Prior to 1992 i would occasionaly experience a Vertigo episode twice a year and it always happened late at night in bed while sleeping. I would wake up from sleep with an illusion that the room was spinning. I would become extremely sick to my stomach and vomit. Now that i look back seems like it could have been Benign Positional Vertigo (but don’t know for sure). After 3 years of occasional vertigo attacks (1989-1991) (always at night and waking up from sleep) i had another severe vertigo attack in 1992… and as soon as the room stopped spinning and the vommiting subsided i began to feel a Rocking Motion Sensation. I don’t think i’ve read in this forum or another forum that i visit that after having a vertigo attack with lots of vommiting, a rocking motion kicked in.
Anyone here have a similar situation? I feel like i am the only one. I wonder if it was due to the traumatic event of vertigo & vommiting?
You aren’t the only one. For about 8 years, I’d have about two vertigo attacks a year. They’d start with the room spinning and then it would be followed by days of rocking motion. I’ve gotten worse in the past few years (with symptoms now lasting months), but that is how things started for me.
The only bed spins that I used to get were almost everytime I drank.
On the more serious side though, I now believe that this may have been an early sign of what I deal with today because it happened almost every time I drank.
I do get the rocking sensation these days, almost like being on a boat out at sea, but I have never had spinning vertigo without booze.
Brain…a few years before the dizzyness began i went out for a few drinks with a friend and i got a bit tipsy. When i got home i laid on the bed on my back and had a nasty vertigo attack and afterwards vomitting. I very rarely have ever gotten intoxicated…but that night for some reason i went over board with the hard stuff. I understand that is not that unusual for some folks to get intoxicated and have a vertigo attack while laying in bed.
Brian…do you have issues with Motion Sickness? This is something i have never outgrown. But it has to be either driving in the curvy road mountains (as a passenger in the back seat or passenger) and carnival rides that go in circles. Also being on a boat has always been unpleasant for me. Most people out grown this…but i never did.
I have always had a problem with motion sickness, and motion intolerance that only got worse when my symptoms started. Until I recieved a dx of MAV and started taking meds, I couldn’t ride in a car as a passenger in any seat. I could drive with little or no problem, but not ride. Carnival rides? Even with the meds they are a challange.
I live in the midwest where we have a lot of rolling hills. The problem is that the highways were cut into the hills to keep the roads somewhat level. My cousins taught me a little trick when I was a kid to avoid motion sickness, simply don’t look out the sides and try to look forward only. This works here because the fence posts and farmland appear to move up and down while the road doesn’t. If you don’t look out the sides, you don’t see the illusion of confilcting motions so you don’t get the motion sickness.
The only problem is that I don’t think this will work on curvy roads. It might help if you are driving, because you know what the car is doing and don’t get the illusion of conflicting motions.
I have a bad case of Motion Sickness that i most likely will never outgrow…sounds like yours could be a bit worse. The reason i said that is because it sounds like you get motion sickness even driving as a passenger on a Straight road with no curvey roads in mountains. I never get sick on straight roads. The only time i recall not being in the mountains and still feeling nauseated when driving as a passenger was from a Bran New Car smell. Sometimes that can make me feel nauseated. I know what you mean about looking straight forward because that can help aleviate the dizzy sensation… When i jump on a jet for traveling and once it reaches a fairly high elevation and makes a right or left turn up in the air…i don’t look out the window…what i will do is look straight toward the cockpit. If i look out the window it really can bring on a weird dizzy sensation that is uncomfortable.
Brian…the only medication so far that has given me some help with this dizzy condition is anti-anxiety medication (Xanex). Have you tried medications like this? It helps to calm down the rocking motion and tightness inside my head. Without it i don’t think i would even leave my home.
It’s funny you mention taking off in a jet as I have wondered how that would effect me. I can’t even ride in elevators anymore without it triggering a dizzyspell. The last time I rode an elevator, when it stopped, I didn’t and ended up on the floor the rest of the day.
I know what my problem is that when I can feel the motion, but not see it, it messes me up. The other situation is seeing motion that does not agree with what I am feeling. The highways around here are suround by farmland, and my main (as a kid at least) is watching the fence posts surrounding the fields going up and down while the road didn’t. Two versions of motion that don’t agree.
I have tried and still take as needed anti-anxiety meds such as valium (diazepam.) I also take another med every night that is in the same family as Xanax and Valium, but is considered an anti-seizure med - Klonopin. The Klonopin does very little for the dizzies, but Valium can make a temporary world of difference for me, usually long enough to finish what I was doing, then go home.
Have you tried other meds yet, or is Xanax the only one that your doctor has tried?
I have been dealing with this condition for 15 years so at the beginning of this dizzy mess (the first (5-8) years i tried various anti-depressants (SSRI’s) Prozac, Paxil, etc… and other older anti-depressants to no avail. There were enough side affects so that i didnot stay on them long. So i have stayed with Xanex because other than feeling a little sleepy if i take more than 2 pills…i am generally fine. Not too long ago i tried Elavil but other than my head not feeling as Tight/Tense inside it didnot help and i had some side affects.
Brian…where do you live? You may not believe this but the Wide Open Spaces in the Mid-West are very relaxing and comforting to me. I don’t like driving in extremely curvey mountains with lots of tall trees so that i cannot see very far…mostly the road up front. Some people have fears of wide open spaces and others closed in spaces. I need the wide open…with the Mountians far off in a distance.
Do you think your condition is somehow indirectly related to some serious stress you had in the past that lasted for a fair amount of time? I feel like this could help to bring on certain illnesses. I went thru a very difficult time a number of years with a new job that i was trying to learn but at the end i realized it was over my head. Plus some other stuff that was stressful and work related.
I live in Iowa where the roads are pretty straight and level, but the farmlands aren’t nearly as level as the roads as I keep whining about. For the most part I am OK on the roads as long as I don’t look at those danged fenceposts. I remember one time on a family vacation going through the mountains causing me enough problems that I asked to take a different route back home.
I do know that it was a major stress related issue that triggered my MAV. When everything started, my wife was in the hospital trying not to have our son 2 months early. Every time I walked into her room, she had another tube stuck in her, or another moniter hooked up. I didn’t know who to worry more about, my wife or my unborn child. By the way, he is eight years old now and doing fine.
You say that you have tried anti-depressents, have you tried any other type of migraine preventative?
I was recently diagnosed with “Migraine Equivalent” at UCLA in 2006. In the beginning starting in 1992 i was diagnosed with what the doctor believe was Panic Disorder and then approx 4 years later i was diagnosd with Inner Ear dysfunction with Anxiety. Couple years later a neurologist thought i might also be suffereing from Benign Positional Vertigo plus another doc thought i might have menier’s. The Migraine Equivalent condition sounds more logical. Most of the symptoms of tension and tightness w/pressure is felt inside my head mostly on the right side. I have never outgrown Motion Sickness. For the most part i stay away from driving thru the curvey mountains here in California. They are pretty to look at but from a distance. My sister suffers from Classic Migraines. MY mother suffered from depression and anxiety. Dr. Baloh who diagnosed me (UCLA) said that when i was diagnosed in 1992 with Panic Disorder that actually the doctor was not far off from an accurate diagnosis. The reason he said that is that Migraine and Panic Disorder are like Cousins of one another. Over the years (during the 90’s) i tried Prozac, Paxil, Effexor, Celexia and a couple of others but no help. I gave Klonopin a try and it helped some but i stuck with Xanex. Also gave Accupuncture a try and meditation but no help.
By the way, i had a mini-spin last night about 2am in the morning. I think it was due to stress from work. Currently (during the holiday season) it is fairly stressful at my part-time job. I work with Mentally Challenged Adults and even though i like the job it can be overwhelming at times. So the more stressful or overwhelmed i get the more likely i can end up with either increased rocking or a vertigo episode. The classic vertigo attacks have dropped off considerably over the last 4-5 years…but sometimes i will get a mini-spin. I have had to cut way back on my coffee consumption, chocolate, msg, alcohol…and Stress.
So you did go thru a major stress event…just like myself. Glad that your 8 year old son is doing well. I honestly believe Stress can bring on god awful things in ones life.
The only medication that i have used for the Migraine condition is Elavil but for the most part no help. It helped cut back on the Tensio but that is all. So the 2nd medication for migraine that i will be using soon is Verapamil…and i expect this med to be in mailbox soon.
Of all the medications you have used…what has helped you the most so far?
