What to Do With Your Car Accident-Related Symptoms

Has your health gone downhill after being involved in a car accident?

You may not have been diagnosed with a concussion or even hit your head during the accident, but maybe you are not feeling well and you know something’s wrong. Insomnia, gut issues, depression, and other strange symptoms—even though your doctor said you didn’t suffer a concussion, you know in your heart and mind that your health needs to be addressed.

We get asked about car accident-related symptoms a lot because people typically don’t connect these accidents to symptoms that aren’t related to a diagnosed concussion. Symptoms after a car accident can also stem from sub-concussive blows like whiplash that can linger long after the external injuries of your accident subside.

Even if you have been symptomatic for months or even years after your accident, you can still recover. Even if your friends and family don’t understand why you are concerned about your health, you know something is wrong and we want to help. In this article, we’ll take you through what could have happened to your brain during your car accident and how to treat your body so it can fully heal itself and recover.

“I Didn’t Get a Concussion, But I Have Symptoms. What’s Going On?”

Just because you didn’t hit your head during your car accident and your ER doctor didn’t initially diagnose you with a concussion doesn’t mean that you didn’t injure yourself enough to become symptomatic. 

Have you ever been bungee jumping or slingshotted onto a roller coaster track? If the movement is severe enough, it can trigger symptoms. This is similar to what happens when you get whiplash during a motor vehicle accident. Whiplash is enough to do damage because the acceleration and deceleration of the car can cause your brain to bounce in your head. 

Take a look at these common concussion-related symptoms:

• difficulty with concentration and memory
• headaches
• blurred vision / balance issues
• low energy and fatigue
• noise and light sensitivity
• anxiety and irritability
• excessive sadness
• insomnia or excessive sleep

Do you have a few or many of these symptoms? If not, it still doesn’t mean that your brain was not affected by the accident. This is because even a whip to the neck (without hitting your head) can be classified as a subconcussive blow—not severe enough for a doctor to diagnose you with a concussion, but strong enough to create symptoms.

Do You Have Any of These Lesser-Known Symptoms?

Now that we talked about concussion symptoms, let’s talk about the lesser-known symptoms that may be associated with a subconcussive blow, and what part of your brain gets affected.

Your symptoms may be hailing from an abnormality in the higher parts of the brain, in the hypothalamus and pituitary gland specifically. Damage to these glands from subconcussive blows can lead to inflammatory reactions and hormone imbalance which can cause the following symptoms:

• anxiety
• depression
• memory and cognition issues
• adrenal fatigue
• social interaction awareness and struggles
• sleep issues
• gut and digestion issues (bloating, heartburn, indigestion, constipation, diarrhea)
• weight gain/loss

If you are reading this and you are suffering from one or more of these symptoms, we recommend visiting a naturopathic doctor who can get to the root cause (not just treat your symptoms) so you can recover.

Maybe you have already been to the doctor (or multiple doctors) but you have not been satisfied with your treatment. Going to your hospital or doctor may not help you because they don’t have the tools to uncover the root cause of your symptoms.  

Maybe you have tried multiple alternative therapies like gut healing and autoimmune protocols or homeopathy. You may have even adopted a cleaner way of eating (good for you!).

All of these modalities can be helpful but you won’t know exactly which protocols will work for your head injury unless you find out how your brain is functioning and what body systems need attention.

Instead of searching on your own and wondering if you will ever find a real answer for your symptoms, (and becoming disillusioned over and over again), we’re asking you to resurrect hope this one last time. There is an answer for you…

You Need a CUSTOM protocol

Did you know that you and your friend Sally could have been in the same car accident and suffered the same subconcussive blows but your bodies could have responded to the injury in a completely different way? We are all unique in our own beautiful way (Kumbaya :)) We each have different underlying issues and genetic weaknesses that were present before and during the accident.

So you can understand why it’s vital that you receive a unique protocol for your unique body!

Our clinic offers a non-invasive technology called quantified EEG or electroencephalograph, which helps us pinpoint what problems your body is struggling with (not your friend Sally, even though she may be a lovely girl). With this type of focusd tool, your practitioner can tailor your protocol to you.

Making Your Body Resilient Again (And Why This is Key to Recovery)

Brain mapping and a customized protocol are highly important but there is another piece to this puzzle.

People with a history of head injury need additional support in the short-term. In addition to the post-concussive symptoms, you may also be dealing with stressors that if gone unchecked, could derail your recovery or cause you to relapse. So, in addition to solving your focused symptoms, you also need to build resilience. This will prevent another head injury (even a mild one) from causing a symptom relapse. 

Don’t you want to get back out there and bungee jump again? Or maybe you just want to be well enough to not have to wear a mask every day to hide your symptoms. We get it. Here at Neurvana Naturopathic Medicine, we don’t just want you to get better; we want you to STAY better! 

To do this, you need to build resiliency! In fact, if you had enough resiliency, your body may not have reacted the way it did after your car accident.

How can you build resiliency in your system? Building resiliency involves many factors but here are a few protocols with which we help our clients: 

• Good nutrition
• Healthy daily routines
• Improving sleep
• Good mental health
• Processing old and current trauma

This is NOT the End of the Road; It’s Just a New Beginning.

There is hope for you. You CAN get your life back.

Even if no one understands what you are going through and you feel isolated and alone, please know that this isn’t the end of the road. It’s actually a new beginning.

We understand how frustrating it can be to look for answers in what seems like all of the right places and to feel hopeless and end up the same or worse. Recovery can only come when you uncover the root cause and treat your unique body.

If you want more information on how we use qEEG to get to the root cause of your symptoms, our compassionate trained health advisors are standing by to speak with you.