In this instructional video, David Brimacombe—who has experienced seven concussions over two decades—explains why many people with post‑concussion syndrome (PCS) continue to feel stuck despite making progress. He describes how the brain’s reticular activating system (RAS) filters the massive amount of sensory data it receives, prioritizing whatever is top‑of‑mind. When a person constantly monitors symptoms, the RAS amplifies those sensations, creating a hyper‑vigilant feedback loop that hinders recovery. Brimacombe outlines two practical interventions: (1) a “second‑thought” technique that deliberately interrupts the negative thought cycle, and (2) a visualization using a scratched‑CD metaphor to replace the old subconscious loop with a future‑focused track. He also recommends reducing the frequency of symptom check‑ins—from hourly to daily or weekly—to avoid reinforcing symptom awareness while still tracking progress. Throughout, he emphasizes that the brain’s primary goal is safety, not happiness, and that shifting attention from threat‑focused thinking to recovery‑oriented thinking can re‑program the RAS, lessen symptom intensity, and support a more resilient recovery journey.
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What if the reason you still feel stuck in your recovery isn't because you're not improving, but rather because your brain isn't focusing on the results that matter? Now, most people, when they're trying to recover, they're focusing on feeling normal, on symptom-free days. Now, the problem with that is that increases the frustration. That increases that emotional load on the system. One of the most impactful things I learned about the brain that helped change my trajectory is that you have a say in what your brain focuses on. Now understand, at any given second, there's around 11 million bits of sensory information in the environment around you, in your body, that your brain has to filter out. Now it can only take about 40 to 50 bits of sensory information at any given second, meaning 99.9% of that information in your environment is getting filtered out by your reticular activating system, your RAS. Now, how does it determine what do I filter out, what do I allow in? Now, a lot of that is what are you thinking about, what is top of mind, what is in that subconscious loop that is constantly playing in your head. Now, if you're thinking of symptoms Guess what? You will feel them. You will see them because they're top of mind. It's one of those sensory information that you think your mind understands that this is what I'm looking for, this is what I need to feel, this is what I need to see, when in fact this might actually be hurting your recovery. Hi and welcome to the PCS Resilience Collective. My name is David Brimacombe, and after 7 concussions over 20 years I learned that the brain is looking for threats. It's focusing on negatives as a way to survive. So those tiny wins that you are having in your recovery are going to be ignored, whereas those small setbacks, those minor symptoms that you feel, are going to be exacerbated. In this video, I'm going to go through why that is and 2 simple ways to change it. Let's begin. Now understand that the brain, its main goal is to keep you safe. It's to keep you alive. It's not to keep you happy. It's not to assist in your recovery. It wants to keep you alive. So its main job is to avoid threats, look out for negatives. So when it feels those threats, those symptoms that are coming from that PCS recovery, it's going to point them out. It's going to exacerbate them. Those alarm bells are going to go off. Now, this is heightened when you're in that post-concussion state, okay, when you have a lot of those systems that are already dysregulated. So you're going to feel that anxiety, you're going to feel that brain fog, that fatigue at a higher state. Now, how do we limit how we feel, what we feel, when we feel it, and the intensity to how we feel it? Now, it might seem like this is impossible, like this is just a natural state of your recovery, and that's How I felt for the longest time. I felt like it was inevitable that I had to just live with those symptoms, just deal with those symptoms, but I would constantly think about them because it was who I was. It was part of my identity. I was someone suffering. That was my main point of my identity. Now, the more you think about something, the more your brain looks to focus on it. Your reticular activating system, which is located in your brainstem, that focuses— what do I put my attention towards? What do I filter out? What do I allow in? If I'm thinking about my recovery, if I'm thinking about why I don't feel normal, I don't feel like I want to, that is what it's going to look for. It's going to look for that because you are constantly thinking about it. It is top of mind. It is putting it on the top of the hierarchy. What do I need to see? I need to see if those symptoms are still present because I am trying to keep you safe. Remember, that is the main goal of the brain. It is now counteracting what you need to do for your recovery by ignoring those symptoms so you don't feel like you are a subject of your symptoms, like you are stuck in that recovery. I felt this all the time when I was at the deepest parts of my recovery. I would get up, I would sit up in bed, and think, wow, the room is spinning, the lights are causing My head to hurt. I feel nauseous. I feel dizzy. I don't have the energy to move, so I lie down because I was constantly thinking every second of the day, how am I feeling? How am I doing? I'm checking my symptoms. I'm checking my body, which a lot of people tell you is what you need to do. Do check-ins, see how you're feeling. Now, the problem with that is that you become hypervigilant. Your body becomes hyper-aware Of everything that is going on. Okay, why does my toe now hurt? My wrist is throbbing, my back is sore. I am thinking about everything that's going on in my body. Now, being in tune to your system is good. Being hyper-attuned to the point where it's all you think about is where this becomes problematic. So what are we going to do to avoid this? What are we going to do to move past The symptoms so that we can live our life, live our life even though we still have those symptoms. And I know you might be thinking, that's impossible. Okay, how can I just live my life? I can't get up. The room is spinning. The lights, the sound, they all cause sensitivities. Okay, but the problem isn't that those things are causing sensitivities. The problem is, is that's all you're thinking about, and that is what's top of mind. Now, this is not going to be easy. Like everything I talk about on this channel, it's about starting small and scaling later. What you need to do is you need to focus on that second thought. Now, you can't control that first thing that pops in your mind. Okay, so okay, I move and now I feel nauseous. Okay, that first thought. Oh, there's that there's that nausea again. It's kicking in. That's my first thought. That's okay. Okay, that second thought that's going to come through is now consciously controlled by you. Okay, I can ignore it. I can tell myself that this is not a sign that my brain is broken. This is not a sign that I can't move, I can't live. And what I'm doing is I'm now stopping that cycle, that cycle of negativity. It started, but now I'm going to put a stop to Okay, and I'm going to go. I'm going to live my life. Guess what? Momentarily, another thought might creep into my mind. Okay, that's okay. But I'm going to stop that second thought. I'm going to stop the train. I'm going to derail that train so it's not going to continue to loop in my mind. And by looping in my mind, it's going to cause my brain to focus, my RAS to focus on those symptoms, on those things that are causing sensitivity. And I'm basically going to be an imprisoner in my symptoms, in my condition. And you see, you see how this is never going to get you well because you're stuck in a sick cycle, a cycle of thinking about those symptoms, which makes you feel the symptoms, which makes you aware and checking and of the understanding that these are ever present. Which then makes you think about them more. This is that sick cycle that repeats itself on a minute-by-minute, day-by-day basis. Again, I understand this. I feel you in this regard. Not easy, but you can always stop, okay, that train of thought. That first thought that comes in, it's okay. We're going to stop that second. We're going to revert and change paths. So I want to give you 2 simple ways Okay, that you can try today to start the journey of measuring your recovery in a more attuned, more accurate way. So we're not going to worry about those symptoms. We're not going to try to live in those symptoms. Okay, all I want you to think about is, I'm just going to live my life. When those symptoms come up, those thoughts about, oh, here we come again, here we go, I've got to go into that mall, I got to go into that store. All those symptoms are going to arise. Okay, let it happen. Let that first thought come in, then remind yourself that you are okay. This is not a sign you're broken. You are supported. I'm going to live my life and continue on. Again, this is going to be difficult at the start because you— your brain is on this cycle. It's used to using this as a crutch, as a reason, as a defense mechanism. But you're going to stop that second thought. And you're going to revert it. So your first job that's going to really help you in this regard is to stop that second thought, is to change your reticular activating system. So you think about your subconscious loop that plays in your mind, okay? It's based on experiences. It's based on years upon years of thought patterns. So how are we going to change this? Okay, think of your RAS, your reticular activating system, as a compact disc, as a CD. Now I'm dating myself a bit in this regard, Okay, as a 43-year-old, I used to play CDs all the time in my car. Okay, you'd pop in a new CD. Okay, play the music that you want. Now, what would happen is sometimes those CDs would get scratched. They would no longer work. Some tracks would no longer play. Okay, here's what I need you to do. Think of your RAS, that subconscious loop that plays in your mind, is that CD that you've put in. You haven't taken it out for a while. I want you to envision Visualize, okay, taking that CD out of your brain. Okay, visualize taking it out. I want you to scratch it. I want you to wreck it. I want you to rip it up. Okay, so it won't play anymore. Now when I go to put that CD in, it doesn't work. I got to replace it with a new track. So I'm going to put in a brand new compact disc, new music. This is the new me. This is the new version of me, not my old self. That struggle to get out of bed, struggle to think about a positive future. I'm going to put in that new CD. I'm visualizing this. Okay. On that new CD, all it's focusing on is where I'm going, not what happened in the past, not where I'm— the symptoms that I'm currently dealing with. It's focusing on those steps that I'm taking today that I'm going to improve tomorrow. So those symptoms that I'm feeling, it's irrelevant. Those thoughts in my head are now about my future self. About my recovery, about the systems, the protocols, the beliefs that I need that I've created that are going to make a better version of myself. Okay, so visualize that thought, you putting that CD in and that CD playing. All those tracks, okay, are of uplifting, belief-based future casting yourself so that you become the person you know you can be. The second thing I want you to focus on, especially for those who track your symptoms, you're constantly thinking about How do I feel in this moment? Do I feel worse? Do I feel better? Okay. I don't think you should stop tracking your symptoms. Okay. But what you need to do is you need to track them on a weekly basis or even on a daily basis instead of on the hour. Okay. So what you're going to do is you're going to lengthen the time between when you're tracking how you feel. Now, it is important to understand how you feel, how your symptoms have improved, because that way we know where our baseline is improving. It's giving us a reinforcement that these things are changing, that they're improving. But I don't want you to do it too often because the more you do it, the more you think about it, the more those symptoms become present. So maybe now it's a weekly check-in. I'm going to check in on my energy, on my, my most profound symptoms. I'm going to check in on maybe fatigue, on nausea, how, what I can eat, all those things, my sleep patterns. But I'm going to do it now weekly. So now every month, maybe I'm going to go back and say, well, maybe I see slight progress up here, down here, really up here, a little down there, but I'm showing upward gains. Again, I'm not thinking about it as much, but I'm still providing myself with the necessary details, the necessary analysis that I know that I'm seeing progress. When I know I'm seeing progress, guess what? I don't think about my symptoms as much. Which therefore I don't feel those symptoms as much. Now, this isn't going to be easy. This is a concept that is simple in theory, but not easy in application. You need to put the work in. You need to start small and scale big. Remember, put that new CD in, take that old one out, snap it, break it, throw it out the window. Okay? Believe in yourself. Believe in that new version of you because your perceptions become your personal reality. How you think determines how you view the environment. 99.9% of that information in your environment does not get into your brain. But what does get into your brain, okay, those senses that you feel in your body, what you see in the environment, will dictate how you recover. Thank you for listening to the end. I appreciate you, and have yourself a great day.
