as a pedestrian at 16 and kept in the hospital for 2 weeks following a severe concussion.  Today I'm 50 and am somewhat functional as long as I'm on 150mg of Zoloft, but still stuck with what seems to be lifelong depression, social anxiety and self harming issues.  I see a psychiatrist and I get the feeling even he doesn't understand.  I feel very alone in this battle with myself.  Thank God I have a wife who understands.

16 years post.  Terrible depression and anxiety.  I just can't seem to get fixed - I am broken.

My TBI occured on Dec 6th 2014.  I was told it was mild post accident.  A drunk driver t-boned me at 50 mph and totaled my Honda accord.  He was driving a Ford Expedition.  As the months passed, I thought I was feeling better and better.  I was just feeling less "foggy".  Over one year later, work is awful, and I am afraid I may be put off active duty.  I am in the Army, but my command does not seem to care that I had a TBI.  They just act as if I am a bad Soldier. I am still having cognitive issues that affect my memory, my reasoning, and my ability to get my job done.  I can't concentrate, I can't read anymore, I can't have any kind of relationship currently.  If it was mild, thank goodness it was not moderate or severe.

R

i feel the same i think it has been 6 maybe 9 years since my ruptured aneurysm no better very sad all the time and want to disappear from my life guilt for my family keeps me here no meds can touch my pain all waking hours the worst head pain help

daniel d

Try 20 years

I miss my old self, Now i cant barely talk to a girl because. Shy dont talk much. Its like been stuck in the past