As an athlete, and one who plays football, the thought of getting a concussion is constantly in the back of my mind. I have actually gone through two concussions and am now diagnosed with post-concussive syndrome, which is taking away my season and potentially my career. According to Minh-Ha Hoang and Aaron M. Lear from the Journal of Family Practice, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that approximately 300,000 sports concussions occur yearly in the United States, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that approximately 300,000 sports concussions occur yearly in the United States. I would love to do something about it, but unfortunately concussions are a relatively new science. Back when my uncles played football, you weren’t playing hard enough if you didn’t have a headache by the end of practice. Now, the slightest off-character action causes the training staff to raise the alarm and sit you for a week. This is a good thing, because getting hit again when you have a concussion can cause serious damage or even death. But it isn’t a permanent solution because time doesn’t always fix concussions, and lingering effects can remain for your entire life. So scientists and doctors go back and forth on the treatments of concussions, whether to sit and rest with no mental activity, sit with mental activity, or just take medicine and get back out there.
The issue with taking rest is that many times it can cause a different kind of mental harm. Many professional athletes, particularly football players who have suffered head injuries, have retired from the NFL happy, only to find that they depend on the physical activity that they cannot have anymore that they become depressed and on several occasions commit suicide. Junior Seau, a linebacker in the National Football League, committed suicide a couple years ago, just 3 years after retiring from the NFL. Doctors reported that...