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but how can the symptoms not make one anxious i dont understand it???
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Like I said, I don’t and never had had anxiety. The feelings I went through (and still have to some degree) are sadness and a sense of loss…
— Begin quote from “sarahd”
scottt it sounds like the paxil isnt working perfectly bc u mentioned u had a spin and fell over before and u were looking to try propranolol. do u get anxious when things like the spinning and falling happen? i think this crap is the scariest thing on earth basically u guy are amazing not to get anxious over it.
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Hi Sarah – my bad days are pretty much all my own doing really. It’s a classic case of not following the rules and getting hit – e.g. like drinking coffee, going to bed too late, not exercising etc. My main interest in propranolol is the effect it has for anxiety related to things like public speaking. I’d really like something that took the racing heart part out of the picture and if it further kills migraine activity that would be a plus!
— Begin quote from “sarahd”
siomav is the propanolol helping a lot? i cant even imagine working with this crap i dont think i could handle it although i already had bad anxiety before any of this crap started. are you able to work full time still? i really admire anyone who works with this issue i think it is amazing!
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Hi Sarah, Thanks for your kind words… I’ve had periods of time where I’m surprised I’ve been able to stay on at my job but I’m glad I have. I worked really hard to get where I am and I have a house and 4 kids so we need the income. I also have in the back of my head that if I were to stay home I may get worse as right now I “fake it to make it”! I believe the propranolol has helped me a good deal and Ive been on it for 3 months or so. I have very few “classic migraine” symptoms and the instances of vestibular issues have reduced. I’ve been off now for over a week and feel better away from the fleuro lights, geometric carpets, and constant laptop usage. I hope I’ll feel better for a while before any symptoms pop up.
Scott, I have to present and be in meetings in front of management often and I think the propranolol has made me calmer! It’s been good for me on his front.I also think it keeps me on a more even keel (spelling?) which helps prevent migraine activity…
Good to hear about the propranolol! Killing two birds with one stone always good. 8)
I am another who did not suffer significant or unprovoked anxiety at any time in my life. I don’t have bad vertigo and other bad symptoms like most of you do, so I have been lucky and escaped anxiety. The only thing I notice is that if I get a sudden jolt of fear such as some sudden very loud noise or perceived danger, or sudden extreme stressful situation, I feel really dizzy!
I did develop some “iatrogenic” anxiety during the years when my dizziness had gotten worse AND I had a bunch of other unexplained neurological symptoms and was once told I had MS; when doctors then started dismissing me, I felt some anxiety and depression in those years as a result of the conflict of KNOWING that something was wrong with me but being unable to get a diagnosis, an answer, or even any doctor to really sit and talk seriously with me about it; they just kept fluffing me off as not worth follow-up or further investigation, and I had a really hard time because I didn’t know what to DO. But I never had REAL anxiety or depression, the hardcore kind that I read about. It was just anxiety about seeing doctors, because I was always (and still am) very afraid they will just keep dismissing me instead of trying to figure out what’s wrong or at least TALK to me seriously and openly.
nancy im sorry you have been continually brushed off by drs that is terrible!!! where do u live?
I didn’t have anxiety prior to my experience (ongoing). I was a fairly fun confident person who could speak to most people. However after initial presentation of memory and speech issues, plus emotional lability (silliest trigger being the words ‘beef and tomato cupasoup’ - exacerbated by being on topiramate and the unpredictability of whether I would cry or even with my symptoms whether I would ‘crumple’ with fatigue. The anxiety on ‘good’ days - i.e where I didn’t ‘look’ like death warmed up but still felt rotten that people’s perception of me faking it. The wrestling with the variability and unpredictability of symptoms. Not knowing whether in a phone conversation I will blank with stm loss, whether I will be able to get to the end of a sentence or either blank after the third word or crumple with tears. Sobbing down the phone to Orange, EDF, Boots opticians - i was still able to laugh about it and joke about customer service training however it completely rocked my previously fairly confident world.
I find myself avoiding people now to avoid questions about my health, people want a definite progress report - out of love and kindness, but cannot marry the ‘ok’ looking person with struggles that I have and questions about my return to work (when oh when). In a sense I am regaining the confidence to disguard this negative and self critical outlook, because at the end of the day I can only work with what I’m presented that day and it needs further energy to deal with the difficulties of others. My lovely parents who have been so supportive, really struggle with the variability and in some ways it has been harder for them and my best friend who lives with me to deal with the variability. I can understand that they want to know what active part they can play in a bid to ‘fix’ me. It has been a lesson in the unseen reality - where someone can look ok but not be ok, a lesson in not judging. at one stage I didn’t go out for days at a time, or mix in groups due to light and sound sensitivity, poor processing of words and the inability to get beyond the initial stages of a thought, task or conversation without forgetting. It is understandable that anxiety should present.
I only have a tiny experience, although significant, in comparison to the truly debilitating isssues of others on here and I’m grateful. to answer your question there were perhaps elements of anxiety there previously, not liking talking on the phone, not liking queues and having to order - due to poor processing and slow cognitive reactions to questions (a long standing issue, along with having to close my eyes to recall things may have been an indicator of symptoms unrecognised). An extrovert introvert.
an interesting question - is anxiety a co-morbidity or a learned response to very difficult symptoms?
take care
I’m very anxious, but I’ve suffered from anxiety for years.
Having said that, I think I may have also suffered from migraine symptoms for years prior to my diagnosis of mav last Nov. It was just less severe. I often thought there was something neurologically wrong (light sensitivity, restless legs, involuntary jerks, lower level dizziness, headaches and even occasional full blown classic migraine when I was a teen).
What pisses me off is people pinning the entire condition on anxiety simply because they don’t understand it.
— Begin quote from “dizzyhell”
I’m very anxious, but I’ve suffered from anxiety for years.
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+1
I’ve had anxiety for years, I just never realized it. MAV triggered it big time for me, but then the anxiety took a separate path from the MAV.
Now I deal with both. :mrgreen:
I never thought I was anxious before the labyrinthitis that triggered my MAV but looking back I did have a mega stressful period of my life just before then and so perhaps i was?
Anxiety and depression are one of those things we are not aware of ourselves sometimes.
I hated it when the doctors told me i was ‘just anxious’ when I first got dizzy, I mean, I think most people would be anxious if they were off balance 24/7 and had spinning and rocking and headaches etc to go with it!
— Begin quote from “MAV1138”
— Begin quote from “dizzyhell”
I’m very anxious, but I’ve suffered from anxiety for years.
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+1
I’ve had anxiety for years, I just never realized it. MAV triggered it big time for me, but then the anxiety took a separate path from the MAV.
Now I deal with both. :mrgreen:
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Sounds like me. I’ve had anxiety and social anxiety all my life, I’ve just ignored it, dealt with it - never thought seriously about it. Now with MAV’s it’s like the dizziness is becoming a defined marker for whenever I’m feeling anxious. I can figure out what triggers the anxiety and I’ll be pretty dizzy free.