By the time Luke Ivens retired from playing Australian Rules football, he had suffered “up to 20 concussions” playing the game he loved.

The 41-year-old says his worst concussion saw him blacked out for seven minutes.

“I was getting a bit of those dizziness and nausea symptoms but I really thought that if I rested throughout the off-season, I’d be fine,” he told ABC Science’s Listen Up.

“I noticed a few symptoms such as social anxiety, headaches started happening as well. I struggled to retain information.”

Towards the end of his career, however, Luke had begun to notice symptoms he hadn’t experienced before.

“I’d have to start having a few drinks before I walked into a crowd of people.”

Most worryingly of all, he was struggling with short-term memory loss.

“I couldn’t even remember what I was having for dinner the night before. I just felt helpless and hopeless as a person.”

Scans would later reveal that Luke had a brain that, according to his neurologist, resembled that of a car-crash victim’s.

A second neurologist, this time in Sydney, said his brain looked like it had suffered 50 concussions, instead of the suggested 20.

“My club doctor said, ‘Look, you’ll probably either retire or try wearing a helmet’. That [wearing a helmet] became my armour for the rest of my career.”

We now know that, while helmets can protect you from cauliflower ears, superficial lacerations and skull fractures, they don’t prevent concussions.

Search for answers

Growing up in Maitland on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, sport was a huge part of Luke’s life.

When he moved to Adelaide with his mum at 16, home was around the corner from North Adelaide’s Football Club.

It’s where Luke started his football career.

As a 19-year-old, and one of the youngest players on the field, Luke’s job as a tagger was to stop the opposition’s gun midfield.

An easy target because of his age, the “opposition would be quite physical”, said Luke. 

He suffered five concussions that year alone.

Luke would go on to play 194 games in the South Australian National Football League, from 2000 to 2014.

Twenty years later, as Luke’s feelings of anxiety continued to spike, visits to specialists didn’t reveal the answers he was looking for.

“No one really could tell me what was going on.

“I didn’t cope very well, to be honest. Probably about a year into having these symptoms I started going to a pretty dark place.

“It just seemed like a vicious cycle of me using alcohol to combat my feelings and then waking up the next day, I couldn’t function properly as a father, as a person.

“I was probably at the point of losing everything, to be honest. My family, probably my work and probably my life.”

It wasn’t until Luke’s mum suggested that his concussions might be the cause, that a neurologist ordered brain scans.

“He referred me to a neurologist in Sydney and after a few consultations with her she said, ‘Your brain looks like you’ve had about 50 concussions.'”

Luke was diagnosed with “probable CTE”.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative brain disease likely caused by repeated head injuries.

According to Luke, he had hit rock bottom and out of “absolute desperation” asked his Sydney-based neurologist for help.

“She put me on some medication, which has really stabilised my symptoms. Social anxiety, we got on top of that. The headaches subsided with the medication.

“She also said, ‘You’ve got some effects [from repetitive brain injuries] but learn how to manage it properly, and you can hopefully live a normal life.'”

Speaking up and being honest

Since his diagnosis, Luke has found ways to get his life back on track. 

Mornings consist of some form of fitness and alcohol is no longer the crutch it once was.

He’s also teamed up with the Concussion Legacy Foundation, last year speaking to 30 community sporting clubs about his experience.

“I left every single one of those visits feeling really great … I want my story to be one of hope rather than despair.”

And fatherhood continues to be his focus.

“I’ve got three young boys and I want them to grow up with a father they could be proud of.

“Bravery now is speaking up and being honest about your symptoms. We know too much about concussions now.”

The six-part drama series Plum follows Australian football legend Peter ‘The Plum’ Lum as he deals with the long-term impact of hundreds of head injuries and concussions suffered on the field.

Stream all episodes of Plum free on ABC iview or watch Sundays 8.30pm on ABC TV.