Throughout the past six years of my life, I have struggled with concussions from soccer.  After suffering a third concussion during my sophomore year, my parents decided it was time for me to call it quits with any contact sport, causing me to have to quit both soccer and lacrosse.  Ever since my first concussion, I have wondered why I have been more susceptible to concussions than my teammates.

A study for The Journal of Primary Prevention found information that had my mom convinced that the cause of my concussions was my lack of neck strength.  While the study does show that smaller neck circumference is usually directly proportional to neck strength, I wasn’t exactly convinced.  Maybe that had to do with getting my first concussion, but what about my second and third?  And why did I get them all in a matter of three years?

An NPR interview with concussion specialist from NYU Steven Flanagan talks about how just one concussion can cause long lasting effects.  It has been six years since my first concussion and three years since my last concussion. To this day, I still suffer from frequent headaches and trouble remembering both long term and short term.  Another issue Dr. Flanagan brings up is how hard it is to diagnose a concussion.  Because it is not always easy, people mistake concussions for less serious injuries or for not being injuries at all. These are the ways to diagnose concussions, and they are all very broad and not always trustworthy.  If concussions aren’t diagnosed right away, the concussion can be even more detrimental to the brain.

So after all this research, what is the answer to my question? I understand why I got the concussion, but why do I have so many headaches 3 years later? According to Doctor Seymour Solomon, headaches after concussions are called “post-traumatic” headaches,  and can last anywhere from months to years after a initial injury.  According to Dr. Solomon, the nerves are disrupted from the trauma, which is most likely why I still have these headaches.

Hopefully someday someone will come up with a treatment for my longterm side effects, but for now I’ll just have to continue to push through them myself.  I wish that I would’ve taken the time to strengthen my neck, but I still think I would’ve suffered from the concussions anyway.