Anyone else suffering MAV? i need advice

Hi. Im 18 years old, and I have been having ‘dizzy spells’ since i was three years old. My symptoms include vomiting, loss of balance, dizziness and light headedness. And sometimes it affects my speech and when the dizziness is at its worst I can barely speak. It has gotten worse as I get older and it was only when i turned 16 that i was diagnosed with Migraine associated vertigo. All the doctor keeps on doing is giving me propanolol tablets. He doesn’t give me advice or anything and he doesn’t seem to care. I spend like half an hour in the waiting room and less than 5 minutes seeing the doctor, so i’m completely lost. I have been suffering for 15 years, and as it started at such a young age i have never been able to live my life. I feel so dizzy 99% of the time that i can’t even lift my head and the severe dizziness lasts for a while then I fall asleep and that seems to take some of the dizziness away. But I don’t fully recover for around a week, and because of this I have lost all my friends because they got bored of me always having to cancel plans at the last minute due to dizziness and not being able to go out a lot.
I have noticed chocolate seems to make the dizziness worse.

So i’m just wondering if anyone else is experiencing something similar, and could give me advice? Thank you very much for reading this:-)

Hi, sorry to hear you’ve suffered with dizziness for so long. Three years old is so young to experience that.
Yes, I’ve experienced the same symptoms and only recently been dignosed with migraine associated vertigo. Like you, it took years to get a diagnosis. Has your doctor given you any diet advice or lifestyle advice to manage the symptoms? Sounds like the doctor has kept you in the dark about this condition, I had the same thing.
For years I had no clue what was causing the spinning etc, but then i found a neurotologist who finally explained that I need to do a migraine diet ( no dairy, no msg foods, no citrus fruits, no chocolate, no wine etc for 13 weeks and to go to bed the same time each night and get up the same time each day, no stress, regular meals-no skipping meals and to do vestibular rehabilitation exercises and CBT ( Congetive behaviour therapy ) to help the brain to rest from the overload of triggers and to manage symptoms better.

I’ve also had times where I’ve been unable to lift my head due to the head spinning sensation. It is so scary when it happens. Ive also lost a lot of friends due to this condition, and i find a lot of people don’t understand about dizziness and vertigo. And still sometimes have to cancel things at the last minute. I first had vertigo when I was 8, but it went away for years then it returned when I was a teenager and missed out on alot of things because of it, so I sympathise with you.

Some other things i’ve found helpful is magnesuim oil or tablets , vitamin B , iron, peppermint tea and lavendar oil.
Hope this helps a little :slight_smile:

Thank you very much for your reply, it has really helped me understand more about ways that may prevent it.
Im going to try the migraine diet, and everything else you suggested, so fingers crossed it works:) thank you