I went to the Mayo Clinic last week to figure out why I am still dizzy 24/7 even though my initial attack of spinning vertigo was over a year ago. I had been previously diagnosed with MAV by the Chicago Dizziness and Hearing Clinic, who prescribed Effexor. I was not sure about that diagnosis because I found it hard to believe that I had a one-year constant migraine.
They gave me a diagnosis of âChronic Subjective Dizziness.â They describe this as a conditioned response to a real trauma (such as bppv or an ear infection) where the body gets into a habit of constantly adjusting to the trauma even though it has already passed. The brain is overexcited and looking for patterns and moving back and forth to adjust to what it perceives as motion. They claim it is not a psychiatric condition but rather a âsoftware glitchâ where the brain is stuck with an inability to adjust back to the reactions that I made pre-trauma. At first I was dubious of this diagnosis, but the longer that I thought about it, the more it made sense. My bppv (or VN) was quite brutal, and I can understand why my brain went into overdrive trying to adjust, and simply couldnât ratchet back down.
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Thank-you for posting your experience. Also thanks to Scott for the paper on CSD.
Iâm having a problem believing that I am having 1 long migraine and this explanation makes sense. Iâve experienced the severe vertigo along with a sinus infection that turned into a 24/7 never ending dizziness that has been going on for 4+ months. It is slowly getting better, but I think my brain is getting used to itâs ânew realityâ.
Can you keep us updated on celexa side effects/effectiveness may have to go same route eventually as im on a long road to nowhere!!
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Update: Iâm on day six of Celexa 5mg. Itâs unpleasant. I feel like someone is shooting electricity into my body. It comes in waves that pass â a wave of headache, a wave of nausea, a wave of feeling good, a wave of agitation/panic, a wave of exhaustion. It is the same as drinking way way too much coffee. I guess my body doesnât know what to think about the new serotonin. I am tempering it with Valium (2mg) since I dropped the Klonopin as I thought it was drying out my scalp. I am dizzier than ever. Donât see how I will get up to 15mg which is the target. Will keep updating.
Stick with it! I know itâs hard, but you have to, to see if it will work. I had the same waves that you describe. I also had them when tappering off of Celexa. Brain zaps and full body zaps. Not fun. But they do stop, they do, they do!!
I had increased dizziness the week I went up to my target dose of 20 mg, which was week 6 for me, and it lasted a few days then subsided. It was the worst ever, with increased anxiety. It all went away. Your body just has to get used to it.
Hang in there, you can do this, you can, you can!! I really like Ativanâhave you tried that benzo? I find itâs not as sedating, although it doesnât last as long, but it does work for me. I also used meclizine to help calm things to. It was hard to push through the sleepiness, but with all of that on board, it did help settle things down.
Stick with it! I know itâs hard, but you have to, to see if it will work. I had the same waves that you describe. I also had them when tappering off of Celexa. Brain zaps and full body zaps. Not fun. But they do stop, they do, they do!!
I had increased dizziness the week I went up to my target dose of 20 mg, which was week 6 for me, and it lasted a few days then subsided. It was the worst ever, with increased anxiety. It all went away. Your body just has to get used to it.
Hang in there, you can do this, you can, you can!! I really like Ativanâhave you tried that benzo? I find itâs not as sedating, although it doesnât last as long, but it does work for me. I also used meclizine to help calm things to. It was hard to push through the sleepiness, but with all of that on board, it did help settle things down.
Good luck!
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Thank you for the inspiration. I was feeling quite spacey this morning, after a bad night with a lot of movement (woke several times with feelings of rotation).
On the surface it doesnât make sense to me â e.g., to take a drug that makes you dizzier in order to make you less dizzy, and to take a benzo so that you can tolerate a drug that will allow you to do without a benzo. Iâm going to stop thinking about it for a few days and just follow the routine.
Update, day 14 on Celexa, at 10mg now. The initial side effects have passed, leaving me with a blah feeling and delayed ejaculation. For the first time in 12 years I had trouble finishing sex with my wife, I started like normal but kept hitting a wall and then lost interest. It was frankly humiliating. I had a couple of good days last week, and I felt that my dizziness was getting better, but tonight I am quite dizzy. Iâve been taking 2mg valium at night to temper the Celexa. I hope this gets better â I am going to try to stick it out for a month. If I am not better by then, I may switch to Effexor or Cymbalta or something.
glad you are hanging in there and i think you have set yourself a good goal. i think i may have the same diagnosis as yourself. i am thinking about trying celexa as well but my nuerologist didnât know anything about chronic subjective dizziness and when i mentioned trying celexa, he mentioned, âthat will make you more dizzy. why would i give you something that will make you more dizzy?â he kind of has a point but after i give him some of the research, i think he will give it to me anyway although i am scared to death to get more dizzyâŚ
i know this might sound strange but i was considering hypnosis. the chiropractor/accupuncturist i go to also does this and i was thinking that if our brain was tramuatized, i wonder if being hypnotized and getting our brain back to the event before the event happened would work? (wonder if that memory would release that stupid clamp they always talk about?) then again, i wonder why it wouldnât release in dreams. sounds kind of crazy i know but willing to try anything and everything!
if it makes you feel better, iâm not even on celexa and i have very low sex driveâŚmy poor husband. when laying down, iâm already in plane turbulence, and the thought of having any more movement makes me nauseousâŚ
i know this might sound strange but i was considering hypnosis. the chiropractor/accupuncturist i go to also does this and i was thinking that if our brain was tramuatized, i wonder if being hypnotized and getting our brain back to the event before the event happened would work? (wonder if that memory would release that stupid clamp they always talk about?) then again, i wonder why it wouldnât release in dreams. sounds kind of crazy i know but willing to try anything and everything!
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I used to get hypnotized twice a week. This was twelve years ago. I had just moved to Miami and my face started breaking out for the first time in my life. At the time I was a professor and it made me self-conscious to stand up in front of a hundred students with acne at age 36. I went to a dermatologist who was very highly regarded but a little bit into alternative therapies. She gave me antibiotics, but she would also do weird stuff like turn off all the lights and stand behind me and hold my face and press her body into mine. I think she was trying to restore my confidence. She was very pretty and I found it both relaxing and exciting (I was single at the time and didnât know whether to relax, run away, or ask her on a date!). Anyway, she said the acne was caused in part by stress and recommended that I get hypnotized by a nurse who worked with AIDS and cancer patients at the hospital (This was Mount Sinai in Miami). I thought that I was incapable of being hypnotized because of my intelligence. Ha ha. I went under very fast and it made me incredibly relaxed. You can feel a kind of buzzing in your body as it really relaxes, and it jerks like when you are falling asleep, yet you are awake. She would put little tests in there to make sure it was working, like she would say, âToday everything white is going to seem incredibly white.â Then on the drive home I would be staring at the white clouds or the white cars. But it was harmless since it was for relaxation. She also gave me a special word that would put me right out, if I was in bed I could say that word and lower my arm and go to sleep. I was surprised that it worked because I am a very science based person with little belief in alternative medicine, but I found hypnosis to be pretty interesting and relaxing. I would try it again, if I could find a reputable person to do it. So, no, I donât think it is that crazy.
I know it has been years since you last on this forum, but when you last wrote, you were exploring the cause of your sx, in case they are not due to MAV.
Have you ever found your answer? I hope you are feeling much better now.
but after i give him some of the research, i think he will give it to me anyway although i am scared to death to get more dizzyâŚ