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After a hit to the head

For people in the United States who have had a concussion or another brain injury, last night or twenty years ago; for parents of a child who hit their head; and for the people who love someone with a brain injury. The danger signs. What a brain injury and a concussion are. What it can feel like. The first days and weeks. When it isn’t getting better. A moderate or severe injury. Children, school and sports. Protecting your head from here. Work. The old injury nobody looked at: from a fight, a crash, inside, on the street, at home. Finding help. And the words to say when you call or write. No quiz and no score. One thing at a time.

This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). The facts come from pages read on October 2, 2026: the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (About Mild TBI and Concussion; Symptoms of Mild TBI and Concussion; What to Do After a Mild TBI or Concussion; Where to Get Help; About Potential Effects of a Moderate or Severe TBI; Health Disparities in TBI; and its HEADS UP pages Concussion Basics, Signs and Symptoms of Concussion, What to Do After a Concussion, Returning to School After a Concussion, Returning to Sports, and Responding to a Sports-related Concussion); the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (its Traumatic Brain Injury page, last reviewed March 13, 2026); MedlinePlus (Traumatic Brain Injury, and Concussion); the Department of Veterans Affairs (Effects of TBI); the Administration for Community Living (its Traumatic Brain Injury page); the Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center (its TBI index and the opening of Understanding Traumatic Brain Injury); the Brain Injury Association of America (its front page, Find BIA in Your State, and Contact the National Brain Injury Information Center); and the Job Accommodation Network (the first part of its Brain Injury page, and its contact page). The description of Crisis Text Line is from its own front page, read the same day; the domestic violence number was checked on that organisation’s site on September 29, 2026. The Brain Injury Association of America and Crisis Text Line are private organisations describing themselves; we have no connection with any of them. We did not call or text any line, contact any provider, school, state program or group, or search any directory. We did not read the clinical guidelines, the HEADS UP Letter to Schools, the page on recovery from a severe TBI, the prevention and helmet pages, any law or regulation, any state’s rules, or the research behind any statement; where the page touches one of these, it says so. The page has no questionnaire and gives no score, on purpose: a list is not an assessment. It names no medicine and gives no dose, and quotes no named person. Its only figures about how common brain injury is are two the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gives about people in jails and prisons and people without homes, in the section “An old injury nobody looked at”. Lines marked “Ours” are our own suggestions. This page saves nothing: no account, no cookies, nothing you tick is stored or sent, and no analytics (privacy). Scarlet Beast is not a clinic, a school or a government agency, and takes no money from anyone named here. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].