anxiety?dizziness

[turkee23]

about 10 weeks ago i woke up dizzy and didnt know why, it was my sister wedding and i thought maybe just nerves. i took sea sick meds (wedding was on a yacht) and it helped a little bit.

after another few weeks it didnt go away and it scared me so much that i didnt want to go anywhere thinking i would get dizzy. I went to my GP and she looked and said i looked fine, called for blood work and told me to go to a neurologist. blood work came back NORMAL. I went back to her cause i was a little upset that she didnt even think about a ear infection, or anemia, just wanted me to go straight to a neurologist ( freaked me out bad), she gave me another check up and said she saw "something" in my ear, my ears having been feeling "full" but no pain, gave me nasonex nasal spray and said go see and ENT

the dizziness got very bad one night so i went to the ER and they did a catscan and said everything was fine, sent me home with meclizine, and that worked prettty well.

went to ENT last week for an allergy test, allergic to cockroaches,dust, and feathers but nothing serious and i was BARELY allergic to those. friday im going to a VNG balance test and im PRAYING that they will figure something out cause im really depressed about all this, im 25 healthy college student. and i feel like im 80 and dying....

wheni  think about being dizzy, it GETS worse, like i trigger it sometimes when i think about it....scary

anyone with any kind of advice i would REALLLY APPRICIATE it....if you every been through something like this even better!.......PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help

[txQC]

You're welcome turkee23 ;-)

I hope for you that it will be related to your ears... if not, it's probably anxiety related... the more you will focus on the dizziness and fear of having it, the more you will have it ( if it's anxiety related...)... I have more dizziness when i'm very anxious, when I know that I will be alone at  home for 1 day, when I have to get out of the house for an appointment, I guess my brain record the dizziness as a symptoms of a cardiovascular problem, even if my heart is fine!!! Sometimes I have more control over my heart and dizziness, I don't know why... it's maybe an apprehension problem, well I know it's apprehension who worse the dizziness and bad thoughs about having a heart attack... and the fact that i'm alone at home make me very anxious cause I fear that I will die, that's stupid I know but I can't control that problem since 3 months... anyways...

For the heart beating very hard in your chest, it's call palpitations and it's a sign of anxiety for sure. The good news is that you don't have palpitations all day long, like me, and don't have tachycardia as well... for me it's now very hard to not focus on my heart cause I always feel that my heart is beating really hard in my chest and also it's so fast that's it's trigerring panic attacks everyday... Since I lost a lot of weight because of the severe anxiety in less than 4 months, I think I feel more the strong heart beating in my chest cause I have only the skin and bones, no fat at all on my chest...

Anyway, when you are very anxious, you're body tend to be more alertness of everything you can feel inside it... that's a vicious circle who is hard to break... but a lot of peoples are able to find a way to ignore those symptoms and live a normal life again, so I don't feel hopeless...

Well, enough about me, so give some news when you will have the results from the ears test ok !

Take care of you!

Vincent ;-)

[turkee23]

ty all for your answers.....

mammo they gave me meclizine for dizziness, same thing as sea sick meds....thanks!

alien thank you for you answer, im going to ENT and after i get answers from him,if he has no answers.... im going to make another appt with my GP, i will ask her about that test for sure

megan your post was great and gave me much hope for the future, im just so depressed and anxious that they will never find an answer, i dont really want to take any kind of meds for this i just want it to go away...glad to hear it wont last forever

tx thanks for your response im glad to know im not alone....sometimes i feel like my heart is beating very hard against my chest, just dont know if i relate that to the dizziness or not yet...

hopefully the dizzy test will tell me SOMETHING, if my ears are the problem the test should show something.....so maybe if my ears arent the problem its anxiety......

just would like some answers....

[txQC]

I think it's only anxiety... It can be hard to believe BUT anxiety can mimic a lot of real disease... I know what i'm talking about since I experience the same thing than you right now!!! I have chronic dizziness, always worse in the morning and in the evening...  and I have also a lot of cardiovascular symptoms as well but all the tests I done in the last 3 weeks came back negative... I have nothing wrong, my heart is fine, it's just my anxiety who reach a high peak...

I learn over the time that some symptoms of chronic anxiety come and goes... like right now I have strong tinnitus (buzzing sound) in both of my ears, I hear that horrible sound all day long and at night it's hard to fall asleep cause of the sound I hear... I had tinnitus last december and january and it stop suddenly when I start having a supraventricular tachycardia problem in February... the tachycardia is my main concern since 3 months now, but since my Cardiologist rull out everything and now that I know that my heart is fine, i'm somewhat less anxious about my heart  and even if it beat really fast most of the time I don't care... and strangely the tinnitus is back since 1 week... Same for the dizziness, I had it last year for 3 months in a row and it stop and I have it now again...

It's like a never ending circle...

And I agree with everything that MeganPixel write before me... Yoga is something that I will start soon and ignoring those symptoms or try to live with them and recognize them as being anxiety related help a lot!!!

[MeganPixel]

Just wanted to let you know that it does get better... Vertigo was a prevalent symptom for me when I first started having panic and anxiety symptoms... I know how troubling it is and how difficult it is to describe to other people in a way that they can understand. The doctor told me the same thing - ears were full and it would go away over time - and said it was the barometric pressure changes (go figure). I felt like I was going up and down in an elevator all the time and wasn't walking straight.  I also ended up in the ER because I thought I wouldn't be able to walk upright anymore if I waited too long!  In retrospect, I really believe it was one of many feelings I would get when I was panicked or anxious.  At that point in my life there was so much going on, and so many other anxiety associated symptoms (ex. chest pain, short of breath), that the vertigo was like 'icing on the cake.'  

Deep breathing as mammo suggested sometimes helped but sometimes made me feel lightheaded (helps more now to keep me from getting super anxious).  Medication helped (ex. short acting, like Xanax) but it can also make you feel sleepy/dizzy too. In all this was a troubling symptom and difficult to get rid of, but this doesn't mean that it will never go away. I found that after treating the anxiety generally - my way was through lifestyle changes and some therapy to explore my feelings - this symptom was the FIRST to disappear.  Literally, one day, I just started noticing, I didn't have that problem anymore.  It comes back periodically, in a milder and annoying version, but never the constant off-balance feeling that I used to have before... I think because I am able to recognize it for what it is and dismiss it before it takes over.

I just wanted to give you some hope - this doesn't last forever, and there are things you can do about it, but it might take some time.

Another weird thing that I might mention, and this has no basis in medical science, just my own experience --- yoga helped me with this, because not only does it focus on breathing regularly and exercise, it works on your posture and balance, and (this is the weird part) since many poses are 'head down' I felt almost like it exercises my balance in a way that is different enough to challenge the vertigo feeling... maybe it is the blood rushing to my head... I don't know really but it helped. :)

[Alienfunk]

Hi Turkee23

This is my first time using this site and already I don't feel alone. I have been suffering from anxiety since the age of about 14, I'm now 36 yrs old, female and although I don't have a cure for anxiety my suggestion would be to go back to the doctors and ask them to check your heart. My reason fro this is that I suffer from Atrial fibrillation a condition that affects the heart rhythm and I have been told by my cardiologist that this can cause anxiety. AF can also cause low blood pressure and dizzy spells because the brains isn't getting enough oxygen.
The problem with AF is that it's common mostly in elder people but as more and more research is being done they have now come to realize that more younger people suffer with it. An easy way to check is to check your pulse, does your heart rhythm have a normal pattern. Check it at different times during the day as some people go in and out of AF. I'm one of the unfortunate ones that is constantly in AF and it's classes as irregularly, irregular.  
My experience with anxiety and experience with medical professionals and anxiety is recognizing that this isn't a mental problem, I too feel happy generally speaking but worry about things and if I can't find anything to worry about my body has the ability to make something up. My whole body feels like it's in knots and the butterfly feeling is immense. I actually feel like I am being sent to the gallows to be hung (feeling scared about something) if that makes any sense.

The reason I joined this site is because the last 4-5 days my anxiety levels have been the highest I have ever had before. Normally I can cope with them and somehow can control them. I am back at the doctors this afternoon to see if there is any medication I can take because I can't cope with feeling like this anymore.

If I find anything else out I will post it on here later today. Good luck and I hope you get sorted.

[mammo]

This sounds more like anxiety, especially since it worsens when you think about it.  I would see a psychiatrist for an evaluation, and I suggest a psychiatrist because they are most knowledgable when it comes to treating anxiety and depression.  Dizziness is part of a panic attack, and as scary as they are...they're harmless.  While waiting to get in to see the doctor, try doing deep breathing exercises when you feel the dizziness coming on.
When we get anxious, we tend to breathe very shallow and this lack of oxygen makes us lightheaded and dizzy.  Take several slow, deep breaths in thru you nose and slowly out of your mouth, this should help.  I do this anytime I'm feeling anxious and it helps a lot.  Be happy that you have a doctor who is ruling out all other causes for your dizziness, because we always want to do this. You should have a fasting glucose tolerance test to rule out low blood sugar as well. Shaking hands can be an indicator of low blood sugar and if you eat some type of carbs and you stop shaking...chances are you have low blood sugar.  Being on a yacht may have triggered vertigo, which can last days to months, but it will go away as quickly as it came, and is harmless.  See if turning or tilting your head a certain way triggers dizziness, it will with vertigo.  It sounds like they've been very thorough
and you are healthy.  What medication did they give you at the ER?  If it was for anxiety, and it helped you then you know what the problem is.  Let us know what they gave you, it could be a big clue to what is going on.  You're okay, don't let this get the best of you. I hope this helps, and if you could tell us what you were given at the ER, we may be able to advise you better. Hang in there.