Hello I’m new here! Glad to find this site. I have some questions regarding success with emgality for VM; and anyone’s success stories.
About me: was diagnosed with vestibular neuritis after a cold in January which I thought I compensated very well from after months of VRT. I have a history of migraines normally managed with triptans. I’m 39 and normally quite active.
Over the last several months I have had a few episodes of migraine with severe disequilibrium, nausea, light sensitivity, feeling like I’m walking on a cloud.
I went to a concert in May and was knocked down for several weeks.
About a month later I went on a plane for work and had bad oscillopsia and migraine. I then recovered.
Most recently I suffered extremely severely for 2 months from this after a cross country flight- severely debilitated. I could barely get out of bed, severe disequilibrium, motion sick, nausea. Looking at leaves on trees would knock me down. I travel for work so it’s sort of a necessary trigger I guess. I started taking 10 mg lexapro with a lot of improvement of symptoms (assuming some 3pd?) but I am still getting daily headaches. I have been prescribed emgality, but I am nervous to start it. I am just looking to hear any experiences that sound similar to mine- or if anyone has started Emgality for this.
Welcome to the forum! We’re really glad you found us—although, of course, we’re sorry you’ve had to join the dizzy-human club. Everyone here is very friendly and eager to help, and you’ll find many people who understand how frightening and disabling vestibular symptoms can be.
Your experience with vestibular neuritis, visually triggered disequilibrium, flights, migraine, and possible PPPD will likely resonate with others here. I hope you’ll find useful experiences and support as you explore treatment options with your clinicians.
If you haven’t already, please read the Welcome Topic and the Posting Guidelines. They’re helpful for finding your way around and getting the most from the forum.
Welcome again—we look forward to hearing more from you and hope calmer, steadier days are ahead!
Hello, I don’t check in here that often as I have fully recovered from VM. But I understand what you are going through. My biggest improvements came from the following treatments at the same time:
Propranolol 60mg ER
Amitriptyline 20mg
Emgality
Cefaly Device
So all four of those things sort of broke me out of VM after several years struggling. I stopped taking Emgality for many years but then started taking it recently as my headaches were getting bad again. The vast majority of people tolerate Emgality really well, it has very few side effects and is very targeted to the CGRPs - it doesn’t target anything else in the body. What ever you do don’t look up the side effects on places like reddit because even the placebo effect (or I guess “nocebo” effect) will cause all kinds of horrible symptoms that aren’t the fault of the drug!
Finally, and i was going to make a post about this soon, please take a look at the Curable app. It is very helpful for chronic conditions like VM where fear and anxiety really play into the condition. Further reading along this vein can be found in the book “Unlearn Your Pain: The Science of Recovering from Chronic Pain, Fatigue, Anxiety, and Depression” by Dr. Howard Schubiner.
At the time I had VM I wish I had these resources. The point is basically to make your body feel “safe”. Even though we are suffering terribly with symptoms we need to try and reduce the fear of them because fear will keep them going unfortunately.
Best of luck, please let us know how you get along with Emgality! I highly recommend trying it.
Thank you Erik. I just downloaded the curable app and ordered the book!
I have also read Heal Your Headache, Victory Over Vestibular Migraine.
I did try Propranolol, but couldn’t tolerate it due some hypotension from the beta blockade. I’m glad you found it helpful! That’s why I’ve been prescribed the Emgality. I agree with you that I wish I never read anything about it on Reddit, because that is exactly what’s keeping me from trying it. I am trying to muster up the courage- I’m not afraid of the injection itself. I’m afraid of the “nocebo” effect after reading the Reddit side effects. Understandably, people don’t continue to post who get better typically (which I’m glad you have and responded here).
I did however just administer the loading dose so I’ll keep everyone updated!
Glad you’re giving it a try. I used Emgality for awhile and had zero side effects – I know many people have had good results with it. Unfortunately it didn’t help me much and, given the expense, decided to move on to other meds. You never know about a new med until you try it. Good luck!
Agreed! That’s fair, sorry it didn’t help you. I will say the injection was simple, and didn’t hurt. It stung for maybe less than 5 seconds. I do think there is a lot of fear-mongering on Reddit about the injection itself.
That wasn’t my fear in the first place- But if anyone is reading this, just fyi it really isn’t as bad as many have made it sound on forums.
I have been on emgality since January 2026. It is a very easy medication to take and has helped enormously with head pain. For neck and shoulder pain I have Botox injections every three months, since May 2025. Botox is great for me but only lasts 2 months, so the 3rd month can be difficult. I have recently had bouts of sinus and cold and this has caused me facial pain. I am now trialling some meds to control the facial pain. Good luck with the Emgality
Thank you! Im glad to hear that has helped! As an update, I am one day shy of just being on the Emgality for 2 weeks. I can’t believe how well it has already worked. I was having daily migraine, and so far I only had one headache at day 4. It has been wonderful at extinguishing migraine as well as the horrible autonomic symptoms I was having alongside. I do however still have some disequilibrium and visual vertigo with scrolling, but I know this can obviously take months to help for the vestibular symptoms. I am very hopeful though, as I said it’s so far only been about 2 weeks! Grateful to be able to try it!