- Yes
- No
0 voters
Anyone who voted no, please could you say what gave you the onset… such as ear infection.
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FYI Andy I voted Yes, although I suspect in my case the stress was an exacerbator at best and not the cause. Nonetheless during the 6 months prior to full onset I had a couple of moments of severe stress which made me momentarily dizzy. I now suspect this was something to do with blood pressure changes in an already inflamed middle ear.
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I ended up voting yes but perhaps I should have said no. I was under no more stress at the time than was usual. Ten/twelve years before I’d been under huge stress, no problem. Mine started within six months of menopause. Helen
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i used to engage in self abuse too which exacerbated the problem (viciously slapping the ears), it was due to ptsd.
I say no… but its hard to say 100% I was staying at my Bfs place in Oxford at the time having a week with him (I lived in Leeds at the time) so it was a nice time. Hosp said I had elevated white blood cell count so said I had a virus of some sort… who knows 
Yes I had a huge few years pushing myself really hard. I was getting floaty head feeling before MAV but very mild. Then I went on a camping trip got very little sleep came back with a sore back then boom MAV hit with avengeance after a dodgy chiropractor visit. In hindsight though many stressors could have contributed to the end result. I was definitely fatigued and burnt out, a few practitioners have told me that my nervous system is very fatigued and burnt out still. I was not one to stop and rest even if my body was screaming at me to rest. Silly
That sounds super familiar. It’s why I’m kicking around the house this month. 
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Yes, I was in my second year of teaching and was in the process of buying a house, which ended up falling through two weeks before my MAV started
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Part of me wonders if MAV is like your body having a nervous breakdown. I’m not sure but I have been wondering that a bit lately
I wondered if I accidentally used myself up early. But a whole body nervous breakdown (an autoimmune disorder) seems most plausible.
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Jess I’m the same, I was not one to stop and rest, and after having my son I developed chronic fatigue and kept pushing and pushing myself through it for years, now with hindsight I can see that pushing oneself shouldn’t be done to the extreme, I ignored my body’s signals, learned huge life lessons there.
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Same here. I had the neighbors baby crying all night, kittens jumping on me, girlfriend waking me up, then with work and a drive to go to the gym I felt awful but kept pushing as I thought I was being weak if I found an excuse not to go! I’ll sleep when I’m dead I thought… twat!
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Same here. I used to think that it didn’t matter if I missed sleep or even whole nights of sleep because I’ll just catch up another time. My workplace and bosses treat you like you are weak if you want a day off or call in sick or want lunch. Many years I pushed to these standards full time at work. Also wanting to travel and have a social life. The year MAV hit I was working, went to Japan, did a huge camping trip from one end of Australia to the other, let me tell you I was exhausted but that didn’t stop me…until MAV…what can I say there’s just so much I want to do. Life came to a screeching halt though, it just wasn’t a sustainable lifestyle for me
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And this is why MAV is so evil in my opinion. It’s like kryptonite to people who are desperate to succeed. You are now allergic to the exact thing you want more than anything. You are willing to put in the work more than most but now get less than most in return. It’s a real head f*ck for me and it’s completely unacceptable. I feel like I fell off the back of a cruise ship. I’m floundering in the sea alone and I can see everyone I know on deck having the time of their lives completely oblivious of me being left behind as they sail into the horizon.
I need a bast*rd speed boat!
Wilson!
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I tend to look at it the opposite. My ambition and lifestyle were out of balance with my needs. I don’t need success, accolades, excess money, material things or the perfect body. I do need health, love, nourishment and fulfillment. If I live in balance I can have what I need, though the health part is slower. Our modern wants burn the candle at both ends just like our modern lifestyle of exponential growth and endless, voracious consumerism is killing the planet. MAV is like climate change writ small. The personal lesson MAV is teaching me is to redefine what I think of as abundance and to learn to surrender ego and control and live at a scale that is appropriate for my body’s needs. In modern life we tend to completely forget we are biological beings. MAV forces us back into those bounds.
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True Emily. Modern life can be poison but I’ve learned my lesson so can I go back now? Do you know what I mean? Like I’ve said previously, the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. Wanting to be the best version of yourself, even if slightly warped by contemporary ideals shouldn’t command such a penalty. (Still angry 
)
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I think maybe you need to rethink what is the best version of yourself. If you learn the lesson you don’t want to go back. It’s not punishment. It’s enlightenment.
(But yeah, it fucking sucks because even if spiritual throwback hermit is my best self, I can’t live that way in this society and meet the obligations of my life.)
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I know my body and mind need a quieter life, but I felt I had to work full time to make ends meet. The travel and other things were my choice and they were things I enjoyed. I have had to question alot of things about myself and my life after getting MAV. I was always busy and running because I wanted to run away from my life and inner feelings I think. I think a huge aspect of MAV is anxiety. I didn’t feel anxious but I was medicating my anxiety with keeping busy. Anxiety can be insidious and you can mask it to a certain extent but for me it’s always reared its ugly head in the form of physical illness. I think MAV is so multi faceted, to be honest without MAV nothing could’ve brought myself to change my ways.
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I’ve since changed my mind about this to some extent.
I absolutely believe my MAV was brought on by stress/anxiety/burnout.
I also believe we need look no further than this explanation: https://mvertigo.org/t/tonic-tensor-tympani-syndrome-and-its-close-match-to-mav-vm-symptoms/21991?u=turnitaround simply because I believe this muscle might enter into spasm once activated too often by the feeling of dread and ‘anticipation of bad things’. This also explains why there’s a vicious cycle going on: the symptoms such involuntary activation causes will themselves cause anxiety.