anxiety or MS?

[karilann]

15 years ago I was driving down a highway when I suddenly felt as though I was out of sinc with everything going on around me...couldn't focus and felt ever so slightly dizzy.  Of course this made me panic and I had my friend finish the driving.
Needless to say this "out of sinc" feeling endured off and on and I really felt it driving or going down the isles of grocery stores etc....very bizzare and I thought I was going crazy. It would come over me like a wave.  I used every self help method thinking anxiety attacks....but they were not something that came on suddenly....I would feel weird all day.  Needless to say it has made me apprehensive to drive long distances or at high speeds. I was diag with MS in 2003. Optic nerve is okay...lesions  in brain stem and white matter adjacent to lateral ventricles and right cerebellar peduncle and one in the right occicpital region.
No one has addressed this "woozy" thing that goes on.  I do have a quarter size cyst or something in my right max sinus....don't know if that would make me feel weird.  Dosn't hurt.
My question is:  Have you heard of this type of thing with motion feeling like the earth under me and my body  are going in different directions!  Its ever so slight but ever so distracting and has caused me to avoid highways etc cause I'm afraid it will pop up.  Some days I feel I am going nuts and am a dependent mess.

[jensequitur]

I frequently have this problem with tracking moving objects in my vision.  The best explanation I've found is Pulfrich's effect, which is a neurological problem caused when one eye is transmitting information at a slower rate than the other eye.  Since I've had optic neuritis, I know that there's some damage to the white matter of the optic nerve - and one eye certainly sees a little darker than the other.

Basically what's happening is that your brain is receiving two separate sets of information, and you're trying to resolve both of them so that what you're seeing makes sense.  This leads to a feeling of disquiet, and a sensation that you're out of control of the situation.  

On my bad days, I find it really difficult to drive!  I also avoid tracking things in my vision unless I need to be looking at them.  

[Dr. Daniel Kantor, MD]

1. The maxillary sinus issue probably has nothing to do with this and probably is not significant, but you would want to ask your doctor about this.

2. The out of sync feeling needs to be evaluated to make sure it is not a seizure.

3. The feeling of things moving may be a form of oscillopsia, with the feeling of the world moving back and forth.

I would do the following:

1. Talk to your neurologist.
2. Perhapse see a neuro-ophthalmologist to make sure you have no eye movement problems.
3. Consider the use of a medication called memantine (Namenda) which you should ask your neurologist about for oscillopsia (if that is what is diagnosed).

[auggie207]

Can this be an MS symptom or something else.  I have seen two neurologists and they advise nothing.  Meanwhile I cannot drive to work and feel safe.