Concussion
I still remember, well actually that’s a loose word, I remember being told the story, of how I got the nickname “Space Jam”
Australian Rules football, nice early season game, and feeling fit at 16 years of age. A nice sunny day, yet those perfect cool early Autumn days that keep your body temp down and allow you to run a game out at full pelt without losing all your electrolytes in a sweaty mess.
Second quarter, and the ball is in the forward line. Now I’m usually a defending backman, so you can imagine the lust for goal that overcame me when the ball is bouncing free towards the 50-metre mark from goals. At full sprint I run in, half squatting at pace to pick it up with my head over it, and then…..THATS IT…..blackness…..
Then I’m up, there’s been a whistle, and I’m standing there with the ball in my hands, swaying like a drunken sailor. My mates next to me “give me the ball H”
“No” (I wanna kick a goal)
Proceeding to do my best drunken walk back to kick at goal.
“H, give me the ball”
“No”
“H, give me the ball”
“No, eff off I can kick it”
Nek minit, two medical trainers are at my side
“Give him the ball H”
“rgggh”
And then I’m escorted to the sidelines still swaying under each arm of the trainers, my head a visual blur and rolling a bit floppily.
“Have you seen Space Jam”
“What the hells space jam” Said the trainer
“I think it’s a movie” Said the other (actually my father).
All I remember after that was, sitting on my own in the players rooms for an hour or two. Passing out on a couch at a party after a few beers. And then pretty blank for, oh say 2 years.
Not my first rodeo though, 2 more doozy’s before that one in early childhood. One of which proceeded 6 months off school, which initially started as “a sore head” and took me to MRI’s, psychologists and other resources. And ended up being put down to bullying, which was not terrible at that time early on, but did also get worse over some time, amplifying the effect of my head injury.
Without any concussion care from hands on healing, until I was 19 and discovered Osteopathy, hands on healers, and cranial and biodynamic osteopathy, I’d say I was pretty lucky to have spent a lot of time with my grandmother. Being a clinical psychologist, who also specialised in children, and was a pioneer as the first female to Dean a psych department at university in Australia, certainly put me in good stead to bounce back with rigor. But the effects now, that were not managed directly back then due to a lack of awareness around concussions in general certainly took some toll on my personal growth and I had to work really hard to regain my health.
The 5-years of osteopathy training was literally a godsend, having treatments almost everyday from students, and some of the most passionate and pioneering osteopaths in cranial, visceral and biodynamic osteopathy each week or month across the years. In my own training I spent thousands of hours now, just sitting quietly and listening to the mind/brain/consciousness and body of clients and friends with my hands and my whole body, and practices such as Qi Gong, meditation, yoga, and healing through movement.
I’m going to share some really simple stuff-
A couple of things that I’ve learnt about concussion
Lack of sleep - No sleep = No heal
Drug use/alcohol - Anyone who relies on chemicals to be the guider of their conscious control of the mind I find sacrificed their intrinsic ability to control a lot of the minds capabilities, limiting their potential.
Successively head injuries - Oh man, one after the other can be like throwing a jellyfish down the stairs, and it doesn’t move like a slinky.
Stress, and chronic stress. Lesions on the brain I have seen disappear with hands on treatment, and stress reduction
Trust in intuition - When you’ve been shell shocked, and really don’t have access to the bulk of your mental faculties, sometimes the messages have to get through in curious ways, like an autonomic response in the body, heart rate changes, sweating, dryness of the mouth etc etc. Signals from your body can sometimes be the only clue you’ll get, when if the mind were capable it would quite easily deduce what’s happening and the cognition would arrange what happens next.
The body - That leads us to the body. The bones, the blood, the organs, the muscles, the joints, the nerves, the lymphatics. It’s all involved, and it all has a certain level of memory, think “muscle memory” but outside the box. It can be your lifeline back to yourself. Listen to it.
Diet - Eat good, good eating makes good you and that’s good.
Space holders - Some people around you will sometimes unbeknownst to them, be holding space for you, giving you some of their mental energy to hold your thoughts and motivations toward your better self.
Hands on treatments - It’s so so awesome if you have someone that knows what they’re doing, it’s like fine tuning.
Keep in touch out there, and have a great winter. I may write some more on concussions the next time I am prompted (I just cartwheeled onto my head at 40km/hr to a full stop, but my work friend copped a 20kg block of ice to the head from 20ft up so I’m in the minor minor side of whoopsies).