Possible reason for my recent success?

Specific Illnesses & Conditions VM/MAV
1

Hi all,

I haven’t been posting a lot because lately I’ve had some pretty good success in the past few months. Mainly the last few weeks. Not ready for a success story yet, but to be honest, I haven’t really changed anything lately. There are a few things I’ve changed though. I decided to accept that I’d be dizzy for life back in November. Since I’ve done that, my anxiety level over this whole thing has dropped tremendously. I don’t care one way or another if I’m dizzy. I can still do the things I used to, it just takes a little longer and I drive a little slower. I’m also still taking the Intramax. I suppose the consistancy of vitamins is helping some too. The point is, I’m slowly getting better and better.

But there is one change that sticks out that I haven’t thought about until just recently. I’ve been using the same underarm deoderant since I’ve been in high school. Over the years every now and again, I’d notice a rash around my armpits. But the rash would go away pretty quickly and it never was a real bad rash anyway so I never really thought anything about it. It wasn’t painful eaither. Just itchy sometimes. The wife noticed and recomended a new brand of deoderant. So for the first time in nearly 16 years, I switched brands. I switched brands about a month and a half ago. Since then, there has been no rash at all, and I’ve been getting quite a bit better. The more and more days that go by, the better and better I seem to get.

Is it possible that the deoderant could have been contributing to my problems? I’ve never heard of that one, but with migraine I suppose anythings possible. What do you guys think? I guess it could be true considering the rashes I used to get. But also seems like too strange of a main trigger to be true.

Greg

2

Hi Greg,

It’s nice to hear that someone is getting better :slight_smile: Good for you!!

The deodorant thing sounds interesting. I wonder if that was part of your problem?? I can’t wait to see what others think.

I wish you continued success with your healing.

Donna

3

hmmm good question. I suppose you could try switching back to the previous deoderant for 1-2 weeks and see if a relapse occurs? Is the deoderant the only trigger/factor you’ve changed lately?

4

My Multiple Chemical Sensitivity friends would just about guarantee it. If you care, I can dig up some of the links. Or you can facebook-friend Kenneth Lederman.

Myself, I figure it’s just that a little b.o. keeps MAV under control.

5

Greg,

Really glad to hear you are in another good run feeling well. It’s hard to know for sure why you’re suddenly doing well as it could just be a spontaneous remission, however, I definitely think the under arm deodorant could be a trigger for you. These sorts of things can set me off in a HUGE way. I’ve had products put on my face like sunscreens that nearly killed me the next day, causing neck pain and years ago (I believe) one product triggered a BPPV attack. A year ago a plain smelling after shower hand cream was causing headaches. It took weeks to work it out because I couldn’t believe something on my hands could do that. I switched to plain sorbolene and it stopped. I cant even use regular shampoos else the headache from hell arrives.

I think your acceptance of this and thus the drop in anxiety is a major factor too. I bet you’re happier for it. No more resistance.

Scott :slight_smile:

6

— Begin quote from “alternaace”

hmmm good question. I suppose you could try switching back to the previous deoderant for 1-2 weeks and see if a relapse occurs? Is the deoderant the only trigger/factor you’ve changed lately?

— End quote

I do this every time I think I have identified something that makes me feel better or worse. It stinks to reintroduce something that has the potential to make you feel yucky all over again, but it is only way to really know for sure.

I found that MANY of my products were making my symptoms worse. I have little tolerance for fragrance of any sort. Since learning this almost all of my toiletries are natural AND fragrance free. I could give some recommendations if you’d like!

My BF too has gone fragrance free since I couldn’t stand the smell of “clean” : )

Sarah

7

I’m thinking maybe a spontanious remission. Mainly because I’ve been having pretty good bouts here and there since August really. I know coming to grips and accepting daily dizziness has been a huge factor. I no longer get angry if I have a bad day. Since I’ve been thinking this way (since November), my bad days have been going away. I now only have bad moments throughout a day. It’s quite amazing I think that I’ve been getting better without a med.

Back in early November, I started celexa and quit after a week due to the sex issues with it. The wife and I are trying for another baby and I just couldn’t wait it out to see if the side effect would ware off, so I dumped it with the plan to introduce it again after she was pregnant. I did go to the gym for a week after celexa and ate healthy. I did notice during that week how much better the dizziness had gotten. But I knew it was to close to the holiday’s to really keep up in the gym, so I decided to go full force with the gym after the holiday’s. During the last few months, I’ve been alright. I haven’t been back to the gym yet and it’s almost February.

So then I thought, that since I’ve accepted the dizzy’s, I’m just slowly coming back to normal. Not there quite yet, but there are a lot times now throughout the day I don’t think of my dizziness. Where as before, that was hardly ever the case. I’m lovin it right now.

Just to give you an example on how my train of thought is now is this- Before, when I’d get back to gym, it was specifically to hopefully help get rid of my dizziness. Now, if I get back to the gym, it’s specifically to lose weight. Why? Because I don’t care if it helps the dizzi’s or not.

Now, I don’t care if I’m dizzy or not., and surprisingly, just thinking this way, is helping my dizziness go away. How can this be? It’s wonderful. The less I try to get rid of the dizzy’s or thinking of new solutions, the more it helps. So weird!!! and backwards. but hey, it’s helping. A LOT!!!

But I do believe the deodarant must have been somewhat of an issue. It did cause me rashes after all.

Sarah-

Yea, I’ll take you up on some of those recomendations if you don’t mind. I need some options at underarm care, because the new ones I’ve been trying don’t really work that well. I’ve been a pretty smelly bastard lately. :lol:

Greg

8

Isnt it the aluminium in most deoderents that can cause problems? You can buy aluminium free ones in the health shop.

Christine

9

My husband was getting an underarm rash, so I tried buying him a fragrance free kind (it still has the aluminum in it) and for him, that took care of the rash problem.

But do read labels - Dry Idea sells an “unscented hypo-allergenic” deodorant, but the ingredients include fragrance (I’ve been using it for years; that’s how I happen to know). I had to hunt around to find Dove’s “Ultimate Sensitive Care” for hubby, which calls itself a “fragrance free hypo-allergenic” deodorant" and it does indeed have no fragrance listed in the ingredients! Sometimes it’s hard to find so I buy it online.

But buyer beware - “unscented” doesn’t mean fragrance free!! :roll:

10

I can’t imagine the deodorant was the cause but I’ll bet it was some kind of chemical trigger. I’d just be so happy to be feeling better!!! And you did it drug free right? So how do I get that I don’t give a s… attitude? I’d really love to do that. Maybe since your anxiety was so decreased the rest of your brain calmed down. I’m truly happy for you though. Is it completely gone?

11

Elisha,

No it’s not completely gone, but has been much improved and yes, medfree. How I got the I don’t give a shit attitude about it, was when a friend of mine asked me how the whole dizziness thing was going, and I really got into explaining pretty much everything I’ve learned about for about a half an hour to him. I was talking a lot about the brain chemicals and how they’re effected with this. He said, “Greg, look at the way you’re living right now. All these words like seratonin, norepinephrine etc. are good things to learn about, but your whole life is revolving around picking up as much knowledge about this problem you got and trying to figure out ways to make it go away. In the meantime, your regular life has been put on hold until you are dizzy free.” I said, I just want my daily life to be like it used to. He said, “I know you do, but you’ve been hung up on this thing for a few years now. You’ve seen doctors and been to the hospital, found out you have nothing seriously wrong with you, and you’ve learned everything there is to learn about your problem. Now don’t you think it’s time you put it to rest and move on?”

At first, I thought to myself, he just don’t understand what it’s like to be in my shoes. But then I thought, he’s right. Everything I do revolves around my dizziness. I can still do the things I used to, it’s just more uncomfortable. But I can still do those things. So I then thought, it’s time to pick up my life where I left it 2 years ago.

The truth is, my dizziness hasn’t prevented me from doing the things I used. I prevented me from doing those things. I always used the dizziness as my reason because I just believed the dizziness has somehow disabled me. But really, I’ve been telling myself a lie for the longest time and not even realizing it. I have always got up, took my kid to school, picked him up and also have done the things that NEED to be done. Why? Because those things have to get done whether I’m dizzy or not. And the dizziness has to take a back seat for those things. Where I’ve been going wrong, is the other things that don’t have to get done, like going to my old favorite hangouts, spending quality with friends and family, basically enjoying life have been taking a back seat.

So I thought, time for those other things to come first before the dizziness from now on. I’ve been out of the loop since the dizziness hit me nearly 2 years ago. I just said, I’m going to be the old me from now on whether I’m dizzy or not. And if the dizziness never goes away, then fine. Or if it does go away, that’s fine too. Basically it doesn’t matter to me anymore if the dizziness is here or not. I’m no longer spending all my thoughts on it. I’m saying good bye to all my dizzy thinking. And to my surprise, since I’ve changed my way of thinking, the dizziness has improved to sometimes almost completely absent. Like last night, I took my son to see the Muppets movie, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how I was actually 100% for the whole evening. 100%!!! Can you believe that?

But even thinking about the dizziness in a positive way kind of goes against my new train of thought. But I just couldn’t help myself last night, I’ll be honest, I was sooooo excited and happy. I knew it wouldn’t last forever though so I was already getting ready for when the dizziness would sneak back in. But that’s thinking about it too much and I broke my own rules. I mean, what am I getting ready for??? I already know the dizziness doesn’t prevent me from doing things and I’ve already made the commitment that it doesn’t matter if it comes back or not.

This has been an adjustment, but I’m getting better and better at it as the weeks go on. It’s hard not to think about it as much or just blow those thoughts off. Even when things are going good, but it can be done and has to be done otherwise I’m going to miss out on life. I didn’t change my train of thought to hopefully get rid of the dizziness, I’ve changed my train of thought so I could live life again. The dizziness going away is very unexpected. I didn’t think that would start to happen, but it is and I’m fine with that of course.

Greg

12

Good write up Greg about your acceptance of this. The same thing happened to me about 3 years into it. The penny just dropped one day that I didn’t have to fear it any more and my life didn’t have to revolve around this. It was after that I was able to consider reducing the amount of SSRI I needed. :slight_smile:

13

thank you for sharing that and I am so glad to hear of your success. I wonder, though, if you were as debilitated as I am. I do not want to minimize your situation at all. But, I must say, that I am not uncomfortable from my symptoms. I am truly tortured. I am such a strong person and I can barely leave my bed. This would never be something that I could just forget, so I do not want others who suffer to this degree to think that this is something that can be moved on from. Again, I do not want to minimize your suffering, and am glad you’re well.

14

Wow Greg, that’s awesome. It’s very easy to become consumed with all the “dizzy stuff”. I know this personally. I’d love to adapt that attitude but didn’t you sometimes just feel like total crap?

I’m so happy you were able to go see the movie and be 100% DIZZY FREE!

15

Hi Greg,

It’s good to read that you are feeling much better.

Personally I think your comment about spontaneous remission is likely to be correct. Although some people have chronic and constant symptoms, for other people they will just come and go over time. I’ve found during my life that I’ve been like this very much with my headache migraines, i.e. I’ve had some spells where they have really taken over my life, and others where they’ve just been an occasional thing. I also think my MAV came and went by itself in it’s earlier phases, although I did end up having one chronic phase that I didn’t seem able to get on top of without medication.

16

MAVlisa,

I know you’re not trying to downplay my dizziness. I think we all have different dizziness intensity levels and they wax and wane all the time. There was one time in my life where the dizziness was soo bad where I couldn’t even hardly walk. That was when I ended up in the hospital. Back then I didn’t know half of what I know now and I thought that I maybe had a stroke or something. The dizziness was certainly bad enough to where I would say I was bedridden for a week. I didn’t know what it was at the time so I was scared, depressed and you name it.

But that’s been a year and half ago and I’ve come a long way since then. I’ve learned a lot, haven’t really tried a lot as far as meds go though. I think time has also played a role. It’s been a long time and I’m just ready to move on with my life and start enjoying it again, dizzy or not. That being said, I started living again in mid to late November, and now I’m watching the dizziness starting to take a back seat whereas before it was always the things I enjoyed in life taking a back seat.

When I say living again, I mean I’m trying to stay focused on what I’m doing whether it be work related, playing with my son or just simply listening to music, without focusing on the fact that my balance is off, or my vision is messed up. I try as hard as I can to dismiss those thoughts as soon as they start to surface in my mind. Doing that alone is a challenge. Cause when I’m feeling crummy, all I want to think about is my dizziness cause it’s there all the time. But I’ve been doing a pretty decent job at it lately.

Elisha,

Yes, sometimes I feel really crummy, but I now try not to dwell on it and sit down for extended periods of time and sulk about it. It was really tough to do at first, now I’m getting used to just dismissing those thoughts and over time it seems to have been paying off. Even though it wasn’t my original intent for this to be helping my dizziness. It just somehow is.

I find the best way to forget about the dizziness, is keeping yourself busy throughout the day with things to do. I used to log down when I’d have good dizzy days and bad dizzy days. Now the log’s gone and I’m not looking back. I’m moving on. I don’t care when I have a good or bad day anymore. It doesn’t matter. I’m trying to get rid of as many reminder’s of my dizziness as I can. Except mvertigo. Not ready to give up on all of you here. :lol:

Thinking this way has sure helped my dizziness, but it is also very hard to stay focused and not lose track. There have been a few times in December where I fell off my program and started thinking about my dizziness too much. Of course I was having crummy days, but I had to snap myself out of it and tell myself that I wasn’t doing this anymore.

And yes, to be completely dizzy free at a movie theater, is next to a damn miracle in my world. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe I could walk through the darkness without feeling rocking or swaying. I felt like a new man. I was walking proud and seriously was as excited as the day my son was born. I could feel the excitement just flowing right through my whole body. It was amazing.

I would have never gotten to that point in the movie theater if I haven’t been practicing what I’ve been talking about here over the past few months. The movie theater feeling just came out of nowhere and I definatley realized and noticed it when It was happening. It was a miracle.

Greg

17

Greg,

Thank you very much for your response. It makes good sense. I got emotional when I read the part about your experience in the movie theater, and how grateful you were for that “miracle.” After this experience,it most certainly demonstrates that health is such a miracle. I’m waiting for that miracle myself, and so glad you have experienced it!

Lisa

18

Lisa,

Thanks for the response. The main thing I’ve been doing is trying to channel 100% of my focus on the tasks on hand, whether it be cleaning the house, going out to dinner or whatever, without thinking about the dizzy’s. Although the dizzy’s are there while I’m doing these things, as soon as I realize that the dizzy’s are there and start thinking about the dizziness, I quickly think to myself, stop stop stop, concentrate on what I’m doing and nevermind about the balance stuff and stay focused. Over the weeks, that has seemed to channel the dizziness out overall. And now I’m starting to stop and notice that hey my balance isn’t off right now. Wow! What’s going on here? I’ll take it. Well, now let’s keep on back to the task at hand and stay with it. Let the dizziness stay in the backround.

The key is not to just stay busy, but to also not think of the dizziness no matter what and change it in your mind and let it go. Just let it go. You can be busy and think of the dizzi’s all the time. Keeping busy and avoid thinking of the dizziness at all costs is what I’m doing. And I’m starting to notice it’s leaving me. Now how far will I get, I don’t know and nor do I care. That’s the attitude I’m sticking with. Like I said before, my original intent was not to help the dizziness, but to put other things ahead of it first even if I’m feeling crummy.

I hope you will also find relief with whichever way you can, cause this junk can ruin a persons state of mind as we all have been there and suffered endlessly. Keep the faith and don’t let it take control of your life anymore. Jump ahead of it if you can. Try not to get down about it anymore and see if it helps.

Greg

19

Greg,
your positive attitude and outlook has been extremely inspiring for me. Thank you for sharing that with us. I wish you nothing but continued good health!

20

Suki,

Thanks, I hope you find your way out of this as well. When I first changed it up, I didn’t think I’d be able to live this happy while being dizzy, but I started forcing myself just to enjoy things while dizzy. It was tough at first, but then I started getting used to it and all of the sudden, the dizziness actually started lifting and has been slowly going away.

Greg