Latest / Understanding Your Concussion / Episode 11: Intro to Understanding Your Concussion Course: Lesson 2 Understanding Your Symptoms
Transcript
- Jana: Hi, I am Jana Kapp. I know the concussion recovery journey deeply, ⁓ both personally ⁓ and professionally. Join me in understanding your concussion, ⁓ where I empower you in navigating the complexities of a concussion recovery journey by sharing the science of what is going on behind the scenes, the stories of why we feel the way we feel, and how we can work with our brain to find our way back to feeling and functioning like ourselves again. We are officially halfway through the first season of understanding your concussion. Thank you so much for joining me. I Hope you are finding value in these episodes to help you navigate your concussion recovery journey Throughout the season, I've been alluding to the understanding your concussion courses. These courses I created to empower those who are navigating a concussion recovery journey. As someone who has lived with persistent symptoms, I know how challenging it is to not understand what you're living, what you're going through, and how you can start to move towards feeling and functioning like yourselves again. This is where understanding your concussion courses evolved from. as a healthcare professional, I found myself repeating the same information to different clients over and over and over again. And I started recognizing that this information that I continue to repeat. It is important for anyone who is navigating a concussion recovery journey. But as a physiotherapist who works with acute and persistent concussion clients, I've realized that in a session, it's really hard to support someone in all the different facets of a concussion recovery journey. when an individual comes into the clinic, And they are paying for a concussion assessment. I am going to prioritize understanding what is going on behind the scenes of the systems that work with the brain. Your vision system, your vestibular system, the autonomic nervous system, the neck, and any of the other things that may be associated with their specific concussion recovery journey. When we only have between 30 minutes, maybe up to 90 minutes when you work with a therapist, it doesn't often leave a lot of room for the educational piece. in the clinic, a concussion provider is going to prioritize assessment, treatment, and home exercise programs through our professional lens in order to support you in that particular aspect of your journey. am invited to speak at concussion support groups and discuss my own personal journey and the information that I value in a concussion recovery. when I share the educational component, many individuals comment, I really wish my physiotherapist had let me know this. Why isn't this information more accessible? It's because as a professional, we are devoting your time, your money to what you came into the clinic for. Sometimes The educational piece of how to live with and navigate a concussion recovery might not be addressed. Because I have the background of personally navigating this journey myself, I know there is so much value in that educational component. But when someone comes into the clinic and I have my physiotherapist hat on, I will focus more through assessment and treatment. I created understanding your concussion courses. so that that educational component is accessible to anyone living with concussion symptoms. Your rehab component is an essential aspect of this journey, but typically it only takes up about 30 minutes of your day, and maybe you participate in those 30 minutes throughout the week to perform or to practice your exercises that you are prescribed from your concussion provider. What do you do outside of the 23 hours and 30 minutes that you are not doing your exercises? There is this mismatch in concussion care where the educational component is essential for the individual to have access to and be aware of, but then isn't often provided by the therapist or concussion provider themselves. Because I have that unique perspective having navigated this journey myself, I know how important it is to know what to do with yourself outside of those 23 hours a day. the reasons that I created these courses is because there often isn't time that we can devote as concussion care providers to the educational component. How to navigate your symptoms. How to manage your symptoms. How to engage with rest. You might be told by your concussion provider that you require more rest in your concussion recovery journey. But maybe they don't say much more beyond that, as there isn't enough time to devote to why you need to rest and how you need to rest. Right now in the concussion recovery world, cardiovascular exercise. is a priority in your concussion recovery journey. However, I do find that people who are living with persistent symptoms often are not engaging in their cardiovascular exercise because they often don't understand why it's important and how to exercise through a concussion recovery lens. The understanding your concussion courses cover symptom management, rest, and exercise. These are the courses that I've alluded to in the podcast. And I thought that it might be a good idea to start to share with you what is inside understanding your concussion courses so that you can start to determine if this is something. That is really going to enhance your recovery process. over the next few weeks, the understanding your concussion courses episodes are going to be sprinkled in amongst the style of episodes you've already been listening to. the understanding your concussion courses come with four lessons. These are the lessons that I believe are essential for an individual living with concussion symptoms to begin to understand, to support and empower them through their concussion recovery journey. Each of these courses take you through the what, why, and how of a concussion recovery through the lens of each lesson. There are four lessons: understanding your injured brain, understanding symptom management, understanding rest and recovery, and understanding exercise. Lesson one, understanding your injured brain, is free on my website. It takes you through What is going on behind the scenes of your injured brain? Why concussion subtypes? So that you can start to identify for yourself what systems may be impacted in your concussion recovery and which concussion provider to seek out for support. And how the brain heals. Yes, the brain can heal. It's just not very good at it on its own and it needs your support. When you have that understanding, of how the brain heals, you can show up differently in your concussion recovery journey. lesson two, understanding symptom management, takes you through understanding what overstimulation is, why we experience concussion symptoms, spoiler alert, their communication from our brain. You might already know that if you've been listening to the podcast. And three, how to respond to your symptoms. based off of what your brain is communicating. And I take you through those four things as I discussed in the episode, what your symptoms are communicating. Detect error, perceive threat, integration issue, and capacity. Lesson three is devoted to rest and recovery. What is rest? Why do we rest and how to rest? Because many of us in our journey are unaware of how to rest. I was myself in the beginning of my journey, and that's how I developed these different ways of engaging and participating in rest. I also take you through what is recovery time? Why are we focusing on recovery time? And how to recover. Lesson four is understanding exercise. What is exercise? Let's start there so that you have an idea of truly what is exercise, because there is a difference between physical activity and exercise. Why do we exercise for concussion? And how? To exercise safely and efficiently when you are recovering from a concussion. The sprinkled-in episodes that are going to take you through each of these lessons will give you a listen to the introduction to the lesson itself, an introduction to the what, an introduction to the why, and an introduction to the how. of each particular lesson in understanding your concussion course. Not everyone does have access to a concussion care provider. These courses are going to start you on your journey so that you can start to work with your brain to promote healing and determine for yourself when it is the right time to seek out support, treatment, or alternative therapies to enhance your recovery process. Empower yourself in your concussion recovery journey so that you can begin to work with your brain, promote healing, and return to feeling and functioning like yourself again. Let's dive in to the next lesson. Overstimulation introduction. The experience of symptoms is a part of the concussion recovery process. We often do not receive guidance on understanding our symptoms, how to manage our symptoms, and how to promote symptom-free living. Living with symptoms is typically what motivates us to get better. It's not an enjoyable experience when we become overstimulated. But I don't need to tell you that. Even though it can motivate us to become better, the reality of living with symptoms can be intense, overwhelming, and frustrating. That it is easy to become demotivated in our journeys. I certainly felt this way many times throughout my recovery. When I didn't have the understanding around symptoms. Of what I am sharing with you in this course, I felt that I had no control over my symptoms, which made navigating life extremely difficult. It made me feel I was at the mercy of my symptoms, and inevitably, at times, I did want to give up. What I discovered for myself, and I also see this in my clients. Is that we start to see the experience of having symptoms as something bad or that there is something wrong. We begin to fear that when symptoms appear, it indicates that we have set ourselves back in our journey, jeopardized the gains we have made, that we aren't recovering the right way, or that we assume. We are never going to get better. This creates a fearful mindset around our symptoms. In some cases, the fear of having symptoms can have more of an impact on your recovery than the actual experience of symptoms themselves. Fear leads to stress. Stress leads to a heightened nervous system. A heightened nervous system impacts our ability to heal. This was the case for me. I realized that having a fearful mindset around symptoms was actually prolonging and complicating my recovery process. As I said in the beginning, even though it is not enjoyable, the experience of symptoms is a part of this process. Without guidance, Around navigating living with symptoms, it is very easy to become fearful of having symptoms. I want you to gain a better understanding as to what overstimulation is and why we experience symptoms, so that you can change the way you relate to the experience of symptoms. This is what the next few modules are dedicated to. I will also begin to introduce to you tools and strategies on how you can begin to work with your brain to promote healing instead of feeling like you are working against your brain. What is overstimulation? In simplistic terms, Overstimulation is when your brain gets overwhelmed by the amount of information it is required to process in real time. All brains have a certain capacity for the amount of stimulus it can tolerate. When your brain is injured, your capacity for what your brain can tolerate is automatically lowered. When we expose our brains to more than what it can handle, It leads to the feeling of overstimulation. For our concussion brain, the feeling of being overstimulated is usually associated with an increase of symptoms in either intensity, frequency, or both. In the concussion world, overstimulation is sometimes referred to as flooding. The brain becomes flooded with information. And is unable to keep up with processing the information in real time. Let's discuss why an injured brain easily becomes overstimulated or flooded. What our symptoms are communicating. With this new perspective on symptoms and seeing them as communication from our brain. We now need to determine what the brain is trying to communicate with us so that we can understand why our symptoms have increased. Typically, there are four things the brain is trying to communicate to you. Either it detects an error to the system, perceives a threat. identifies an integration issue or a capacity issue. As I mentioned in the previous module, symptoms are a part of the concussion recovery experience. We are taught early on in our journeys the importance of minimizing symptoms, but often do not receive guidance outside of strict rest on how to minimize symptoms. We naturally adopt this mindset that any increase in symptoms is bad, and we begin to either fear or avoid our symptoms. When we fear or avoid our symptoms, it places stress on our system. Stress leads to a heightened nervous system or keeps us in a state of fight or flight, and that impacts our ability to heal. I wanted to understand why we have symptoms in the first place. Understanding why we have symptoms allowed me to adopt a different perspective around symptoms. This helped me to become less fearful or avoidant of symptoms, which ultimately reduced the stress on my system. Reducing my stress allowed me to settle my nervous system, and I was finally able to work towards healing. That is what this module is dedicated to: helping you to understand the why and what around your symptoms so that you can change your perspective of what symptoms mean and reduce the stress around the experience of increased symptoms. Introduction, how to respond. Now that we have covered why symptoms occur and what they are communicating, the next step is to discuss how you respond to your symptoms. How we respond to our symptoms impacts how our brain heals. If you remember back to lesson one and the module on how the brain heals. We discussed that the brain heals through the act of neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity requires effort, energy, attention, and repetition through intentional action. Therefore, the actions we take in response to our symptoms or what our brain is communicating to us. Is what leads to our new wiring. Our new wiring, or how our brain heals, is what leads to how we feel and function overall. This is how you empower yourself in this journey. You may not get to decide if you have a symptom or not, but you do get to decide what action you take or how you respond to your symptoms. You get to choose how you rewire your brain through your intentional actions. Our ultimate goal is to live life symptom free. So how we respond to our symptoms or the action that we take in response to what our brain is communicating has to have the intention. Of us working towards living symptom free. How we heal is based on how we use neuroplasticity to repair, rewire, and create new neuropathways in our brain. We want to make neuroplasticity work for us. When we participate in activities or tasks below the level of our symptoms, our brain begins to rewire new neuropathways without the association of symptoms with that task or activity. This is what leads to our new way of functioning. This module is dedicated to taking you through different tools and strategies or different intentional actions you can take in response to what your brain is communicating to you. But before we dive into the different ways you can respond. Let's first discuss this concept of living below your symptoms or your symptom. Introduction. Our capacity is a reflection of how well we are functioning overall as ourselves. We often look to our symptoms as an indicator if we are healing and improving. We tend to adopt a black and white or all or nothing mindset around our symptoms. I have symptoms, I am not better. Or I do not have symptoms, I am better. But this isn't actually accurate. If we start to look at how we are functioning, that we can do more in a day. That we can participate in more areas of life. We can see that healing has occurred, even though we may still be experiencing symptoms. When we can see that our functioning has improved, we know that our green zone has increased, indicating that our capacity. Has grown. To help our capacity grow so that we can function more like ourselves, we first have to have a better understanding of how to work with our current capacity or how to respond to our threshold. Having lived with this injury for many years, The reality of actually applying this work and knowing how to respond to work with your capacity or threshold is not so black and white. Nothing is with this injury. The reality is there is more to our threshold than just a line. It's not that you're in the green. And then you cross the threshold line, and now you are in the red zone. There is more nuance than that. I discovered that our threshold is more of a zone itself. To know how to respond to our threshold. We need to get to know our zones and what they feel like to us. What does green feel like to you? Or what does yellow or red feel like to you? Once you know how each zone feels to you, you can then begin to take action and choose how to respond to your threshold by either moving out of a zone or moving into a zone, depending on what you need at that time in your recovery or where you're at in relation to your threshold. This is what this module is dedicated to: helping you to understand what your capacity is, why your capacity alters. and how to get to know your zones so that you can choose how to respond to your threshold based on how you want to feel and function overall. Thank you for joining me in understanding your concussion. I hope that you are leaving this episode feeling empowered in understanding what is going on behind the scenes of your injury, why you feel the way you feel, and how to begin to take action to move forward in your unique healing journey. Interested in checking out understanding your concussion course? Head to concussion healingspace.com or the link is in the show notes. You can purchase lesson one through four, reminder lesson one is free. If you're interested in connecting with me for mentorship and support, one on one consultations are available online or join the Concussion Support Club where you get access to all four courses and weekly drop in support club options