{"id":27262,"date":"2024-03-15T10:04:29","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T10:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/concussionfoundation.org\/personal-stories\/out-of-the-darkness\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T19:37:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T19:37:27","slug":"out-of-the-darkness","status":"publish","type":"stories","link":"https:\/\/concussionandcte.org\/en-uk\/personal-stories\/inspiring-stories\/out-of-the-darkness\/","title":{"rendered":"Out of the Darkness: The Noah Abrams Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Posted: June 17, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

My family members filed into the house, one after another, greeting each other with hugs and smiles. The house was loud, filled with laughter and conversation between cousins catching up, grandparents checking in and siblings making fun of each other. My family gathered around the Thanksgiving table to celebrate the privilege of being in one place together and enjoy each other\u2019s company.<\/p>\n

But I couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The sounds of their laughter pierced my ears. The thud of their footsteps vibrated my skull. The clanking of forks and knives resembled nails on a chalkboard. The only thing that I could do to escape this, my family, the thing that means the most to me in life, was to curl up in bed in a dark room, holding my head in my hands. These were the moments where my mind went places where I wish they never went. For the first time in my life the idea of killing myself seemed liked a better alternative to living life in constant suffering. I cried. Uncontrollably. Thinking about all that felt so far away from me now. My friends, my soccer career, my education, my family. I was told that feeling more emotional and sad was part of\u00a0Post-Concussion Syndrome<\/a>, but nothing could have prepared me for what I was actually going to experience.<\/p>\n