If you get a concussion will it affect you forever?

Most isolated simple concussions will resolve without significant long term problems, however, unlucky people may have damage from a concussion leading to chronic inner ear imbalance, benign positional vertigo, headaches, or a lightheaded or unfocused feeling. These issues are mostly seen in people with multiple concussions, such as those related to sports such as boxing, soccer, and football leading to the term punch drunk.

Symptoms from a concussion that do not improve or worsen should lead to urgent neurological evaluation to ule out issues such as subdural hematoma.


Once you have one concussion, you are more likely to get another, or have a relapse from activities that only rattle their brains a bit. I had one patient with multiple concussions from. cage fighting, improve almost to baseline, only to relapse from roller coaster riding.