Does VM/MAV always have to be chronic?

Hey,

I wondered the last days if MAV or Vestibular Migraine always have to be chronic. Somehow almost everybody in some forums seems to be suffering 24/7. I had only two episodes of it, and the symptoms always vanished after a couple of days. I’m afraid that it (especially the dizziness/vertigo) becomes chronic. Anybody in this forum has VM only episodic?

It absolutely does not have to be. I would venture a guess that many (or even most) people with migrainous vertigo have it episodically. Keep in mind that forums like this tend to attract the sickest people, and give a skewed view of what the migraine population as a whole experiences. People who have episodic problems are probably not spending their time on the internet trying to figure out how to cope - they are living their lives.

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Absolutely not. It’s certainly once it turns chronic that it can really get to you and I’d say once chronic the body has lost its ability to reset itself and it becomes increasing more difficult to get under control. But, no it doesn’t have to always be chronic. Mine was episodic in self contained episodes for more than a decade and although those episodes were extremely bad it would clear between and it was as though they’d never happened. Life went on as normal, no intermittent side effects at all for many years. The acute episodes were bad, very bad, but the pattern was quickly established, I could time the attacks, they’d stop abruptly after 72 hours so just a question of sitting it out and remembering to keep breathing. Chronic MAV is an entirely different ballgame.

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