Dr. Brooke Mills—also known as Miss New Hampshire 2023, a recent graduate of Sherman College of Chiropractic, and founder of National Concussion Awareness Day—is proof that a concussion can happen anytime, any place, and to anyone.

In 2014, Brooke was a freshman in high school, playing handball in her mandatory gym class. She and another classmate went after the same ball, and he ended up kicking the left side of her face—knocking her completely unconscious. “Not only was there the impact of his foot to my eye, but also my head hitting the floor,” she remembers.

With the help of her classmates, she got up, and remembers feeling okay—save for a headache and a black eye which was quickly developing. “But on my way to the nurse’s office, I got lost,” she says. “That wouldn’t have happened if everything was all right.”

That was the beginning of Brooke’s concussion journey—and recently, we sat down with Brooke to talk more about her story, how her concussion symptoms persisted in both the short and long-term, and why she decided to get involved in concussion advocacy.

Can you share a little more about what happened immediately after your concussion? What were your symptoms, and how did you know something wasn’t quite right?

After I finally found the nurse’s office, she called my mom and had her come pick me up. She’s a chiropractor, and so she did what our family often does when we have persistent headaches or pain. I got adjusted and felt great—so she dropped me back off at school. I got to school during English class. I loved English class, and always paid attention—but that day, I fell asleep right on my desk. So I went home for the second time that day—and didn’t go back to school for the next two months.

Later that night, the memory issues started happening. I’d go into a room and not remember why I was in it—not just once or twice, but all the time. I developed a sensitivity to light—I couldn’t handle any screens because they made my headaches worse. Then the vertigo began—and that was frequent, too. That began my two months of rest.

Was there a moment where you thought, “This is serious. I need to figure out what’s going on here”?

My mom and I waited about 48 hours to call my primary care physician, and thankfully, we were able to get in to see him right away. I was diagnosed with a concussion on the spot. Right after we got back from that appointment, my mom started calling concussion specialists and got me on a waitlist for the best concussion specialist in New Hampshire.

Admittedly, my initial appointment was a frustrating experience. The doctor spent two minutes with me and prescribed me six different medications—one of which was an Alzheimer’s medication that was still in trials! That was the first moment that really sparked the advocacy—the lack of concussion-specific care was frustrating, and I didn’t want others to have to go through what I was going through.

What was your emotional state during that time?

By this time, it was summer vacation—somehow, I managed to get through the rest of the school year and pass my classes. My family had a two-week trip to Europe planned. New symptoms started to happen. I had difficulty walking—I couldn’t walk more than a half a mile because the part of my brain that was regulating my heart rate and oxygen levels was just not working. That was really tough.

I started removing myself from most physical activity—I had been dancing since I was a little kid, but I had to withdraw from all my dance classes. I was doing my best to navigate this new physical life, and I was doing a lot of things to heal my body: switching to an anti-inflammatory diet—I ate so many blueberries!— testing myself by taking daily walks to our mailbox, and even experimenting with things like hyperbaric oxygen chambers.

But I was so emotionally drained. I was also your typical moody teenager, and my concussion only exacerbated it. My family got the brunt of all of those emotions. A big part of my emotional state was that I was losing my personal identity—what made Brooke “Brooke,” a little at a time. Not dancing anymore meant that I wasn’t seeing those friends. I lost even more friends because I wasn’t able to go to school dances, or remember inside jokes, or go to the movies on the weekends because they gave me migraines. They didn’t know how to be there for me, and they couldn’t understand what I was going through, either.

It sounds like you were trying to come to terms with “how things are” instead of “how things were.” Does that sound right?

Absolutely. I remember going back to school my sophomore year and knowing I still wasn’t doing great. So many of my initial symptoms were still present, and at one point I started saying to myself, “You’re going to have to come to terms with this new reality.” I had always been a “Straight A” student, and I needed to realize that probably wasn’t in the cards anymore. I couldn’t be a dancer anymore.

But as I started coming to terms with these things, there was also room for something impactful to come in and enhance my life rather than subtract from it. And that’s where my involvement with the Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire (BIANH) begins.

How did you start working with the Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire?

I had initially done a little bit of fundraising for them, and they came back and asked if I’d be interested in becoming a peer-to-peer lecturer—someone who speaks to middle and high school students at school assemblies, sharing my story and helping them gain concussion awareness.

Speaking to students my age and younger has been such an empowering experience. Persuading a 16-year-old football player that he should get his head checked out if he experiences an intense hit? That’s the kind of impact I love making, and that’s where a big part of my post-concussion identity starts.

You experienced your concussion in 2014—you’re a decade into this journey. What’s changed for you over this time, and what’s stayed the same?

March 10 is actually the tenth anniversary of my concussion, which is crazy—it’s coming up so quickly.

Something I always think of is all the advice I’d get when I’d chat with other brain injury survivors. When I was at the five-year mark, I was still experiencing regular headaches, a lot of vertigo, memory issues, and nausea. I remember they’d say, “I saw the most amount of healing through time.” I didn’t believe it at the time, but time is what’s healed a lot of this for me.

I still experience short-term memory loss, but I give myself a lot of grace there. I don’t sweat memorizing things. I take a ton of photos and videos—it’s my way of making sure those memories are available to me. I also still have a bit of vertigo. It’s much less than it used to be, but it’s still there.

Think of this blog post as a written peer-to-peer lecture: What’s the most important piece of concussion advice that you’d like to impart?

The first one sounds simple: value your brain. It’s the most important part of who we are—it’s what makes us who we are. It’s true that not all concussions are severe, but with every one you have, you run the risk of losing your brain as you know it.

I also stress that once you’ve had one concussion, you’re at greater risk for subsequent ones. The effects are more likely to accumulate, and each concussion causes more severe symptoms and require longer recovery times.

We can’t end this interview without talking about National Concussion Awareness Day! Tell us about it and how you’d like to see it grow in the future?

I initially started Concussion Awareness Day in New Hampshire—but concussions don’t just happen in my home state! I knew I wanted to think bigger, so I was able to find a sponsor and get a patent for the event through the US Patent and Trademark Office, and it’s been an official day since 2016.

One important note about National Concussion Awareness Day is that it’s on a weekday; it’s the third Friday of September every year. That’s by design—I wanted to make sure we were speaking to students on that day. Everyone’s getting into the swing of things with school and fall sports—it just made sense.

The biggest takeaway about the day’s impact is all the stories I hear—both on social media and in person—of students who have experienced concussions and what their journeys have been like. I’ve loved the opportunity to change the narrative around concussions and how we need to take these often invisible injuries seriously.

In the future, I’m looking to grow National Concussion Awareness Day into an even bigger event. I’d love to increase our national news coverage. I’d also like to build our advocacy program by encouraging more young people to be peer-to-peer lecturers.

It’s all about creating that awareness for concussions, how they can happen, and their symptoms. And it’s also about having empathy for those who are dealing with a brain injury. We need both of those things in large doses—that’s where the ripple effect happens.