Hello everyone, I read on here a lot, but post every so often. Anyway, my main complaint is rocking disequilibrium/tilting to the right.
I did a little small test on myself and am wondering if anyone can relate.
I had to change a light bulb in the house and the last time I had to do this, I used a chair and had no problems, I also didn’t have MAV at the time.
This time around, I used the same chair, stood up on it (mind you this chair is completely stable, no different feeling than the ground) was completely unable to change the bulb. I tried and tried for about 15 minutes and was not able to stay balanced on the chair. Everytime I got up there and looked up, the rocking/minispins all came in full force and I got down. Waited a little longer till the anxiety of it was completely gone and tried again, but it didn’t matter. So I tried mimicking changing the bulb on solid ground. The result on the ground was, no rocking/minispins and if the light bulb were in reaching distance from the ground I would have had no problem changing it. There is no reason I shouldn’t have been able to use that chair.
Do I have a fear that this disequalibrium is never gonna go away and subconciously I just won’t let myself get better? It makes me wonder If I were on an anxiety med like celexa or whatever, would it get rid of the disequalibrium over time? I’m not on anything at the moment. It makes sense but I’m just not sure. Has anyone had success here with those meds, particularly ssri’s with removing the rocking/tilting feeling. I’m really scared that the rocking will never go away. Is anxiety the main culprit or is it migraine. I’m guessing it’s probably both. I’ve always had slight anxiety issuses my whole life, but the dizziness kind of came out of nowhere and I used to get anxiety from it, but now It’s been almost a year since the dizziness started and I have an “I don’t give a shit attitude” about anything now. My anxiety levels are way lower now than ever, but now I probably have some sort of depression from all this dizziness. I guess that would explain the “I don’t give a shit about anything anymore attitude”. Can a person have subconcious anxiety?
Any thoughts on this would be helpful.
Thanks…
Greg
Greg, WOW…OMG…You wrote a post that could have been written by me!!! LOL I have had dizzy issues for 13 years BUT use to come and go, but nowadays it constant and I have the rocking feeling, I actually rock and sway some days! I need to lean on something inorder to feel relief a lil. I also too think about t he underlying anxiety of it all…I dont have a answer,But Your not alone in what your thinking, I TRY to do test also…LOL I am worse in the stores than when I am home. DOnt get me wrong, I am still off just not as badly!!! I hate it!!! I am getting pretty close to hitting rock bottom and it has taken a long time, but I am really about there! I am not on anything either, I also wonder about a normal old ssri, maybe I should try and see what happenes.
I have NEVER been depressed BUT the past 6 months, I think I have at least become borderline depressed and THAT makes me sad, I feel like I am letting this get the best of me. I am a mother to 6 and very busy and this is killing everything!!! I hate it and I just wanted you to know that I TOO have all the same questions!!!
yea I actually have celexa sitting right in my desk drawer since december, but have yet to take it cause I know it’s such a commitment. And I wanna be sure that ssri is the best option for the rocking issue. I can deal with vision dizziness, but the tilting and rocking has to go. I’ve had enough of it. That is the most debilitating. I hate standing still. I’m ok sitting though. I know this may sound strange, but a few beers actually mask it. But I can’t drink everyday. Also too many beers will make it worse. So if anyone out there has a good idea of which med to take for the rocking, I’m all ears.
Scott- maybe you could touch on the rocking subject. Is that one of your symptoms or used to be one of your symptoms?
I hate standing too!!! I feel better when I am moving!! I do better sitting but still rocky, bepends on how bad my day is. When I am standing still like talking to people and if there is nothing I can lean on or hold onto I tend to lean all my weight over to one side, it IS noticable and I people prolly wondering why I cannot seem to stand straight, but better than rocking. When I i use to drink yes i noticed right away that a beer or 2 WOULD mask it, I felt NORMAL!!! SO odd!
Your not alone
Scotty yes info on rocking would love to hear it!
Donna
I can absolutely relate!!! I feel around 50% one day and then awful the next. I really feel like the anxiety aspect of this is keeping me dizzy everyday! Its so depressing. I am on celexa again and praying for a miracle, but it is sooooo hard to be dizzy everyday and I hope this doesn’t last forever, it robs us of our lives!
Greg, I can relate. If I am painting a room, I can be stood on the ground and painting and I am fine. Then I stand on a chair to do the top bit of the wall, still in the same position as when I was on the ground (but my mind knows I am stood up on a chair) and I will feel really off.
Donna I can relate to the standing. If I used to meet someone I knew whilst out shopping and they stopped to chat and I was having a bad dizzy day, I ended up having to stand with my legs apart to keep my balance, they must have thought “strange woman” :shock:
Also some people have that annoying habit of bobbing their head around when they are talking and I would get dizzier and dizzier, it was like torture.
Yes, I hate to promote painkillers, but I have some success with small amounts of these. I have just come back from a walk, its dark which always makes me dizzier anyway, but I couldnt hardly walk in a straight line, just took half a painkiller and feel almost OK.
Greg – your anxiety/ depression/ dizziness descriptions are all par for the course. I deal with it often and have since it all started in 2003. I’m using Paxil and Valium to keep it contained.
Read this article to understand the physiological links between migraine, dizziness, and anxiety.
Greg, I wonder whether you’ve tried keeping your head level? I can do some things above head level reasonably well so long as I only take rare glances up to make sure my hand’s where I want it–in your example, that would be finding the old lamp/bulb with my hand, and then later finding the socket as I’m holding the base of the new lamp.
David— Every time I got on the chair, head level or not, it was worse on the chair. I had a hard time standing straight up on the chair. I had to get a 6 ft. ladder and change it that way. I stood on the 3rd step and secured my feet to the sides and leaned forward so my chest was resting the ladder and was able to look up, down and even change the bulb. My guess is that I have some subconcious fear of standing straight up on anything. Another strange thing I noticed is that over the past few years I’ve developed a fear of heights. Was never too fond of heights to begin with, but the fear got extremely bad over the past few years. Even before I got MAV. I’ve only had MAV for about 10 months now.
i still can’t figure out if aniety is causing my dizziness when driving - esp coming to a stoplight or the motion of the car or MaV or what. I’m so sick of it. It was never this bad before so i think aniety plays a big role esp now tht i’m going through menopause.
the neuotologist thought i had aniety issues that’s why he sent me to the neurologist in the first place - he didn’t say anything about MaV.
Chris–me too, I’ve always been a nervous person too. Always worrying for nothing. There is definatley a pattern. But why the dizziness? I never get the extremely painful headaches. It feels like all my senses are very sensative. The senses are so sensative that I’m constantly rocking and some visual dizziness. Everything seems louder than it should. When I was on Nort I did notice things not being so sensative, and when I got off it, everything gradually became sensative again.
The first thing I thought when reading your post was ‘how many migraineuers does it take to change a light bulb…?’ :lol:
Anyway, the rocking thing. I get that too and I find it one of the most annoying and uncomfortable symptoms. I don’t need to be in any particular position to get it though: I can be sitting perfectly still and will suddenly feel like I’m falling forward. I also get the same thing standing still, so feel better leaning against a wall. When walking it will feel like the floor is squishy and bouncy and I’ll also feel like I’m being dragged to the left. Yucky.
As to the role of anxiety in this - from what I understand we experience anxiety as a result of the migraine, that is, the migraine, rather than our own thoughts, is causing the feeling of anxiety. However, it can become a vicious cycle in which the anxiety then ‘feeds back’ locking in all the symptoms.
As to the treatment - I was very successfully managed with Prothiaden (Dothep). I am told however that it is not available in the US .
Vic-- I was out drinking tonight, needless to say, I’m feeling good. The rocking is almost not even noticeable. I had 4 pints of guiness. I don’t know why a little alcohol makes it better. It takes my mind right off it. But I can’t drink everyday. Something is going on in that area of the brain that has control of this and I don’t know how to saddle it without alcohol. It’s driving me nuts. I can think about it all I want right now, but I won’t be bothered by it cause of the alcohol. Why does alcohol take it away???
It brings me to think of my life as a whole in a way. All my life I’ve been pretty shy and quiet. I have had some sort of anxiety my whole life. When I was in my early 20’s I drank quite a bit and that took the anxiety of socialness away. Hell, I met my wife when I was drinking. I’m not an alcoholic but if I didn’t drink a little when I was younger, my life would have turned out completely different. I know the alcohol has helped me get through social anxiety. But I never drank every day. Just on the weekends. That’s why I started this post of anxiety or migraine! Cause look now… The alcohol basically takes away the rocking feeling. Same concept right??? I know Scott did post a rather interesting thing on this post that mentions migraine and anxiety are basically interlinked in a way. It seems that treating anxiety is very much the same as treating migraine. We’ll see I guess…
P.S. It probably takes about 30 MAVer’s to change a light bulb. 29 of them will fall flat on the face and 1 will be left over to call an ambulance. And one of the paramedics will change the bulb just so they can have some light while carrying all the MAVer’s out on stretcher’s to the ambulance’s. :lol:
You are not alone. Quite a few of us have experienced relief from the hateful rocking after having a few drinks. Not hammered, just a bit tipsy. Also, it improves the mood. That’s sort of the point with booze isn’t it? Otherwise no-one would drink it :lol: .
I’m not advocating drinking at all and certainly not to excess, but it does get a bad rap. For thousands of years people have used it to chill out, to temporarily numb pain (physical and emotional) and to disinhibit enough to overcome shyness. I’m willing to bet that substantial numbers of relationships have started and children been conceived with a little help from booze. Just don’t drive, operate heavy machinery or get a tattoo
Having said all that I feel a whole lot better when I don’t drink. Even a little bit makes me foggy the next day. Especially red wine. Devil’s potion!
