How Long Will these Symptoms Last?

Symptoms like headache, dizziness, and fatigue usually improve within days or weeks, at least enough to get on with your life. The long-term outlook is good. In the majority of cases, symptoms settle within three months after the injury. Sometimes symptoms can last for quite a long time. That doesn’t mean it’s sinister. They do usually settle eventually, even though it’s frustrating that no one can predict exactly when.

There has been a lot of research in recent years to identify people at risk for long-term symptoms after a mild head injury. What may surprise you is that most of the warning signs are not medical findings but are about how people think and feel as well as how they dose their activities.

Signs of people at risk for long-term symptoms (‘Post Concussion Syndrome‘):

• Believing that you have a serious injury or damage. Being unable to accept reassurance.  
• Believing that hurt means harm and that you will become disabled.
• Avoiding movement or activity due to fear of doing damage.
• Continued rest and inactivity instead of getting on with your life.
• Waiting for someone to fix it rather than staying active to help yourself recover.
• Becoming withdrawn and depressed. 
• Having a claim for compensation in relation the the injury.

There is nothing wrong with having a claim for compensation, but it is worth being aware how this can impact on health sometimes. Many people who go through this process don’t realise how long it might take (years in some cases). They also don’t realise that as part of the claim you need to repeat your story many times, sometimes to sceptical professionals. This process can be stressful. It also forces you to look back, sometimes angrily and with frustration and resentment, to past events which can sometimes get in the way of attempts at rehabilitation. This website neither encourages nor discourages compensation claims but understanding how they can interact with symptoms can be helpful.

> Read more about post concussion syndrome

> Am I at risk for dementia or permanent brain damage due to the injury?